Project Saskatchewan in Z

There is a new paint scheme on the Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation 4 Bay Cylindrical Hoppers, and I read that only the HO and N Scalers were going to get them.

I seen photos of these cars on the web, and knowing that these will never ever be available in Z Scale, I had to take matters into my own hands. I NEED to have some! So I imported a photo, traced over it, straightened it out, and had scalable vector art.


I printed out a sheet of decals on the trusty Alps, and selected a few sacrificial 3 bay cars to mod into 4 bay cylindrical covered hoppers.


The artwork took several hours, but vector art is worth the extra work, because the decals are not pixelated, rather solid spot process for richer colors. I used Kodak Spot Orange 3 passes over white, to get the flowers the right color.


Fresh from the stripper, ELO took most of the paint off, so I will let the parts dry overnight, and tomorrow start on the 4 bay mods.



Well that's all I did today, check back for my next progress installment.

 

Looks good Robert, and waiting for more updates.

 

I can't sell them because some Canadian hobby shop made a deal with the Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation to offer this and all future Saskatchewan paint schemes exclusively. They are the only ones licensed to offer this scheme.

I did make a couple extras on the sheet though, and I only need 3 of these cars, so I can part with one. PM me your address.

 

Continuing on the mods this morning...

I drew up some parts for laser cutting a while back. These are good for both 4 and 6 bay mods.


Cut out of .030" Acrylic sign plastic, then sanded both sides smooth for both removal of burn oils and increased tack for superglue.


Snipped off the old dump hatches with flush cutters.


Sanded the whole bottom flat down to the lower hopper level. This also removed about .060" of bolster, so the car will sit lower now.

 

Removed the bay welded seams with a seam scraper to hide the fact that this was a 3 bay car to start with.


Used a small thin kerf rotary saw to cut the car end floor plates off. The new ones will sit higher up, and allow the trucks to swivel, so we can lower this car .060"


Drilled out the holes in the ends of the car to .080", because I read a hobo story on the web of how they hide in these access holes on trips around Canada, shielded from snow, wind, and rain. They needed to be big enough for a guy to get inside.


Assembled the new car end floor plates and brake gear, and superglued into place. Now the floors are .060" higher and will not interfere with the trucks.

 

Superglued on the square pieces that will get sanded into hopper chutes later. Set aside to dry while I goof around with a different project for a while.


I get bored real quick, so I have to mess with other things for a while, then interest gets sparked and I continue.

 

Well, I'm back at it, I just can't get into anything else right now. I laser cut some sanding discs out of 220 wet/dry, then sanded off the 6 hatches.



Then assembled new hatches.



I superglued the hatches on, using the hopper chutes as alignment guides, so they will sit directly above the chutes, and set aside to dry.



Next I started forming the 4 hopper chutes by running a 1/8" Dremel Mill between the chutes.

 

I used a combination of sanding discs, mill bit, and file, till I got the shape I was after. It only takes 5 minutes per car for this part, so it was not at all monotonous.



The chutes were not at all perfect, and putty is called for, so I filled in all the rough spots and set aside to dry. Coffee break time anyways!



A piece of 220, and 5 more minutes, made quick work of cleaning up the chutes.



Next I superglued all the chute hatch sliders on.

 

And now it's time to research painting options. That green color will not be easy to find. Off to Hobby Town to see what I can find.

 

Yes I can offer those parts. I already sent a bunch to Jeffrey White, but had no instructions to send him... until now!

 

Holy cow--that's one beautiful kitbash!

This car, right?
This is the only one I have personally seen of its kind...

 

John Deere Green looks close, might need to darken it up with blue or black...