44 Tonner

[rtroop]

Is anyone actually using the JnJ Shell?  They've got a broken link to that shell on their site, I hate that!

Apparently JnJ Trains no longer sells GE 44 ton shells.  When I ordered my shells from Brian Gavin he said that he purchased JnJ’s entire inventory of 44 ton shells when they decided not to develop a mechanism for it.

[randgust]

Man, talk about your bad business decisions!  :'( Develop the good product, get everybody excited, sell out, then watch the introduction of an excellent tiny mechanism in the Kato B, watch your wiped-out inventory dissapear like hotcakes when 2+2 finally gets put together.... ;D

So, did he get the patterns and molds, or just the leftover shells????

[tom mann]

The Bruce Gavin ex-JnJ shells arrived today allong with a ChuckPak(tm) filled with Kato critter chassis.  A good day all around, since a CopCarton(tm) also arrived with the new Morning sun North Shore Line book.

First, I trimmed the sides close on the chassis like Richie did the other night.  I also trimmed the round piece around the worm gear so it rides up in the body.  It's actually pretty nice, since it snaps into the two halfs of the body and is held by pressure.  Real quality, like.



This is after a half hour of cutting away flash. :-\  I don't know, I was hoping it would be a little better - the windows were almost non-existant (all were like the front one).     This was the worst shell of the three, so I decided to start with it.  The other two look better.  Note the blob above the steps.



As far as the ride height: as of tonight, this is the lowest I can get her.  Not too bad, but still too high for my tastes.  Don't see a way around it, though. :'(  I was hoping that the sill was thick (like it looks in the photo), but the actual walkway is thin. 

[up1950s]

Nice Tom , mine also had the bubble at the steps . It just popped of without leaving a hole . But be careful nonetheless in its removal . I used a thin chisel in an Exacto .

[randgust]

Having tried this, my sympathies go to the molder.  If there's an air bubble in the rubber, and you think of the loco as upside down being molded, you can see where it would hang in the steps.

Big ones you can actually refill with a needle and shove the master back in.  The tiny ones, well, they are worse.  The odd part is that the resin crawls into the bubble and forms a second hollow bubble on the casting, and on the finished shell, it pops right off.  Odd material behavior.  The odd part is that if you look at the mold, a lot of times you can't see it.  It may be a pinprick on the surface and a cavity under the pinprick, and you pull the casting out and go 'where the ^%## did THAT come from???'  I try to pop those off myself on my parts just to make sure they are completely on the surface.

I've tried a bunch of different substances for filling defects in resin and had the best luck with Squadron putty.  If it's a big hole, reinforce it with a little watery ACC to soak into the putty after the putty is thoroughly dry.

The windows look a little rough.  I think you might want to consider cutting out that center bar, at least, and replacing it with a piece of Evergreen strip styrene, like .020 x .020 or something.  When you get resin around .020 and thinner it is REALLY difficult to deal with.

[up1950s]

Well , today my order from Republic Loco Works arrived . 2 sets of 4 NP tender truck sideframes , the ones that Chris turned me on to . I started to fill the holes , which will , as Randy also does , be hardened after sanding , with ACC . I feel that these can be modified into GE 44 ton sideframes with filling , strip plastic to increase their overall dimensions , and adding 1/2 profile sections of plastic screws to resemble springs .  Time will tell just how good I do , but already they look better than the OEM Kato sideframes for this loco . Top truck is untouched except for the removal of mounting bosses or whatever was sticking out like points on its reverse side .

[tom mann]

Tonight, I spent about 1 1/2 hour cleaning up the shell.

The orange paint helps me spot errors in the shell.  It's not the final coat.  The windows are better, but still look like crap.

[up1950s]

You made a punk in .

[Chris333]

Hey Richie those sideframes look nice. I figured you were just using them "as is" witch would of been better than the stock Kato. But with the work you did they are really not that far off of what I did.

If you wanna get even crazier you could cut out that part of the sideframe and after thinning it a bit, glue it to a chunk of styrene. Those sideframes are soft metal, easy to work with.

Mine will be Erie if I ever finnish it, but it would be cool to see at least one in Maine Central black & red.
http://usloki.tripod.com/images/44ton/44tonmec1.gif

[kiwi_al]

Hey Tom,
If you put a Swoosh on it , it'll be done ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[up1950s]

Chris , that was only step one ( fill holes ) . I hope they will be a bit better looking than that , when finished . The problem I am having now is the springs .

[randgust]

I've tried two things with springs -
1.  Use 00-90 screws with the heads cut off.  Looks great, too thick for glue-on sideframes.
2.  Hack up MT or old Atlas (plastic, not delrin) freight car sideframes just to shave off the old springs.  That works pretty well, but you'll either destroy or loose half of the ones you try that way, so don't feel like it's just you.

[tom mann]

Hey Tom,
If you put a Swoosh on it , it'll be done ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[up1950s]

Here is what it looks like now . I may not bother with the springs till I come up with a easier method of doing them . They can always be added after the model is done . Maybe somebody will come up with a casting . I have 7 more to do .

[railspike55]

OK! you guys are good! But right now I these window opening to tend to and all my stuff is too
big to get in those openigs. I thought about just blowing away the two middle supports and replace them.

What files or sanding tools do you use. And where did you get them.

Thanks for any help for this.

Ron