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The roof top part has a trim piece that I want to add. I'm making it out of 4x4 scale lumber made out of basswood. I hope that doesn't cause problems doing sanding. But there isn't any scale lumber made out of balsa wood. I soaked two 4x4's in water and bent one end of each. This is too make it fit to the curve at the end of the roof. I taped them to foam core to dry overnight. Then I will trim them to length and bend the other end.
You can see on the right-hand side of the photo, the long strips of sand paper that I used to sand the roof. I really enjoy 'sculpting' things out of wood.
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I spent some time doing research and found some old photos of these cars. I also learned that they are referred to affectionately as "gate cars". Majority of the old photos were in black and white, so they are not useful for colors. They will be useful for details while building the model. I did find two old photos that were in color - but they are terrible color - in one the sky is green - so that doesn't help much. The other color photo was better, but not much. Both show a red car, more or less, and the entire car (including the roof) is the same color. I rather like the current color scheme where the car is a dark maroon and the roof is a lighter color. I haven't decided what to do about this yet. I emailed somebody who knows a lot about the old subway cars, so here's to hoping for some help. Otherwise, I'll just make a wild guess!
Meanwhile, I worked on the balsa wood roof. Yes, it looks much like the previous post's photo of the roof, but if you look closely, you will notice that I refined it. The lower side parts of the roof are sanded down to a nice slope now. And the ends have been shaped properly, too. Notice the nice curves coming to a point along (when viewed from the side).
I used 320 grit sand paper to sand the sides. I used the big file to shape the end slopes. Then I sanded the entire piece with 600 grit sand paper to make the wood smooth. I noticed when working with the balsa wood in the past, that it feels nice and smooth, and looks nice and smooth, but when you paint it, you find lots of pits and pocks. I'm wondering about getting 1200 grit sand paper, and sanding it extra smooth.
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A balsawood roof (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket
I started fiddling around with the roof for the Brooklyn Union car. I'm using balsa for the roof, and am shaping it with a big metal file. When I finish shaping it, I can fine tune the shape with 600 grit sandpaper. Sanding balsa makes a mess - lots of dust! Since balsa is a soft wood, anything can mar its surface, including fingernails. I forgot to trim mine before starting, and had to stop and clip them.
The black and white photo in the photo is from a book about the NYC subway. It shows the Brooklyn Union car 1293 in the year 1964. Both cars are the same type and style, so I will be using it as a guide. These cars were originally made to be run on elevated tracks in Brooklyn. They were later overhauled to be run on underground tracks - best I've gathered - the roof was lowered. According to the book, the celestory windows were to allow light and air into the train cars, but these windows were sealed shut and painted over. When the roof was lowered, the windows were removed. I'm going to model the car based on the 1964 photo, which has the windows extant but painted over.
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The next car is going to be a model of an old Brooklyn Union train car. I visited the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn today and took photos of the actual car in its current condition. The car has had a number of modifications over the 100+ years of it's life. I plan to model it as it appeared in the past more so than today. The main difference today is that the roof is lowered. It also has modern wheels and journals. I have two old pictures that I will base my historic appearance on. I also have a scale drawing of the car giving the original dimensions. Since the old pictures are in black and white, I will use the current color as the color for the model. The car appears to be a very dark color in the old photos.
I played around and mixed up a test color. The photo shows two photos that I took today of the museum car. You can see my test color piece on the right hand side of the photo. I think I need to make my color just a smidge lighter. It is Holbein acryla-gouache colors burnt umber, crimson, ultramarine deep, and titanium white.
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