Let's see your Corona projects

[nkalanaga]

Maybe CSX wrecked one of NS's boxcars, and offered this one as a replacement?  I've seen pictures, from several roads, of such oddities, although most were from the steam or early diesel years.

[wm3798]

The whole pandemic thing hasn't really slowed down my work at all, in fact, it's probably gotten stepped up a bit as people push to get their projects permitted and started before the economy gets really out of hand.  So on I slog, while over in the corner the Retro Rig amuses me.  Lately I've got myself organized to where I have a morning train and an afternoon train, and as the nights drag on, often there's another set of trains ready to roll into the moonlight.

Well, I knocked off a little early tonight, at 11 p.m., so I wanted to tackle a small but useful project.   A couple of years ago I scooped up a bunch of old Trix 40' gondolas in B&O paint, and a Bachmann 0-4-0 Docksider from the @DKS Collection.  A perfect grouping for some as-yet designed little retro layout.  Many years before, my friend Paul Hutter, who works in the Hunter Douglas plant in Cumberland, had sent me a box of aluminum shavings from the assembly floor.  At the time I received it, the WM layout was in full swing, and I was building scrap loads for my fleet of 50' gons.  But I never got around to using this box of shiny shavings of aluminum.  Well tonight was the night.



I started by cutting some strip stock to fit the bed of the gondolas.  I used some stock that was slightly narrower than the interior of the car body, allowing for some slop to facilitate removing the loads when the fancy strikes to run empties.  Next, I painted the wood with a blend of black and brown paint to keep raw wood from being visible through the load.



Because the shavings are very light, I wanted to give the load some "body", so I mixed up a small batch of Sculptamold, and also mixed it up with some black and brown paint.



Then, using a plastic knife, I shmeared the goo onto the wood plate just as one might apply cream cheese to a celery stick, or frosting to a biscuit...  Since I only have two hands, I couldn't take an action shot...  I miss my little point and shoot and its tripod...


but here's the "buttered" stick.

So the next step is to put a bit of the aluminum shavings into a coffee filter (the useless low sided ones that only make four cups are perfect for this operation) then I press the wet sculptamold into the shavings.  I roll it around a bit to make sure I get good coverage, and the mounding effect I want to achieve.





Quick and easy.  In about a half an hour, I made 5 loads start to finish.



Time for a test drive.  I wanted to make sure they weren't too heavy for the little Docksider.  There's a very slight grade on the upper loop of my layout (I had to raise the bridge a tiny bit to allow my GG1s and Metroliners to pass beneath with the pans up) and my little steam switchers especially don't like it when there's too much work to do...  So here it goes:

Success!

Tomorrow after the Sculptamold more completely sets, I'll over spray the loads with a matte clear coat, and perhaps add a wash of weathering.  When the goo is dry, the loads will be lighter weight, and I hope, quite stable.  It was a good little 60 minute project.  It may have taken longer for me to process the photos and type up the report....

[Steveruger45]

Maybe CSX wrecked one of NS's boxcars, and offered this one as a replacement?  I've seen pictures, from several roads, of such oddities, although most were from the steam or early diesel years.

Ah Yes, good explanation, I will use that.

[Steveruger45]

Just completed another “something from nothing” project.

Took a damaged Atlas Great Northern bulkhead flat.  Fixed it with parts in my parts bin and some CA. Spray bombed it black.
Made a  30” diameter pipe load from plastic drinking straws, sprayed with some part used 5 year old automotive adhesion promoter and primer, I had hiding in my automobile repair stuff. Stripped a popsicle stick for the cribbing.  Painted the “pipes” with some Polly S UP gray, applied some cotton thread and used up my last dregs remaining in my last can of  testors dulcote.

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[nkalanaga]

What are model railroaders going to do for pipe loads when everyone does away with plastic straws?

Yes, I know, most plastic straws end up as trash, or, worse, litter.  I doubt that there are enough model flatcars to carry all of the discarded straws from one month, much less past (and future) decades.  The older paper straws worked fine for drinking.

[Dave V]

I've been on a structure building binge...

[Rasputen]

Last week: body mounting couplers on tank cars.

This week: body mounting couplers on flat cars.

[spookshow]

If CV doesn't kill me, using lacquer thinner to make a lake bed in the foam base of my layout almost certainly will 



-Mark

[nkalanaga]

I'd be at least as worried about the lacquer thinner killing the foam base!

[peteski]

I'd be at least as worried about the lacquer thinner killing the foam base!

But that is the whole point - looks like  he is melting the lake basin from in the foam by using lacquer thinner.  It sure is less messy than carving. But smelly! 

[davefoxx]

After making significant progress on my lake last week, now I am finally going to get off of my duff and begin the serious layout and construction of the portion of the town that I'm modeling (Aberdeen, North Carolina).  Here's the first efforts towards modeling the sidewalks.  I used a scribing tool that I bought from Micro-Mark to carve the sidewalk joints and cracks.  Unfortunately, the only 0.080" styrene that I had in my inventory was black styrene, so that's what I used.  It will get painted with a concrete color, so it's not the end of the world.  It's just harder to see the pencil lines while scribing.

I will use 0.060" black styrene for the streets, because that will butt up to (and stay just below) my Code 83 rails at railroad crossings.  I like black styrene as the base for asphalt roads, because, if it ever gets damaged, there won't be a bright white scratch showing through.



DFF

[Steveruger45]

The whole pandemic thing hasn't really slowed down my work at all, in fact, it's probably gotten stepped up a bit as people push to get their projects permitted and started before the economy gets really out of hand.  So on I slog, while over in the corner the Retro Rig amuses me.  Lately I've got myself organized to where I have a morning train and an afternoon train, and as the nights drag on, often there's another set of trains ready to roll into the moonlight.

Well, I knocked off a little early tonight, at 11 p.m., so I wanted to tackle a small but useful project.   A couple of years ago I scooped up a bunch of old Trix 40' gondolas in B&O paint, and a Bachmann 0-4-0 Docksider from the @DKS Collection.  A perfect grouping for some as-yet designed little retro layout.  Many years before, my friend Paul Hutter, who works in the Hunter Douglas plant in Cumberland, had sent me a box of aluminum shavings from the assembly floor.  At the time I received it, the WM layout was in full swing, and I was building scrap loads for my fleet of 50' gons.  But I never got around to using this box of shiny shavings of aluminum.  Well tonight was the night.



I started by cutting some strip stock to fit the bed of the gondolas.  I used some stock that was slightly narrower than the interior of the car body, allowing for some slop to facilitate removing the loads when the fancy strikes to run empties.  Next, I painted the wood with a blend of black and brown paint to keep raw wood from being visible through the load.



Because the shavings are very light, I wanted to give the load some "body", so I mixed up a small batch of Sculptamold, and also mixed it up with some black and brown paint.



Then, using a plastic knife, I shmeared the goo onto the wood plate just as one might apply cream cheese to a celery stick, or frosting to a biscuit...  Since I only have two hands, I couldn't take an action shot...  I miss my little point and shoot and its tripod...


but here's the "buttered" stick.

So the next step is to put a bit of the aluminum shavings into a coffee filter (the useless low sided ones that only make four cups are perfect for this operation) then I press the wet sculptamold into the shavings.  I roll it around a bit to make sure I get good coverage, and the mounding effect I want to achieve.





Quick and easy.  In about a half an hour, I made 5 loads start to finish.



Time for a test drive.  I wanted to make sure they weren't too heavy for the little Docksider.  There's a very slight grade on the upper loop of my layout (I had to raise the bridge a tiny bit to allow my GG1s and Metroliners to pass beneath with the pans up) and my little steam switchers especially don't like it when there's too much work to do...  So here it goes:

Success!

Tomorrow after the Sculptamold more completely sets, I'll over spray the loads with a matte clear coat, and perhaps add a wash of weathering.  When the goo is dry, the loads will be lighter weight, and I hope, quite stable.  It was a good little 60 minute project.  It may have taken longer for me to process the photos and type up the report....

That’s really cool Lee.  Love it and going to steal the idea too.

[nkalanaga]

Peteski:  Melting the foam is what I was thinking of.  With my luck, it would melt all the way through, and I'd have a real mess.

[spookshow]

The foam is 2" thick and I apply the LT lightly with a small brush so as to not go overboard with it. There's not much danger of it going all the way through.

-Mark

[C855B]

If CV doesn't kill me, using lacquer thinner to make a lake bed in the foam base of my layout almost certainly will 

An exciting discovery, frankly - using one of the vulnerabilities of XPS foam to our advantage. To that end, I grabbed a bit of scrap and stepped into the workshop laboratory to run some quick tests:





If Mark was using lacquer thinner, he had to use a lot of it. As you see in the test, the thinner barely etched the surface. Acetone was very aggressive but evaporated quickly, resulting in a rounded crater with shallow edges. MEK didn't evaporate as quickly, so there are better-defined edges to the crater. I didn't notice any strong odors (like you'd get with a hot knife), just the normal solvent stink, and in the pipette-drop test, not much of it. The foam in all cases solidified once the solvent was absorbed or evaporated, nothing gooey at the bottom of the craters.

The bigger test was a masked square. The intent there was to control the melt/dissolve by using an airbrush to dampen the surface rather than soak. The only thing that accomplished was a clean airbrush.    It was apparent the solvent has to be full-strength and liquid to do anything.

Failing with the airbrush, MEK was brushed on (if it's not obvious, DO NOT use foam brushes! No, I didn't try it, either). You can see where the brush strokes overlapped, and also where the solvent undercut the masking tape. There was a bit of residual smell from the MEK 30 minutes after the test, only discernible if I put my nose in it.

This discovery is going to save me hours of carving water features. Thanks, Mark!