Scratchbuild Project - Sperry Detector Car in N Scale

[Dwight in Toronto]

I’ve already learned how scratch building forces you to study photos of your subject prototype, not only intently, but frequently.     

I can’t imagine how many times you’ve gone over your research material, zooming in on obscure details, throwing your hands up at blurry images that only get worse when enlarged, etc.  That has already been my experience with my theatre car project.  It gets tiresome, having to flip through all those photos for the thousandth time, looking for clarity on the shape of that one small knicknack, or trying to discern that one critical dimension.

Also, I’m seeing your proto photos with new eyes since starting my own build, and I gotta say, those roof details look frightening!

[BCR 570]

I gotta say, those roof details look frightening!

Wish me luck!

Tim

[BCR 570]

Carbody Sides (cont.)
Continuing with work on the recording room compartment, next up are the surrounds for the rear entry doors.  The door posts were cut from #120 .020" x .020" styrene and squared off at the top end, with the bottom end left long for now.  The forward post goes next to the last window separator.  With the left side upside down, the door post was glued and nudged into place with my square:




After it was set, the door post was trimmed even with the bottom of the car side using a #17 blade:



The door sill was cut from #122 .020" x .040" strip and the header was cut from #123 .020" x .060" strip.  The two pairs of these were cut together to match the width of the doors.  This photograph shows a check of the width for the door, sill and header to ensure that they are all the same:




Using a spare door as a spacing block for the square, the door header was glued in place:





The side was rotated and the door sill was then glued in place:




The aft door post was then glued into place next to the door sill and header, completing the door surround:




After trimming the second door post, the bottom of the car side was sanded lightly:




This process was then repeated for the right side, bringing us at last to the end of the carbody on both sides!




So it was finally time to cut away the excess length of the car sides.  These were cut on the Chopper and then dressed lightly on the True Sander:




I cut a pair of rear corner posts from #247  .040" quarter round styrene; these will be added once the sides are built out to their final thickness of .040" at a later date.  With the front and rear corner posts on hand, and the sides now largely assembled, I was able to perform a check of the model's likely final length.  With the corner posts added the sides will come out somewhere between 57'-3" and 57'-6", and the length of the car should be 57'-4" - not bad!  I will gain an inch or two when the ends are curved slightly, so the final length will likely be 57'-6" which I can live with.  Here are the side assemblies now:




This is a first milestone for the project and I am glad to reach this point.  Unfortunately, this work so far was the easy part.  I now have to cut out the door and window openings, and provide interior framing for all the windows.  After that is done I will add a .010" layer above and below the window strips on the reverse side for a final thickness of .040", at which point I can add the front and rear corner posts.


All for now,

Tim