Best Of Detailing the Micro-Trains BNSF Fuselage Set

[Mark W]

Anticipating the arrival of the second run of the Micro-Trains Line BNSF Fuselage Train sets, I commissioned a German outfit to produce a complete set of decals for the fuselage carrying flat and the component box and box-less idler flatcars.

Awesome work!  Will you be offering the decal sets for purchase?

[pmpexpress]

Awesome work!  Will you be offering the decal sets for purchase?

Thanks.

Possibly.

Contact me off line and we can discuss it.

[Mark W]

Yesterday a big cut of empty fuselage cars came through Lincoln. 


https://i.imgur.com/5zyHNQB.jpg

Caught a close-up video, but just barely got the camera set up, so the focus is slightly soft.

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All together, there were:

10 empty brush guards
8 idler flats
4 Skyboxes (two drop bottom)
2 double component boxes.

[pmpexpress]

Yesterday a big cut of empty fuselage cars came through Lincoln. 

Caught a close-up video, but just barely got the camera set up, so the focus is slightly soft.

All together, there were:

10 empty brush guards
8 idler flats
4 Skyboxes (two drop bottom)
2 double component boxes.

Even though the focus is slightly soft, the video is still useful for the additional fuselage carrier flatcar details that I noticed and for modeling a prototype consist.

Given the amount of graffiti seen on these cars, really wondering where BNSF has been storing the empty Skyboxes.

An unsecured area with no railroad police?

Thanks for sharing.

[EspeeGoldenState]

Noticed that first skybox looked to be on a MP flat.

[pmpexpress]

The only problem with repositioning the component box casting is that because the Micro-Trains 57' 6" converted TOFC flatcar (rather than a plain steel or wood decked model) was utilized, the raised deck frame work is now completely visible.

Rather than using the supplied converted TOFC flatcar, really think the currently out of production, Intermountain Railway 66409 BNSF 60' Wood Deck Flatcar should be substituted for the MTL model.

For those of us who sought to replace the inaccurate 57' 6" converted TOFC flatcar that is packaged with the BNSF Fuselage Train Sets, Micro-Trains has obliged us by releasing separate component box castings.

Announced with the April 2018 releases, the stock number 499 43 939 Fuselage Storage Unit has an MSRP of $6.95.

Facilitating their use in other forms (e.g., cut up into separate sections, lengthened, and/or off-loaded onto rubber tired ground transport carriages), really hope Micro-Trains elects to market their 737 fuselages as separate items.

[Mark W]

We had a unique J Train come through Nebraska today.  A single BNSF engine, two "Burlington Northern Santa Fe" Research and Test cars, and five Fuselages.

J Train arrives @4:35, but there's also some interesting power on the first two trains of the day.

[Philip H]

That first train is a real tossed salad of class one power - minus KCS sadly.

And Congrats on 1000 posts!

[carlso]

Mark,

Those drone shots are awesome. Thanks for the vid.

Carl

[pmpexpress]

Scheduled to arrive in March 2019, Micro-Trains Line is taking pre-orders through October 31 for a completely new Boeing fuselage train car set.



https://www.micro-trains.com/ttx-fuselage-2pk-2-rd-978781-978696-coming-03-19-99301782?search=TTX%20Fuselage%20Transportation%202pk

https://www.micro-trains.com/ttx-fuselage-2pk-1-rd-981218-978674-coming-03-19-99301781?search=TTX%20Fuselage%20Transportation%202pk

Micro-Trains Line Boeing Fuselage Train Car Sets Pre-Production Artwork

A first and second production run model is depicted at the top of the image.



Depicting a different prototype that is hauling a larger fuselage load, the pair of 89 foot flatcars in these sets will have newly designed deck details, MTTX markings, and no component box mounted on the idler cars.

As opposed to the 737-600 fuselages that were included in the five previously released BNSF car sets, a new 737-700 fuselage and a revised decal sheet with additional markings will be included with this upcoming production run.

Wonder if previous purchasers of the first two runs of car sets will be offered an opportunity to purchase some of the new decal sets in order to upgrade their existing models?

[Mark W]

Awesome news!

Depicting a different prototype that is hauling a larger fuselage load, the pair of 89 foot flatcars in these sets will have newly designed deck details, MTTX markings, and no component box mounted on the idler cars.

As opposed to the 737-600 fuselages that were included in the five previously released BNSF car sets, a new 737-700 fuselage and a revised decal sheet with additional markings will be included with this upcoming production run.

The artwork for the fuselage shows a few differences, but are they really tooling a new fuselage for this set?

Wonder if previous purchasers of the first two runs of car sets will be offered an opportunity to purchase some of the new decal sets in order to upgrade their existing models?

Looks like a lot of the new decals are exactly what we spent the time super detailing ourselves in this thread. I wonder how much, if any, was directly influenced.
Looking closer, I see the decals even have "icebreaker" (brush guard) labels!    I would definitely like to buy the new sheets for my old fuselages, just for those labels alone.

They also show the collapsed mounting parts box on the deck detail, but also as raised detail on the side view.  Another 3D printed part perhaps? 

We'll still have to mask and paint the zinc chromate wing mounts on the side, and tail mount (and optional wi-fi hub) on the top.  But that was the easy part anyway.

I'll definitely look forward to this release!





My last update was wiped from the outage last week, so might as well re-post for reference:

I made a simple metal deck cover for the old flats using .010" styrene.

First shave the raised detail off, then lightly sand the molded details.  There's about .010" exactly between the bare end sills and the main deck, so I cut spacers.
Paint the new deck before gluing it on and you have a very simple improvement.


https://i.imgur.com/yBniFcq.jpg

While I was at it, I also built a few early style skyboxes. 


https://i.imgur.com/x4VhANu.jpg

[pmpexpress]

Awesome news!


The artwork for the fuselage shows a few differences, but are they really tooling a new fuselage for this set?


Looks like a lot of the new decals are exactly what we spent the time super detailing ourselves in this thread. I wonder how much, if any, was directly influenced.
Looking closer, I see the decals even have "icebreaker" (brush guard) labels!    I would definitely like to buy the new sheets for my old fuselages, just for those labels alone.

They also show the collapsed mounting parts box on the deck detail, but also as raised detail on the side view.  Another 3D printed part perhaps? 

We'll still have to mask and paint the zinc chromate wing mounts on the side, and tail mount (and optional wi-fi hub) on the top.  But that was the easy part anyway.

I'll definitely look forward to this release!

Yesterday, Joe D'Amato posted the following information on another forum board:

"Just to correct where this is going. No new fuselage at this time. The older artwork was done by a different artist for representative purposes only. The new art is correct. This will have a new decal sheet with more "stuff" on it I believe. Marketing will be the ones to decide if we are going to have decals sold separate."

[pmpexpress]

My last update was wiped from the outage last week, so might as well re-post for reference:

I made a simple metal deck cover for the old flats using .010" styrene.

First shave the raised detail off, then lightly sand the molded details.  There's about .010" exactly between the bare end sills and the main deck, so I cut spacers.
Paint the new deck before gluing it on and you have a very simple improvement.


https://i.imgur.com/yBniFcq.jpg

While I was at it, I also built a few early style skyboxes. 


https://i.imgur.com/x4VhANu.jpg

Really nice job on the deck removal and the creation of the "Skybox" cars.

Did you simply use an Xacto knife blade to trim of the flatcar's deck details?

Did you file off all of the existing door details on the other side of your Skybox car bodies and repaint modified shell?

What kind of brake-wheel mounts did you finally settle on?

[Mark W]

Yesterday, Joe D'Amato posted the following information on another forum board:

"Just to correct where this is going. No new fuselage at this time. The older artwork was done by a different artist for representative purposes only. The new art is correct. This will have a new decal sheet with more "stuff" on it I believe. Marketing will be the ones to decide if we are going to have decals sold separate."

@Shipsure I doubt the decals would be worth packaging and distributing, but if they could just be sent out direct, I'd be in for about 15-20 of them myself.

Really nice job on the deck removal and the creation of the "Skybox" cars.

Did you simply use an Xacto knife blade to trim of the flatcar's deck details?

Did you file off all of the existing door details on the other side of your Skybox car bodies and repaint modified shell?

What kind of brake-wheel mounts did you finally settle on?

Yep, separate the deck from the rest of the frame, then very carefully scrape off the raised details. 

The full length skyboxes are 100% styrene, even the .010" grabs.  I omitted adding the brake levers for now.

[pmpexpress]

@Shipsure I doubt the decals would be worth packaging and distributing, but if they could just be sent out direct, I'd be in for about 15-20 of them myself.

@Shipsure I'd also be in for 20-24 sets.

Yep, separate the deck from the rest of the frame, then very carefully scrape off the raised details. 

The full length skyboxes are 100% styrene, even the .010" grabs.  I omitted adding the brake levers for now.

Thanks for your response.

Knowing that the full length boxes were scratch-built makes the models that much more impressive.

As I have not seen any photos or videos of fuselage train consists utilizing 89' idler flatcars bearing MTTX markings, will likely use the upcoming MTTX models together with the shorter component box fitted idler cars (which might wind up being re-lettered for TTMX).

What brand(s) and color(s) of brown paint have you been using to touch up your Micro-Trains fuselage train flatcars and component boxes?