ATSF PS 64' smoothside baggage car-AMB laserkit

[arbomambo]

Hello all,
in searching for cars for my 1957 era Fast Mail Express, I was able to obtain 2 of the very nice American Model Builders laserkit Santa Fe smoothside baggage kits.
a word about these-the boxes them selves contain a typo...they're listed as 74' baggage cars, actually they are 64' smoothside baggage cars, built by Pullman Standard on old frames for the Santa Fe.
What's kind of neat is that Santa Fe painted some of these in silver and some in Dark gray, with black roofs and silver trucks and underframes. I plan to do one of each scheme-these will look neat in a Fast Mail and Grand Canyon consist.
I've never built a car with clear sides before-apparently the sides are some sort of acrylic- the instructions suggest using Ambroid pro-weld...Tenax 7R seems to work well for me.
The kit comes with the standard American Limited core car kit, trucks, and diaphagms..very nice...leaving only the wire grabs and etched handrails to add, in addition to the lettering.
 The two major alterations needed are shotening the generic-length roof and underframe...the roof is fairly simple for most bashes-simply remove the required material from the center area, leaving the end caps available for the proper fit..after careful measuring, I determined that roof and underframe needed to be shortened by 1-13/32 inches for this car.
Using a fine tooth saw and miter box I cut the roof in two places, leaving a little more material than necessary to allow for proper sanding.
The underframe, for this build, was just as simple; the truck to end spacing needed no alterations at all-on these shortened cars, the trucks retained their original spacing, making them very unique looking.
 Using the Acrylic side as the final measurement tool, I sanded smooth the new mating surfaces, then glued the roof halves together...not as super smoothly as i'd like, but easy enough to fill, fit, and finish.
after gluing the ends to the roof, I peeled away the protective paper to begin attatching the sides. It was here that I noticed more detail etched into the side that I had anticipated...nice little lip around the baggage door openings and rain drip guards are evident!

Here are a ouple of pics of the build in progress....

in this shot, the roof has been shortened, re-glued, and the two ends attatched...I also attatched one of the acrylic sides (I'll glue the baggage doors to this side before attatching the other side)



this close-up pic shows some of the detail etched into the clear side...



I'm looking forward to this build and adding a unique car to the Fast Mail!
Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[UP4-8-8-4]

    Thats gonna be a nice build when your finished !
The American Limited core car kit, trucks, and diaphagms are great.
Keep progress pics comming.




Ernie

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
progress continues...the roof must be completely seamless at the butt joins...for small filler jobs I love to use Mr. Surfacer..a liquid self levelling filler with very fine pigments...it comes in 500 and 1000 'grit'...it can be brushed or airbrushed over any surface one needs to prime and fill tiny scratches or imperfections (great primer before a Natural Metal finish)...

Here, I used Mr Surfacer 500 to brush over the seam where the two roof halves were joined...





Here are pics of the boxed kits with the wrong data:





One thing I've noticed while trial fitting is the way the doors 'fit' ...not a very positive fit...the doors are 'laser-cut' to a pretty good tolerance and are designed to fit pretty flush within the door openings; there is no really 'good' way to secure the doors in place within the frames...it's a matter of trial and error...then flowing liquid cement into the tiny seams.

Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[arbomambo]

Here is where I'll stop for today and tomorrow...
the roof is completely seam free and the doors have been CA's into place...although the acrylic sides hold detail well, they're difficult to work with simply because it's difficult to see exactly where everything is!...however it's a trade off for having the windows pre-masked-IMO, a very neat way to replicate windows in n scale, where the thickness of the paint is the thickness of the lip between window glass and outer surface.





Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[Wutter]

Very nice! Looking forward to how the paint comes out.

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
well, I couldn't put this one down...as soon as I got the generator gassed and checked in anticipation of the coming storm, I found some time to advance this build a bit...AND..I discovered why it's good to keep a parts bin!
After attatching the only visible equipment I can ascertain from photos to the underframe (LOVE these American Ltd. core kits...this is my first build using one of these...), I llooked through my photoetch to find the necessary steps..and, sadly, realized I didn't have enough of the wider steps that go below the doors.
Checking my spare parts bin, I found the plastic end step/door step combination pieces left over from my ATSF RPO build using a Micro-
Trains core RPO. I checked the dimensions and fit and very happily realized that these are perfect for this and other builds I'm contemplating...
Notching the areas where these will protrude through the underframe floor gave the necessary clearance. I seperated the end steps from the door steps then CA'd them in place on the top surface of the underframe...using a little zip-kicker to set the CA quickly.
 Now the steps are secured to the underframe permanently, and will allow me to remove the underframe from the body whenever I'd like...very much like one of the Walthers Smoothside baggage cars.
This also has the benefit of me being able to paint the underframe as one piece (a real bonus when doing the dark gray scheme-these cars had all underframe components painted silver-including the steps) in addition to being much more robust than the etched pieces I had anticipated using..
Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
just need to form the grabs and handrails and she's ready to paint...well, sort of...I'm not sure how to prep the acrylic sides as I have no experience here...I usually polish the sides as much as I can then clean all residue before painting...also, I feel I need to prime the door seams on this one as I'm not completely pleased with the way the doors fit...I can see tiny gaps.









Also...I have no clue about the gray paint that Santa Fe used for their gray schemes...apparently this was the darker gray (of the two grays used for their two-tone gray schemes)...but no clue about color matches.
Does anyone have a color mix for Santa Fe's darker gray color?
Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[arbomambo]

Hello all,
this one's ready for paint!...not a difficult build, but I have only a few reference pics, so still not sure if I can add more detail bits to the underframe...
bending the grabs and handrails was the most difficult part-thank goodness the holes are predrilled (save for the roof), all that was necessary was to re-open them after gluing the main parts together...
The clear acrylic sides really throw me...the clarity is a hindrance to visibilty while gluing ans attatching parts...also, I must have wiped the outside a million times in prep for paint...glue and residue that are on the interior pieces shows THROUGH the sides and it's difficult to determine whether the dirt or glue is on the inside or the outside...I'll be glad when paint is on and I don't have that 'see through' effect.
Speaking of paint...I've chosen the gray paint I want (Pollyscale German RLM 74 Dark Gray) but now, I'm at an impasse!...DECALS!...I have some light gray 'Santa Fe' lettering on a few of my decal sheets, but no small 'baggage' and 'Railway Express Agency' in light gray!
AND....if I were to paint THIS one (I have another kit) silver, on my lightweight head end car sheet...plenty of 'Santa Fe' and the others in black...BUT only two number sets!..all my pics show this car, either in gray or silver, with car numbers in every corner...GEEZ!
Anyone have a lead on the decals needed for the gray version?..if this one becomes silver, the other one needs to be gray!
Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[arbomambo]

Paint on...ended up being a silver version...the other one will have to be the gray one.
Even so, I still need to order another Microscale sheet for the two car numbers on the other side...
so far, my opinion is mixed about this kit..the American Limited core kit is AWESOME,,,the acrylic sides are bothersome...the side-ti-roof seam is not as clean as I'd like...I simply couldn't aee it because of the acrylic sides...in the future, and for the next one, I will definitely prime the car with Mr Surfacer 1000, simply to reveal any seams that need clean-up...I'm going to keep this one as is,,,and give it a little weathering...
I used flat aluminum on this one...I like the hue and it has a good 'scale' effect...these weren't polished stainless steel panels, and the surface lost it's 'shine real soon...they were cleaned but not polished. In fact, I believe I'm going to repaint my Walthers smoothside conversion with this paint.
Thanks,
Bruce

[Lemosteam]

Maybe you could prime the inside of the acrylic sides before you assemble?

[arbomambo]

Went ahead an 'de-masked'...nice clean, crisp lines...
and, of course, had to add it to the Fast Mail!





...and...I did my best to keep the masks intact...going to use them to make some more ATSF-style baggage doors!



Thanks for looking,
Bruce

[UP4-8-8-4]

      DANG !
When you get moving on a project, you don't mess around -------------------- 
That turned out fantistic, looks GREAT !
Makes me feel like a slacker, I have had all 9 of my brass sided 1938 Milwaukee Road Hiawatha pass set built and primed now for several months, and I still need to make and instal all hand rails yet before paint.




Ernie

[Sokramiketes]

Nice Bruce.  One thing I do to further dress up the core kit is to scribe panel lines in the roof.  It's really plain otherwise. 



I use a Micromark scriber which actually removes a ribbon of material.  I've seen Bill Denton use an xacto blade which actually raises a seam to good effect too.  The easiest straightedge is simply a cable tie around the curved roof.  The bit of styrene helps keep an even panel spacing as you move the guide.

[arbomambo]

Mike.
Love it and thanks for the heads up...
I originally wanted this one to be a gray painted version...I can't detect roof panel lines on my pics...glad you suggested it.
I'm no stranger to re-scribing panel lines...I use an old Trimaster Tri tool...
I will definitely start scribing these roofs for future builds, and I love the idea for cable ties as guides!!!!!!!!!
Many thanks,
Bruce