A follow up.....
I have basically finished up the first of the 2 buggies I am planning on...I would usually do them together, but since I had never built one before, I decided to use this first one as a test bed to learn lessons...so I will share what I learned, and some pics...
I left off with the body needing putty or filler, I tried using Testors clear parts cement, and did not like it as mush as CA, which is what I've used in the past..It dries harder than CA..I ended up using CA to fill any remaining gaps, and of course there was a LOT of sanding....
I bent my own handrails using a jig that came with the North Country Models B&M caboose, I think I did OK, not great...I made too many, and picked the best ones....
I think the cupola sits too low, on the next I will leave the "lip" at the top of the body...the cupola is only in-place in the pics, it sits tighter than they show...
I trimmed off some of the parts of the end railings that come the the caboose for a cleaner look, and closer to proto look.I primed these with clear Polypropylene Primer from Napa, to keep the paint from flaking off(works GREAT!)..I also used an etched roofwalk leftover from an Athearn boxcar, just to see if I liked it, as the Atlas roofwalk isn't that bad.....Turns out I do prefer it...And I painted with Accu-paints, but Tru-Color should be a good replacement..I used B&M blue and Chinese red....The white and black are from cheap rattle cans....The Highball Graphics (not available)decals were given to me by forum member Central.Vermont(Thanks again!)...And while I'm giving shout outs, Thanks again to forum member Jimmo for the spare cupola, this cab wouldn't be done yet without their help!!!!!!
I cut the original weight to fit, and put the cut-off on top of it, glued them together and painted them black...I used FVM wheels, .563 fits the Caboose trucks.I used the MT couplers that came with the caboose....And finally, a flat finish using the LAST of my Floquil Flat and Grime mix........grrrrrrr!!
Anywho, here she is, and I am about to begin the second one...lets see if it looks better!
Its projects like this that make me glad to be part of the Railwire...What started as a question 3 weeks ago, has led to this little buggy....The only parts of this project I came up with is the use of the Kato Cupola and the etched roofwalk, everything else came from ideas I learned here....and it only got done in 3 weeks because of the help I got from Jimmo and Central.Vermont, so Thanks again guys!
