once the bays and hatches were right i built the model as normal, adding the sides and ends. i used a drop of thick CA to attach the ends and then use thin CA to flow into the sides to seal them (keeping my fingers out of the cracks so the glue doesn't flow under them and onto the model screwing it up). to make it a bit more detailed i bent up some wire for the piping between air tank and valve. the picture below shows the install, but isn't all that good. you get the idea though. here are the finished models -- all 4 bays with 4 hatches. later models of the Rio Grande centerflows showed a shortened type of discharge hatch, so i trimmed a bit off of the provided gates to get closer to the shorter type. one unit will be painted up as a rusty orange Rio Grande unit, the other (i hope) will be a gray "heritage" scheme which showed two different Rio Grande logos on the sides. still Rio Grande but just a bit unique. thanks to E&D models for these wonderful kits (and parts). dave f.
Thanks for taking the time in showing your step by step bash, I look forward to seeing your finished product. Im doing some BNSF 50' plug doors and found some N decals from Microscale that are very close if not a perfect match for what Im doing, have a look at what they have in RG and you may get lucky too.. Mike.
Cool! Great job!!! But.................... I hear that AZL is coming out with the 4 bay hoppers very, very soon!!! Then all, but the 5 & 6 bay pellet hoppers, will be spoken for in the Z community, except thru kitbashing of course. Go Dave!!!!! Hobo Tim
