todry. The remaining
steps are to test and
furtherweather the
cars. Since thetime
here canbewidely
variable, it isn’t
included in the total.
Testing tookfive
minuteswhilefinal
weatheringof the
carswas twohours
includingairbrush-
ing the trucks and
underbody, cleaning
Batch-building freight cars 101part 2 - 5
33:With all the applied details,
the carsmust now be stored
upright on the open boxes to
avoid damage to the details.
33
snug-downtight against
thecar roofwithno
humpsor gaps, and to
make sure theyareper-
fectly straight along the
roof center line. In this
build, I endedupclamp-
inga fewornery running
boards toget theends
to liedown right. The
roof constructionand
attachment to thecar
bodies tookonehour
and45minutes (Cutting
partsoffof sprues: 25
minutes, assembly: one
hour, 20minutes).
Final phase – truckmounting
After assembling the trucks andmounting thefirst set to the
car, I found that the truckswouldnot sit down correctly on
the car frame, norwould they swivel freely on theBendof
the car. Tofix theproblem, I had to cut thebrake rigging in
twoplaces (48) to allow for the trucks to swivel and correct
seatingof theB-end truck. Truckmounting and assemblytime
was 13minutes.
Off the clock
The constructionphase tookninehours and38minutes to
build four cars. That equates to roughly twohours and25min-
utesper car. Itwouldnot havebeenpossible todo this all at
one sitting, as thereweretimeswhere theglueandpaint had
32: It’s a longway from the
pileof parts to thefinishedcar
body in33. Thegrabirons took
roughly40minuteper car to
glue inplace.
32
34a-34b: Left: The brake platform assembly turnedout
to be themost troublesome part of the kit, as the parts
didn’t fit aswell as the rest of the kit. The end of the
car with all of the grabirons inplace. Right: The door
detail.
34a
34b
MRH-Apr2014
