The hours of machining time are over! Finally finished the ACF 3-Bay hopper with elongated top hatches! I am now starting my production casting run, and by this weekend, I will have kits available in both elongated and round hatch versions. I will also have 2-bays kits ready. Assembled models, as well as decal sets will follow shortly. Keep an eye on the website! Best Regards,
ACF 3 bay hopper Today I received my second order of 6 hoppers. As like before, the quality and precision machining of the parts is simply astonishing. Parts mate well without troublesome sanding and filing and no bubbles or flash are there to make you curse. Simply a joy,joy, to build. Z community avail yourself of this treasure. Eric, so you just finished doing the elongated hatches. Now, are they done for just the 3 bay or for the 2 bay as well? I will be placing my 3rd order this weekend. Just for the elongated versions. What about the rectangular grid roofwalk? when will you have that done? I love that particjlar style roofwalk. Folks you just can't beat the 2 bay versions, they look so cool.
Sorry guys, I'm landing and putting my suitcases on the floor, have you got a link for these kits? Dom
Harold, here is my hopper. I think the etchings are the best thing about the car. I love the see through walkways and thin railings.
Website is updated! ACF Hopper kits have been added to the website, and are now available for sale. www.edmodels.com Decals will be offered as a separate item, and will be released this weekend. Kind Regards,
ACF hopper photo Thanks John for posting that hopper pic. It looks so good. I thought you would order a whole bunch of kits since they are now available, and paint them for our favorite road, THEE MIGHTY CSX. Your work is always tops.
Yoshi, I have some CSX hopper decals if you need some. I always stockpile z scale decals. Eric, I maybe wrong, but all the CSX hoppers I have ever seen have black logos. Harold, I wish I had the budget to buy everything I wanted, instead I am force to buy what I can afford. With all the good stuff coming out, I need to save my pennies for all the releases for this year. The CSX SD40 is going to a big chuck of the budget. I must have more then one.
ACF hopper photo Wow Eric, too cool. Man that really looks good. I suggest you make decals for Union Pacific and Denver Rio Grande. They are absolute stunners.
John, After extensive research, I have come to the conclusion that pretty much anything goes with CSX. I have noticed about 50% of the hoppers have a black CSX logo, the others a very dark blue, that usually is faded just enough in the right lighting to appear almost black. If you take a photo of a car into photoshop and sample the colors of the CSX logo has a blue tone, verses the roadnumber paint. It is very slight. Some logos have one underline under CSX, others have three lines under each letter, some cars have "A Quality CSX car", some have yellow caution tape in the vertical position, others horizontal. Most of their hoppers are still in Chessie paint renumbered with CSXT, I have seen anything from just the roadnumber area patched, to the entire bottom half of a car. Their standards, seem vague at best. The worst kind of standards for a decal maker! My plan is to work on new models, decal research and design is a very time consuming task. I will offer what I can, because I know there aren't too many decals available for Z. I will however offer both black and blue logos on each sheet for CSX. Again, I will be releasing decal sets on the website as I finish them. Kind Regards,
I was just going to say the same thing Eric. Lot's of variation with the CSX Covered Hoppers I see in VA. I've even seen them so faded and chipped off paint three layers down to old NYC and Chessie and even predicessors. Randy
I received an order of the Hoppers from Eric yesterday and they are nice kits. I had a few with bubbles in them but they were small and a drop of ca fixed that problem. You have to be careful removing the etched brass from the masking tape that holds them to a piece of cardboard, the brass is extremely thin and it wouldn't take much to bend them out of shape. I have a question for you Hopper experts though, what color were these cars painted, were they all that light grey for all of the lines or were diffrent lines cars painted different colors. I have models of both the 2 bay and 3 bay Hoppers and decals for NS, BNSY (3 different decals), BN and Rio Grande. Any help on the paint would be appreciated. Bob
rio grande's 2 bays were grey, 3 bays were orange (like the full throttle cylindrical hoppers -- which the rio grande didn't actually have). dave f.
Eric, just looking thru this thread. While many may know all the subtleties of each road, obviously from a manufacturing standpoint in Z, this isn't easy. Everyone will want some road specific stuff and, as even the "big 2" have found out after releasing models, many found blatent mistakes. For me, I'm looking for the uniqueness. Way too many many similar models for me (hoppers, boxcars, gondolas. etc.) You brought a variation that is attractive. I don't have so much time though so the kits go to the back of my wish lists. Out of box or even prepainted 'just push a few pieces together' are OK for me. But I can surely see your manufacturing delima. Older era box cars with adjustable hatches, selectatble different ends, doors, roofs, etc. or gondolas with the same. What I would like is the imperfect, real world gondola. Bulging, sagging, dented sides. Keep up the innovative work.
