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The front railing and the front steps are on. I made the outer part of the railing out of brass, painted to match the under-carriage. The front steps have brass supports, and the actual steps are basswood - the same as the deck. They are also painted the same color as the decking - the under-carriage gray mixed with water - I think they came out too light colored, though. I may do another coat on them to darken them up. I drilled the holes that the brass supports are set into, at a slight angle. From looking at the pictures of real boxcar steps, the supports are angled slightly.
I used the contact cement to glue the front steps and the railing together. It dries a little shiny, but except for where the front railing meets the deck, the glue is painted over. I probably should have used the Liquitex matte medium there. Oh well. The contact cement remains slightly flexible when dry, so it works very well with the metal. I have found that the matte medium and the wood carpenter's glue dry to be more drittle and thus the joints can snap if bumped.
Next are the brakes and the wheel journals, then I will begin the final assembly of the car. I feel like this car is coming together very quickly. Maybe it's just me - it has been almost five weeks since I started it. This car will also complete the five cars that I had planned to do this year. I made five cars last year, so I figured I would make five cars this year. So, I am going to do a bonus car next - something different for those readers who are bored with cute little freight cars - the next car will be a model of an old Brooklyn Union passenger car from 1904. I've been invited to make a model that has something to do with Brooklyn for a gallery exhibit at the end of this year. I've thought about modeling old subway train cars before, and this is the perfect excuse. After that, I will resume making RhB train cars - passenger cars!
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boxcar
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gb 5079 - boxcar
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glue
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güterwagen
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metal
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paint
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railing
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steps
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I started on the front railing. I've drilled the holes, and stuck brass rods into them. The brass rods are 0.77mm diameter (1/32"). I painted them with the paint that I've been using on the undercarriage. In the picture you can see how I measure to cut the rods to the correct length. I have a special pair of wire cutters that cut close to a "K" shape. The top doesn't quite come out flat but it is close. By the time I get done adding glue and paint, you won't be able to tell that the tops are not quite flat.
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boxcar
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gb 5079 - boxcar
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güterwagen
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metal
,
railing
*
Sides are ready (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket
src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1066/1439895033_7117dedc5d_o.jpg" width="800" height="531" alt="P9250033" />
After cutting out the information plaques, I made sure that they fit properly, then painted the edges with the paint that I've been using on the undercarriage. That paint is a little darker, but I think that is ok. The plaque is supposed to have just the tiniest overhang on the top, which I didn't make. I've tried in the past but it always comes out too big and looks clumsy. I have found that anything too big really ruins the realism. I thought about making it out of regular thin paper, but I think the paper would buckle and never make a straight edge. So I opted for painting the edges slightly darker, thinking that darkness may just read as overhang. I'm not sure it really worked though. Maybe I should have been sloppier painting the edges.
For the little white piece in the lower right-hand corner of the plaque, I added the destination information piece. On the previous boxcars, this was made out of Bristol board, but I decided that was too clumsy. This time I made it out of very thin brass. I used a piece of brass that I apparently cut off of a .005" thick sheet, but I don't remember. I've had this strip of brass sitting on my desk for a long time, and find it hard to believe that I cut that strip. It is the perfect width and I had thought about doing this on a previous car, but had not done so. *sigh* I painted the piece with Holbein neutral gray #1, then used the dry brush technique to add a little dirt around the edges. The dirt is a little of the undercarriage purple-gray mixed into the neutral gray #1.
I glued the info plaque down with wood carpenter's glue, and the destination pieces with the contact cement.
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boxcar
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gb 5091 - boxcar
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güterwagen
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metal
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paint
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plaque
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The window and door hardware is now installed. I used brass rod for the hardware, except for the door latch, which is a flat brass piece. I painted hardware that is on the red/pink background with the same red/pink paint, the dry-brush painted dirt onto it. The dirt is Holbein acryla-gouache jet black mixed into the red/pink paint. For the hardware on the door, I painted them a light gray (Holbein acryla-gouache titanium white mixed with neutral gray #4), the dry-brush added a little of the base yellow paint.
All the hardware is glued with the Liquitex matte medium. The door latches are glued directly to the door. But the other hardware is held in place by drilling little holes and inserting the brass rods into the holes. I added glue just to make sure the hardware stays in place. I find it easiest to fit the brass rods if I drill the top hole, the shape and cut the piece out of the brass rod, then use the piece to measure where to drill the bottom hole. All holes are drilled with a hand-held pin vise.
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boxcar
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gb 5079 - boxcar
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glue
,
güterwagen
,
metal
,
paint
*
The blue pipes are now glued and painted. They need a little touch-up paint, and they will be done. I used the contact cement to glue the flanges in place. The big advantage of using the contact cement is that it makes a stretchy bond, which allowed me to position the flanges, then tweak them a few minutes later, which is not possible when gluing with the carpenter's wood glue or the Liquitex matte medium. It is hard to mark where things go when using brass rods, so this way I could get the flange to stay put, position the pipes into place and see how much to tweak the flanges to get them to line up. I used the Liquitex matte medium to glue where the glue would show because it dries to nearly invisible - so I used it to glue the ends of the pipes to the deck, and to strengthen the top joint. The top joint has contact cement inside it. I had to use a super skinny brass rod to get the glue inside the joint. It's quite an achievement, I suppose, when the wooden glue sticks that seem quite small, are too big for the gluing task! [...]
Posted in:
cement silo car
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glue
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metal
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paint
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pipes
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styrene
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uce 8014
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zementsilowagen
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Whew! What a morning! All morning spent fiddling with styrene rods, brass rods, wire cutters, pliers, and the hand drill - and voila! - I've cobbled together one set of the pipes. These are the pipes to be painted blue. There is another set, which will be painted red/orange. I'm making the pipes a smidge simple, but not too much. The gold-colored metal is the brass rod, and the white parts are the styrene rods. I drilled out the core of some styrene rod to make the flanges for the joints. The flanges are not quite correctly located yet, and the ends of the brass rod need to be trimmed. [...]
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cement silo car
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metal
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styrene
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uce 8014
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zementsilowagen
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Little railings (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket
In contrast to yesterday's really cool photo, tonight's photo is crappy. Tough. I added the two little railings that go on the front deck. I failed at making these on the previous cement silo car [Zementsilowagen]. The glue is drying and I will paint them tomorrow. I'm a little concerned that they are too fragile. Not much holding them together or in place, and I used that Liquitex matte medium stuff as the glue. I like it as glue because it really does dry invisibly - at least not shiny visible. And I'm still amazed that the stuff can be used as glue, and it's amazing as glue, but gluing odd bits of painted brass with it is probably not making strong joints. The joints aren't in tension, so as long as nothing bumps them, they should hold. [...]
Posted in:
cement silo car
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metal
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styrene
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uce 8014
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zementsilowagen
*
I made the front railing in five brass pieces this time instead of seven pieces. The four posts, as usual, and then the outer rounded piece is in one piece instead of three pieces. This is the way I had tried to make the front railings when I first started making boxcars (they have the same style front railing as the cement silo cars), but I never could get the outer rounded piece correct, so I made it in three pieces instead as that was easier. As my skills have improved, I decided to once again try for the outer piece in one go, and it worked pretty good. It is not quite perfect - it's a little off-centered and the top part is not quite parallel to the ground. [...]
Posted in:
cement silo car
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metal
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railing
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uce 8014
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zementsilowagen
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I installed the front steps today. I've also installed part of the decking. I need to finish assembling the silo before I can install all of the decking. The pieces next to the silo will need to be cut to fit. I wanted to get some decking on so that I can install the front railings.
The front steps are made using flat brass strips that have been bent, then painted with the undercarriage gray. The brass is stuck into holes drilled into the underside of the carriage, then glued in place with wood carpenter's glue. The flat part of the step, is the same as the decking. That and the decking are basswood 2 x 8's that have been painted with very watered down Holbein acryla-gouache jet black paint. The idea being to give the impression of old unpainted wood decking. [...]
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cement silo car
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metal
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paint
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uce 8014
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wood
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zementsilowagen
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Metal struts (Studio Pickett (Soph)) by gmpicket
I made the metal struts that go along the underside at each side. They are made using brass rods that I painted with the same gray paint as the undercarriage. The vertical pieces are round brass rods, and are stuck into holes that I drilled, which holds them rigidly in place. The bent pieces are flat brass rod, and they are glued into place. I used the wood carpenter's glue. I used the white craft cement for this task on the previous cement silo car, and it worked ok. The struts stayed on. I'm just not sure about that glue in general - my experience using it on pieces since then has not been as good. So, this time I used the wood glue, and time will tell how well it holds the struts together.
I need to give the struts a final coat of paint after the glue has dried overnight.
Posted in:
cement silo car
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glue
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metal
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uce 8014
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zementsilowagen