It has been hot with a smoke haze here, not my favorite weather, so I went down into the train room where it is cool and gave one of
@Sokramiketes resin kits a shot. This is the Illinois Central single sheathed kit.
The casting had a little warp to it, but was easy to straighten out with a hairdryer on medium. I did this cautiously to avoid any melting disasters. I wanted everything to be straight and square and stay that way, so I braced the inside with .060 thick stiffeners. The area with the doors was slightly concave in the middle and the bottom of the doors was flared out a little, so I put extra bracing in this area. The MT underframe was just a little too narrow, so I shimmed it out with styrene strips. In order to give the shell more surface to adhere to once I glued it to the underframe, I also made the MT underframe thicker by laminating a couple of layers of .060 styrene to it using Walthers Goo. Once that was all dry, I put the trucks on it to measure coupler height and added styrene pads for body mounted 1015s. I also added a few tungsten 1/4” cubes right above the bolsters for more weight. I glued the body to the underframe and clamped it at the bottom where the doors flared out in order to pull them in square. After the Super Glue set a bit, I hit it with the hairdryer again to “relax” the shell a little. It turned out nice and square and feels like a solid casting now. Here’s the underframe mods. I wish I had a pic of things before I glued the body on but forgot to take one.
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I used stuff from my scrap box to detail it out. The end ladders are from a Atlas 1932 AAR boxcar. Gold Medal models brake wheel, brass wire. The roof walk is a Micro Trains reefer roof walk with .020 thick HO car siding used to make the platforms. Tack boards are from InterMountain.
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Paint is drying right now and then decals
Tom L
Wellington CO
