Have mine saoking in Bestine now. I ordered 4 of these and one of them did not print the top curved piping. I was also short one curved ladder. Shapeways has generated a "complaint" on my one misprinted one and it has been a week and no resonpse as to whether it is going to be re-printed or not. Otherwise all is good. I found Bestine at Michael's crafts here in VA.
Y'know...I've worked with Bestine since 1967 when I was hired by Battelle Labs as an illustrator/draftsman before I graduated from High School. It was an essential part of our work as the "paste-ups" that were to be photographed used a very sticky wax on the back to adhere to the vellum sheets. Sometimes, you'd have to lift the strips of waxed photo paper up (with lettering on them) and re-arrange them. This left a residue of wax where you had previously positioned them and burnished them down...and it needed to be removed. A quick swipe with a paper towel with a little bit of Bestine on it and it was gone. Yup, it is highly flammable, but so is Butane in lighters, white gas to clean the grease off my driveway, Coleman fuel for my camp stove, Propane in its tank under my Weber grill, paint thinner under my paint booth and MEK for welding plexiglass structure sub-frames and display cases and of course, the five gallon can of unleaded in the garage to power my lawn mower. I forgot that 44 gallon tank under my Suburban and the 15 gallon tank under my Honda. Lots of flammable explosive materials goin' on...and not a single incident yet involving any of them. I didn't even mention all those primers and smokeless gun powders stored under my reloading bench. In all my 46 years of using Bestine in my job and at home for my free-lance art and model work, I've never had an incident, and it's not because I'm lucky. It's because, unless you're working in your utility room with an open pilot light in your gas water heater going..and you're using it to illuminate your project, or you're smoking while you're using it, it's not going to flare. It is so volatile that it dissipates within seconds from a surface and within minutes from an open container and heads up since the fumes are lighter than air. All I do is keep the can open for as short a time as possible, any open container of it gets poured back into the can ASAP and, if possible, I use it in my spray booth with the fan on. Before I built my spray booth, for model work, I took it outside. For wiping wax off of paste-ups doing fee-lance art at home, I just let it evaporate...just like I did at work. Luckily, all that graphic design is done on my computer nowadays. So, the only time I've had my eyebrows burnt off and my hair singed was lighting fireworks for my kids one year...in the dark...with a propane torch...not too precise an instrument to light a short fuse! Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
Progress shot on the first of 4 water bottles. I used Scalecoat II UP paint and didn't have any troubles with it drying. Microscale decal striping so far and they are unforgiving going over the details for some reason (they aren't that old). Anyways Shapeways is having to reprint one for me so I am waiting on that one to show too. The bent piping was broken on the top. Otherwise they are going good.
Looking good! Just curious - are you going to do the FUD flag placards? I thought they looked kind of klunky and may just put the flag decals right on the tender itself. Cheers, -Mark
I messed around with the Flag placard today a little bit. I do know that it is bigger than the decal so it will need to be painted at the same time as the tender itself if you want it to blend in. Otherwise it looks "OK".
Klunky or not, the UP prototypically has flat placards under the flags. If you just decal 'em onto the side of the bottle, it's going to look a whole lot worse. Just my opinion as a confirmed UP junky Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
True enough, but how thick are they? 1/2"? 1/4"? Scaled down, they likely wouldn't be much thicker than the decal itself. I wonder if sticking the decal to a piece of paper and then stiffening up the paper with some sort of chemical treatment would work? Cheers, -Mark
I ordered both tenders as a set and did a parts inventory when I received them, but I just noticed something: While I do have 8 ladders total, only 2 of them are curved. The other 6 are straight. Shouldn't I have 4 and 4? The "top" end of a curved ladder appears to be subtly different from the top of a straight ladder so it isn't that 2 of them "straightened out" in processing. Does anyone else out there have too many curved ladders and not enough straights? BTW, I am crazy. I would just like to know if this is one of the symptoms. Getting ready to paint.... -BOB
I had 6 curved, 1 straight and 1 lost/missing "other". You're right though, it seems like it should be 4 of each. -Mark
There are a number of ways to get a more prototypical looking backing for the flag. My first try would be to tape some 400 grit (or 600) sandpaper to a piece of glass so it's flat and taut, then wet it with some water and slowly wet-sand the placard thinner. I do this when I'm bashing my UP CA-1's using ME caboose running boards, and I can get them just right and nice & even all along their width and length if I take my time and watch what I'm doing. Since the flag backing is an irregular shape, watch the edges so that you don't get any of them too thin, applying pressure with your finger tips as you go to the places that aren't being sanded down as quickly as other places. Having never sanded FUD, I don't know what its characteristics are going to be when it gets around .005" thick, but I'm assuming it will be similar to Styrene. Another more difficult alternative would be to use the printed flag-backing as a pattern, and trace around it with a really sharp pencil tip on some .005" Styrene sheet. Cut it out carefully and using various sizes and shapes of files, get it exactly the right size to accommodate the decal. Make sure you paint it silver first, then Amour Yellow so it's opaque, then apply the flag decal. Before you paint it, attach whatever brackets and stand-offs you need using the original print as a reference. You could possibly do the same thing with paper, then stiffen it with runny CA and Accelerator. Wet sand the face the flag will be stuck to, paint silver then Armour Yellow. Apply Styrene brackets and standoffs using CA to attach them before painting. Hope that assists you and others who want a thinner flag backer. Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
There are a number of ways to get a more prototypical looking backing for the flag. My first try would be to tape some 400 grit (or 600) sandpaper to a piece of glass so it's flat and taut, then wet it with some water and slowly wet-sand the placard thinner. I do this when I'm bashing my UP CA-1's using ME caboose running boards, and I can get them just right and nice & even all along their width and length if I take my time and watch what I'm doing. Since the flag backing is an irregular shape, watch the edges so that you don't get any of them too thin, applying pressure with your finger tips as you go to the places that aren't being sanded down as quickly as other places. Having never sanded FUD, I don't know what its characteristics are going to be when it gets around .005" thick, but I'm assuming it will be similar to Styrene. Another more difficult alternative would be to use the printed flag-backing as a pattern, and trace around it with really sharp pencil tip on some .005" Styrene sheet. Cut it out carefully and using various sizes and shapes of files, get it exactly the right size to accommodate the decal. Make sure you paint it silver first, then Amour Yellow so it's opaque, then apply the flag decal. Before you paint it, attach whatever brackets and stand-offs you need using the original print as a reference. You could possibly do the same thing with paper, then stiffen it with runny CA and Accelerator. Wet sand the face the flag will be stuck to, paint silver then Armour Yellow. Apply Styrene brackets and standoffs using CA to attach them before painting. Hope that assists you and others who what a thinner flag backer. Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
Pic with some decals now. Went with the originally provided flag placard and printed up some decals. A little more left to do - mainly the ladders. I have to order some wheel sets but the trucks and underframe are complete too.
This has now been fixed in the models, I have found a way to tie all the ladders together so each car will come with two of each all fixed together. I know that doesn't help you guys much, this has been a learning experience for me to. Is anybody still missing ladders? -James
