Tim, those are for the railroad's radios. I think I have photos somewhere of the radio tower at the former SP yard in Tucson. The antennae tower looks similar from what I remember. Randy
I followed Davids recomendations and used the deacls from an N micro scale set. Poly scale has the orange and yellow to match, and they are really close, so weethering will take care of it. I did the front and rear strips by masking them off with strips of tape, and air brushing on the orange. I chose the smaller logo on my GP35 as they were all delivered with this smaller logo. As far as i know only 3048 had the larger logos, which were put on by EMD when they repaired it after it was crashed in Swan, CO in September 1970. EMD put on the newer (upgraded) snow plow like the ones on the GP40's and SD45's, and modified the radiator grills to better materials. EMD did the repairs beacuse the damage was more than the boys at the Burnham shop wanted to do......LOL (research info from; The Prospector volume 1 numder 2, second quater 2002) D&RGW modeling & historic society publication I plan to make my next GP35 road number 3048, as i too like the bigger logo. I plan to have four to run as a consist or to mix with the soon to be out GP9's... Tony B.... Wasatch Z Club
Having fun with Modified Acrylic, the holy grail of laserable plastics. This stuff cuts fine details well, glues with CA well, paints well, raster and vector cuts well. Now it's just a matter of finding time to make things, and almost anything is do-able now.
Flexible? Robert, Those brake wheels look great! How is the flexibility of that acrylic? Is it as brittle as the RP acrylic Searails and MMM use? What about other thin materials? Have you tried it with card stock like Kim V. did? Awesome work! Look forward to seeing what is next! Hobo Tim
Yes what happened is Kim came over and we burned some out of cardstock. I told Kim of the new Miracle plastic, and he said... "Lets raster that plastic" So we set it to 100%/100% and let it rip! So I cut one of these brakewheels loose, and it did not break. The paper ones need to be plasticized with something like paint or glue, but these Modified Acrylic brakewheels are pretty good. They don't break easy at all, and are very rigid. So it looks like my etched brass brakewheel days are over. I sent Kim home with some of this modified acrylic, and I expect we will see lots of motorcycles and other neet things from Kim soon!
Laser and Scratch Take one Laser Electronic Cut Flat Car by Robert Ray = and Take my Xacto #11 manual cutter and about 15 cents of styrene - and Add a couple of coffee stirrers for pipe from the local fast food - and http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/XACTO_P3073698.JPG http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/XACTO_P3073695.JPG Don't look too closely. Needs a few more touch-ups. It is not for a contest. Looks O.K. mixed in with a lot of other pieces of rolling stock. Plus I'm way over the hill anyway. ...don
A while back someone, Tim I think, posted a link to a weathering page. It turns out that unless you were Mother Nature, you couldn't get into the site. Here is a link for another site that has spectacular weathering in HO plus lots of unusual photoype photos of both buildinsg and rolling stock and a lot more. It does NOT explain how to do it, but with a little study of the photos plus some of his FAQ answers you will know a lot more than before you entered the site. http://www.mellowmike.com/index.html ...don
Hi All, and Happy Holiday! The old work bench at home has been quiet for some time, I'm so busy at work I have a hard time doing things here. Yesterday I got back on a few projects that have been bouncing around and will post some pics later today I hope. SD50...had done some creative chopping and channeling on some GP-35 shells, but didn't like the direction I was going on, so I milled the sides and top flat. Working on the art for brass doors and details now to apply. When it's done I'll make the art available to those who can etch at home. So far I have the doors and the railing done. Passenger GP9...I have three shells I've been converting for SP Passenger service. Mainly grinding off the dynamic brakes and adding the torpedo tubes, new lights and external piping. This has been a fun project so far. Ordered some fiber optics so I can light everything, at lest on the lead unit. I think I'll MU these together. SP Repeater Air Car...so I feel your pain about getting rid of the roof walks. I am setting up a jig on the mill later today to take off the walkway and cut away the extra plastic. Cut a .005 cutter on Friday and will do as much clearing as I can with that. I'll make a mold and do some castings. I will also have to extend the ends a bit to make up for shrink. I have been trying to figure out how to put the vents on the side, I think I'll just make decals at this point. Anything 3-D might be a bit rough. Next comes the plug door...so much plastic, so much to cut! Cheers Joe MTL
Wow Joe, you really have the projects all lined up, don't you? As far as the roof goes, it looks easier just to sand the whole roof off, and cut new styrene parts out of .005" sheet for the diagonal roof panels.
Yes, 100% PC ties. Something of a necessity with 0.025 x 0.015 wire "rail." Here's another view, closer up, with a length of M-T flex in the background for comparison: As I study this photo, I find myself paying more attention to the flaws in the gondola. Some of those rivets are pretty mean-looking! And that cast-on brakewheel has just got to go--it looks like stamped tinplate.
Yea... Looking at it today, your right. Also we have the 40' PS1 on the way without a roof walk, I guess I can hold off and use that one and just make it longer? May just squint and modify the FMC Plug door with different ends and call it a day. I'm more interested in these GP9's to be honest. Joe
Couldn't wait until the turnout was done, so here it is painted: And here it is ballasted with Woodland Scenics Fine Gray, which is not bonded; it's sitting loose as a visual test. Based on its appearance, I will be looking for (or making) finer ballast: By the way, the GP7 runs fine on it.
Smith & Sons makes a real fine ballast. Search this forum in the thread "BALLAST" to get their adress etc. They bought a 60 mesh screen for me this past spring. I posted the info but don't have it handy. They will send you some samples at about 25 cents/sample. All ballast is actual prototype and in many colors. The last time I was at their facilities they had jsut taken on 30 TONS of ballast to be crushed for model railroaders. ...don
