Ok, so after
some countless hours of sanding, I think I have something worth finishing.
The fundamental problem with this kit is that the angled transition pieces are not wide enough, and the decks are not thick enough. As Max stated earlier, the curved piece is near the correct thickness and he suggested adding a thick strip of styrene to make the deck thicker and using a thin piece of styrene for the bottom "lip." Unfortunately, the geometry of the upper decks made that difficult to do. Instead, I removed the lips and ground down the curved piece to match the upper and lower decks. After even more sanding and grinding with diamond files (thanks, Max!) I glued the deck to the curved pieces. I then flooded the seams with JB Kwik and sanded them down as best I could with what I had. If you look closely on the prototype, there is actually a seem on that curved piece. That was helpful to learn. We will see what it looks like after painting. I will add the lip with a think piece of styrene. I think it will look good and work well.
I'm also going to use larger break wheels. There was a molded on pipe wire on the sides of the truck decks. I sanded that out and will replace with thicker wire. I also sanded off the tiedowns on the curved pieces. I will drill some holes and put in wire tiedowns, 7 on each side.
I think the best way to attach the upper decks is to do it upside down. That way, they will be level for the trucks.
I added some styrene here. It's a little thick, but I didn't have anything thinner that would hold up. I am using a picture of an O scale brass model as a resource. As you can see, either the air tank is too long, or the cutout in the deck isn't long enough. I can live with it either way.
Some modifications will need to be made around the break wheel stand to match the prototype. The handrail should end in to the stand.
The tan trucks are from Superturbine and I'm thinking of using them instead of the metal ones what came with the kit if you guys can't get your Shapeways trucks to roll.
I really want this to be a runner. The kit's instructions says it was designed for 33" wheels, but the car actually ran on 36" wheels. I don't see how these trucks that came with it will hold up. I could be wrong, but I still think the SW trucks are the way to go.
