I have just finished painting and decaling 1 Ottawa Yard Mule. All I have left is some minor touch-up, some airline cables, and a flat clear coat. I think it looks nice. Can't wait to mate it with some of SEARAILS 40' chassis' and my custom decaled containers. The cab is slightly leaning forward. I have not glued the cab to the chassis yet. The cab is just resting on the chassis. Ottawa Assembly Line (photo 1) Ottawa with a Penny (photo 2, 3, 4, & 5) Ottawa with a 40' P&O Container! Hopefully I will get more time soon to finish the few I have started and continue cranking them out. 25 is my limit. Tim [ January 30, 2006, 06:51 AM: Message edited by: HoboTim ]
Joe, Tim did the windows with decals. The base white and black are what's been painted. Tim knows his limits and does a very good job designing his models to work around those limitations. His only real problem is that his models are so nice, everyone wants them and then he has no time to build new stuff. Same problem Robert has. Randy
Randy, you are correct! I do have limitations! I have to work around them to the best of my ability. Take the Ottawa. I could have scribbed the windows, the doors and all the other details into the styrene master. Could have, but I didn't. I preferred to make a detailed cab with smooth sides. I figured as my decal art creation skill improves I could make decals of all the window, door and other details of the Ottawa and place them onto a white cab. Notice the operator/driver inside the cab. I have decals with and without and operator/driver. Sometimes these Ottawa's are parked and sometimes they are busy. That was the reason for 2 types of decals. The lug nuts on the wheels are also decals. Front and back axles. Out of all the steps to complete one Ottawa, painting the front tires are the hardest. I placed the decal on the front tire after I painted it. The next time I paint the tires, I will decal the rims first to give me a better outline of the rims. Trial and error! I have other items for an intermodal and freight yard I am working on, but am not at a point where I can show photos of progress. I will say this, I have a check point with a office building, and soon will have a 2 stall engine shed. All modern. More warehouse type buildings to come. The only problem I have is not knowing if some designs will take well to having a mold made of them! Casting without bubbles is easily achieved once you know how to make the molds. Being I work out of my garage, actually 1/4 of it, producing "Z" scale items is sometimes slow going. With my day job and family issues, time is very limited right now. I am hoping that will change in the future. To have all day Saturday to scratch build "Z" would be great! Tim
Has anybody attemted to make drawbars to to replace the couplers in the well cars. I would like to make my cars into sets, so there is less likely to uncouple in long trains.
Good question John. I think I heard somewhere about someone doing this with passenger cars and locos, but haven't heard about any unit stack cars yet (other than the FR 5 unit cars and the Alan Curtis spine cars). What kind of experience would we see in trying to put a five unit car on the rails? Would be pretty hard if not impossible for the folks that use rerailer ramps. Randy
Randy! The Roadrailers I made last year for NTS were very tedious to put on a track. Each one had to be interlocked to the next till the whole consist was finished. Had to start from the last Roadrailer, the one with the flashing FRED, all the way to the first Roadrailer. If one fell off the track, they all fell. Just like dominos!!!! I hear they all toppled coming out of Jeffrey's yard. Too much turn to soon! They were a delicate bunch! Fred owns half of them and the other half are up for sale! Adam never replied as to wanting them or not. Any NS modelers out there want 8 Triple Crown "Z" Roadrailers? Enquire right here! Tim
Randy, I would like to make my stack into 3 or 5 car sets. More likely, into 3 car sets. I use undertrack magnets to uncouple cars. The trick to undertrack magnet is to used a good coupler. With the drawbar, there is less likely to uncouple, less coupler to mantain, and easier to switch car sets. When I switch a 3 car set, I know it will stay couple. Putting them on the track is not a problem for me.
