Batch-building freight cars 101part 2 - 3
28: Hereareall thepartson the left for theunderbody,
whileon the right areall of thecut parts.
28
29: Cutting the fragile brake lines took extra care.
Also shown are theKadee 58 couplers (not supplied
in the kit).
29
spruewere verydelicate, and requiredextra care to cut off
without breaking them. The irony in this is that someof the
riggingneeded tobe cut later toallow the trucks to swivel
freely. After assembling theunderbodies, Iweathered them
withanairbrush. Assemblyof theunderbodies tookanhour
and24minutes (Cuttingpartsoff sprues: 44minutes, assem-
bly: 40minutes). I spent anadditional hourweathering the
underbodies.
Imaskedandpainted theunderbodies and trucks/wheels
before continuingwith thebuild.Masking tapearound the
edgeof theunderbodywas sufficient tokeep thepaint from
straying from thebottomof the car. Thewheels, truck frames
andunderbodieswereairbrushedwithengineblackand then
lightly sprayedwith rust togiveapleasing,weatheredeffect
(28).While I like the lookof hand-paintedweatheringon these
partsbetter thanairbrushweathering, in this case I chose the
airbrush to save sometime. If youdon’t haveanairbrush,
eithermethodworkswell.
Phase two assembly – car body
Parts in this subassembly included the car body, brakewheel
andplatform, thedoors, andgrabirons.
Assembling the car bodies took themost timeby far. These
stock carshave32grabironsper car thatmust be cut out and
individuallygluedonto the car bodies. They lookgreat, but
takequiteawhile. I didhave todrill out a fewholes for some
of thegrabs, but overall notmuchdrillingtimewas spent dur-
ingassembly. As cuttingout plastic grabirons tookquite some
time (1hour, 30minutes), analternativewouldbe to substitute
metal grabs fromA-lineor another brand. Themetal ones also
aren’t prone tobreakage. Gluingon thegrabirons tookanother
twoandahalf hours (that’s 126grabirons!!).
The trickiest part on the car bodywas getting thebrakeplat-
forms tofit correctly. It took lotsof fiddling toget thefit right.
The car body construction took sixhours and19minutes
MRH-Apr2014
