Skytop Models ATSF 64' Baggage-Express

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
spent the morning doing a little cleaning in the garage-I'm using approximately 6' of wall space to build a 'downstairs-fairweather' modelling studio...this will allow me to model in the garage as well as the Turquoise Room (office-hobby room upstairs)...a quick shower, then a little BBQ action...on the plate today-beer braised Kielbasa...and some burgers-can't wait to crack open a bottle of Rudy's BBQ sauce-scored from Round Rock during the Lone Star regional NMRA convention!
Then a little modelling...going to start prepping for the 3 Skytop models ATSF 64' smoothside semi-lightweight baggage cars-I want to build all three of these concurrently...Right now, two will be in all-aluminum and one in Gray-black roof, aluminum undersides (I've already determined to acquire 2 more for gray schemes...Thanks a lot, Bill!!!!!!!!!!)
 The castings are exquisite...making this build MUCH more simple and quick that my previous two builds from the AMB acrylic laser-kits.
Here's what I've determined I need/want to add to mine to detail them to the level that I like...



 Kato passenger trucks (What they refer to as Budd pre-war_
 Gold Medal Models-Kato smoothside passenger car details (these provide plenty of car end steps and one set of baggage door steps (each car needs 4 steps-so a separate fret is needed for each car; leaving plenty of extra end steps for other car projects.)
 Microtrains couplers- (I prefer 1025's for the prototypical look, but I haven't decided yet (I have numerous extras from MT passenger car builds.
 American Limited diaphragms ( I've really started to become a complete convert to these for all my passenger equipment-grudgingly)
 Detail associates brass wire-door and end grabs
 BLMA 15" drop grabs-2 each on the bottom ends
 BLMA or Gold Medal Models grabs and ladder grabs-for the roof; I have a set of GMM grabs on the way; I'll determine if these orthe BLMA version, from their Ultimate E-F unit detail fret, work better
 Something I don't yet have, but need to search and acquire, are the lift rings on each end that are positioned right above the diaphragms-I liberated these from a M&R sides fret for my previous builds, but I believe somone makes a version of these that  I can use for all my future lightweight passenger car builds.
 I believe I will also try to add the steam line to this car; pictures show this pretty well (all of the cars w/o skirts reveal it)-Bill provides such beautiful detail on the car underbody that this will probably be sufficient.)

step one starts with modifying the striker plates of the American Limited diaphragms....

As they appear, right on the fret, the end plate is quite large....




Most of the photos of cars I have show a plate that is more contoured; like the Kato non-operating plate, on their passenger cars...



I just placed the Kato and the American Limited plates face-to-face, and marked the area on the American Limited plates that needed to be removed.

a little work with a sharp exacto and a sanding stick gets me to this....



five more to do... (I'm sure there's an 'easier' way to do these 'en masse', but sometimes I enjoy doing these projects this way...a cathartic kind of thing.



~Bruce

[RWCJr]

Will enjoy following this thread. Your ATSF head-end car builds provide a lot of info on the cars, thanks.
Robert

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
finding a little time to get these into gear...
after posting a question here about wire (I need to find a good source and the folks here have been tremendous with their sources.), I discovered that almost all of the hand and rail grabs I need for these are available on the Gold Medal Models fret 160-56...the steps are available on their 160-28.



all of the grab locations are dimpled on Bill's castings and most are even drilled through...just a quick twist of the #80 chucked twist drill and they're ready for the grabs. I use Gorilla brand super glue, applied from inside the shell, then 'fixed' with a drop of accelerator. The lift rings were borrowed from one of Roberto Martari's beautiful photoetched sheets (they'll be replaced with some GE-style lift rings from BLMA)
I'd like to have all three cars ready for paint by Sunday evening, but we'll see...lot's of yardwork and garage cleaning on the slate for this weekend!
Thanks for looking,
~Bruce

[arbomambo]

paint and secals on the first of the 64' ATSF smoothside semi-lightweight builds from Skytop Models...
just awaiting door window 'glass'...
Thanks for looking,
~Bruce

[CBQ Fan]

Very nice looking!

[thomasjmdavis]

Nicely done Bruce.  Which brand paint did you use?

[dnhouston]

Love it!  Nice work.

[eja]

Beautiful work.... I wish I had your modeling skills.

It also makes me wish someone would make a coupler that was better sized and was in a colour that looked like the real thing.   That silver paint only makes the over-sized black one stand out even more in my mind.

[arbomambo]

Nicely done Bruce.  Which brand paint did you use?

I did have a small hiccup with the paint...I first sprayed Floquil's 'Old Silver'...it was far too 'dark' ( however, I plan to use old sliver now as a great color to replicate Santa Fe's stainless steel panels on their cab units!)...so I gave it a nice coat of Floquil 'Bright Silver'...I had also considered Tamiya 'Flat Aluminum' (this is the color I like for trucks on the Santa Fe units)
I like the bright silver...once I give the windows a simulated gasket treatment, I'll lightly glosscoat, then flatcoat....the glosscoat will help completely eliminate the decal film thickness (I didn't need to glosscoat the silver prior to decalling). The flatcoat will give the final look I want; the cars were painted silver, not constructed with stainless steel panels.
A couple of these will also be painted in the dark gray scheme (dark gray body, black roof, and silver undersides); these were painted in either scheme. I've heard that some were painted silver so as to be able to fit into one of the streamliner consists cosmetically, but cars in both schemes were fixtures on the Fast Mail, and the gray cars certainly found their way onto the Chief, Super Chief/El Capitan, and the San Francisco Chief, as part of the head end group
~Bruce

[arbomambo]

Beautiful work.... I wish I had your modeling skills.

It also makes me wish someone would make a coupler that was better sized and was in a colour that looked like the real thing.   That silver paint only makes the over-sized black one stand out even more in my mind.

I will, more than likely, replace these couplers with Z scale 903/905s....I have installed them in a few of my heavyweight car builds, and they are in the pilot pockets of all of my ATSF cab units (the 'B' ends have unimate close coupling knuckles), and in the pilots of all of my ATSF hood units. As long as they are mounted to be located in the exact center of a standard N scale coupler, they work as well as the N scale ones; I have no issues with trains breaking with Z scale couplers.
~Bruce