Modeling: Recovered Mullet River Construction Tips

Mullet River Model Works, owned by Glenn Guerra, once had a great modeling resource on how to help build his kits.  I located the pages, took screenshots, and compiled them.

There were three sections, as well as some customer models that I thought were helpful.  Not sure how many modelers are still looking to build these kits, but I've created four PDF's using the screenshots I took, and staged them all in one zip file that can be downloaded here off Google Drive:

Google Drive Link to Zip File with Mullet River Construction Tip PDF's

Hopefully its useful to someone besides myself.  I plan to use them at a later date when I have time to drop 40+ hours into one of these kits.

Kit Builds: ATSF Bx-12 Raised Roof Boxcar

I was asked to build kits by 2 good friends in the hobby.  This is the first of the last kits I will build for anyone but myself.  It's not even about the money - It is just really time consuming.

[Update] I built this for John Dunn, Sr.  He unfortunately passed away December 15, 2023. I will miss the energy he brought to life and the hobby. May he RIP.  Note - This car was sold at the Strasburg O-scale show shortly after his death. If someone knows where it may have ended up, I'd like it to find its way back to me.

This kit was produced by Jon Cagle at Southern Car & Foundry.  This link currently still shows the original kit order page.

It was overall your typical kit, though some of the parts included were of higher quality and some had to be made yourself, like the side stirrups.  Below are some images of the process of building the stirrups, decaling, and the final car.  The stirrups had to be drilled out for .016" wire, cut from the brass fret, tops of steps bent 90 degrees, and then have the wire soldered in place, cut, and filed appropriately to fit into the car side and to act as the rivet on the topside.  Wire was also used to join the U of the stirrup to the Z cross-brace.  The running boards were made from laser-cut wood.  The stringers that held them together were thin and weak and for the latitudinal walk, I reinforced the running boards with brass bar.  One other challenge of the kit was extending the end ladders with the brass.  The instructions spoke of making a jig an drilling the ladder, but I found that difficult, so I glued it in place and used archer rivets instead.  I did however, use .016" wire to secure that part of the ladder to the boxcar.

Modeling: Reading (RDG) USRA Gon Kit

This kit was reviewed in pretty good detail in O Scale Trains Issue #58.  This kit with the ends the way they were...had to be done in brick service for the Reading.  I had no other options after long research.  Special Thanks to Rich Yoder for providing me some good detailed prototype history, photos, and a decal source.

I had a lot more photos of the kit and felt like sharing.  I have no particular details to add.  It was a fairly easy kit.  Hardest part was the research, as is usually the case.

Kit Builds: CN and NKP finished kits

I had the pleasure of building 2 kits for a friend of mine.  Sad to say, I hope they are the last 2 I ever build for anyone outside selling anything from my personal collection.  It just takes too long too build kits at a higher quality level.  I do want to say that the Sylvan car did have an older set of decals that were falling apart in the water and were scratched off.  Sylvan amazingly replaced these at no cost to me and it was appreciated.

The two kits are the following:
-Sylvan Models CNR 1929 Boxcar
-Chooch NKP War Emergency Boxcar

The Sylvan is a two-piece body kit and comes with everything but trucks and couplers.  The ladders are a bit crude, so I opted to use a modified plastic set sold by Des Plaines Hobbies.  The CNR decals appeared to be missing a lot of little extras that I saw on some photos of cars in the 50s.

The NKP kit was a flat kit and needed its entire body squared up and put together.  It did not come with trucks, couplers, decals, or a roofwalk. I ended up getting one of the last sets of decals from Nickel Plate Models (Dave Vaughn), but he said he could get more printed if needed.  The etched apex roofwalk I used was also from Des Plaines Hobbies.  This makes for a superior model in the end. 

The cars are fitted with Weaver trucks (with some washers in between the bolster pieces due to clearances needed from the flanges and bottom of the car.  The cars still meet kadee heights)
The CNR car got boxcar red.  The NKP car got mineral red and black.  The trucks were painted for NKP car per the photo I saw and the only weathering any car got was with the oily black on the inside of the wheels of the NKP trucks.

Can't think of much else to say, so here are some photos of the end results:

Modeling: Yorke Studios Covered Hopper Unloader

This is the unloader that Tom just came out with.  Took about 3 hours to do.  Neat little kit.  Its about $35 when shipping is included.  

You can click on the images for Hi-res shots.

Modeling: MILW Ribside REBUILT Boxcar Casting

So I was chosen to build the display car for Rails Unlimited's new ribside boxcar they have coming out in March.  It was definitely an honor to be the first to build this casting into a model and for it to be used as a display to help sell the casting to others.

I feel its a pretty good job, but definitely not my best.  I hope Ted allows me to build more in the future for him.

The new car being "released" at the Chicago O Scale Meet. If you cannot make it, please contact Ted Schnepf. His other castings (not only MILW) and contact information are here:

http://railsunlimited.ribbonrail.com/index.html

He has everything you need to complete this car and others! He used to work for the MILW railroad as well. He is considered an expert for sure! Great guy too.




Ribside boxcars were rebuilt during the 1960s. Some more-so than others. Here is an example of one such car that had steel plates welded to patch the worn out sides. This car also furnishes the unique MILW underbody arrangement of the triple valve, AB Reservoir, and Brake Cylinder.

Prototype:

The Model:

 

 

 

 

AS ALWAYS, the photos are click-able to see larger hi-res quality.


MORE Photos:

http://s2.photobucket.com/albu...%20Rebuilt%20Boxcar/


If you are making this meet, you can check out my work on this car in person. Please excuse the decal job as its not my best and I tried a new technique that led to not perfect results. Oh and ignore the chipped paint on the underbody, I didn't fix it before photos, but my screwdriver hit the brass wire while slipping from the screw to keep the truck on. Trying to be a perfectionist is so hard.

Manufacturing News: O Scale Southern Railway / Norfolk Southern Radio Car Resin Kit

I have finished the 3 pilot models for the urethane kit I have come out with.

Jim King did most all of the work in making the kit.  This included him hand-measuring the original 1:1 prototype car.  Then making the CAD files.  He then had an SLA made where he took molds of each side and then put the castings together to make the one-piece body.  He then molded that and casted that.  From there, one adds the detail parts on, paints it, etc and you have a finished kit.

I have kits available in 3R, 2R, and 3RS.  I can even put these together for an extra cost.  Kits come with Southern decals, but I can also provide NS decals for an extra cost.


As always, click the images to see the HIGH-res versions.

Kit Builds: St. Charles Model Works ACL K-7 Gondola

So I finished this gon kit since before O Scale National 2009 in Baltimore.  It was on display there.  This kit is produced by St. Charles Model Works.  Their website is here: http://www.scmodelworks.com/  Contact Terry or Sue if you want one of these kits.  They retail for around $105 for the complete kit with trucks/couplers/parts.

Below is the construction process.  Hopefully it will help or inspire others to build this kit.  Its a good kit outside needing to heavily wash the resin to get rid of oils.

NOTE: ALL images are shown smaller than actually are.  Click on images for higher-res photos if desired.

Here is what comes in the full kit:

Simple, right?  Yup. 

First step is to stand down any flash on the body castings.

After speaking to Terry on the phone, I found out the kit was designed for a 1/32 metal plate in between the underframe and the body castings.  I planned on putting load inside and opted for some styrene cut down to correct sizes.

The underframe was put on with CA, but epoxy may have been the smarter move.  I have had no issues with the CA though.

 Below are some tools I used to do this after looking at prototype blueprints, pictures, etc.  I have a digital caliper that I got at York for $20.  One of my best investments.  To the left is also some rivets and small modelers drill bits.  A must for modelers.  Time to put in some grabs and their rivets that hold them in.

I then moved to do the sides, again using prototype photos.  Each hole was drilled with a #76 bit and a pin vise.

Finally some work on adding the AB brakes (intermountain plastic sprues)

I replaced the plastic piping with wire.

Here is a shot of the B end with the brake wheel details and grab irons.  These are roughly done off pictures.  The ends are not dreadnaught, which is a flaw for post 1950, but it will make due on this model.

The above picture shows the completed brake details.  Note that I had drilled holes through the underframe brackets for the brake lines to go through.  Thinking about it, I believe I forgot to add the air line to this car from the air hoses.  Oops.  The end of the brake cylinder leg is attached the the brake wheel via some scale chain.  A good reference for both AB and K brakes that I have used is here:
http://www.steamfreightcars.com/modeling/articles/brakes.pdf

 
The A end.

Completed 3/4 view.

Not sure who made the trucks, but they're similar to weaver/athearn bettendorfs.

Below is the completed car with graceline 2R trucks.  The 3R weaver trucks' flanges were ridiculous and would not work with this kit.  I suppose someone could washer the heck out of the bolster, but that would ruin the look of this car.  2R wheels run on newer track systems like Gargraves/RCS switches, and AtlasO track these days anyways.  No problem.  Almost ready for paint.  Even with 2R trucks, the flanges hit the underframe.  Time to fix that next.

The photo is a little bright, but some more photos of the completed car.

Around this time I added the stirrups.  I added them after the trucks to ensure they wouldn't break off from handling.

Above is the decals and all the tools I use.  I use a sharp metal ruler and a sharp fresh X-acto blade to cut my decals.  I have a special brush I only use to put on the microscale solutions to put on decals.  I have not used the walthers solvaset in awhile.  The paper bowl to the left has warm water to soak the decals in.  The car itself is behind the solvasets.  Note, paper bowls give up structural integrity over time.  Do not use them for water or cereal.  I stick with plastic tupperware now for the warm water I need to do decals.

Next is time to cut the decals:

From here, this is one finished side.  You can see the rest of the decals sitting behind the car.  Again, a photo and blueprints were used to figure out where to put decals.  There are also some markings from a cloverhouse dry transfers on the sides as well.  Also note the decals on the undersill.  That was known by looking at the blueprints.  You can see that I upgraded from the paper bowl to the plastic tupperware and I use a mcdonalds napkin to place my decals after 10 seconds in the water.  I use a pair of $4 needlenose tweezers to move the decals where I want them.  I won't go over how to do decals.  That is explained on a lot of other websites as well as the directions on the solvaset bottles.  The key is to gloss the heck out of the body before putting the decals on.  That and using the sharp X-acto to cut the decals will help blend the edges of the decals into the paint and leave great looking models.  don't forget to gloss over it again and dull cote if desired.  That will protect the decals and help keep them from yellowing in years to come.

The final result:

Again, the kit and the cool granite load can be had from St. Charles Model Works.  They guarantee everything and their kits and loads are top notch.  They even have a ton of coal loads, scrap bails, steel plates, etc for your coal hoppers, gondolas, and flatcars.


Contact Terry or Sue Wellman at scmodelworks@illicom.net or 815-457-2453 for more information. Their website is www.scmodelworks.com .  Everything they make is made in America.