10-01-2020, 12:15 PM
I certainly have to hand it to you, Lutz, you're not daunted at all by these challenges. 
One of the most unenjoyable kits I've built was also one of two from Westerfield. The owner of the hobbyshop wanted $10.00 for a Fowler boxcar kit (which I wanted) but if I would also take the Westerfield kit for an old-style Norfolk & Western hopper, I could have the two cars for $9.00!
While the deal sounded pretty good, the N&W car was one which would have been very unusual appearing in Canada, especially in the late '30s-era of my layout. I hemmed & hawed about it, but my good friend cn nutbar was with me, and he had just been offered an exceptionally good price on a brass CNR Northern (and I do mean EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD!!).
I think that he was worried that my stalling might negatively affect his good fortune, so he whipped-out his credit card, and said, "We'll take 'em, both!"
My original intention was to build the hopper for him, but once I got into the project, I realised why the kit would be a problem to build and extremely fragile if it even could be built.
As I worked on removing excess amounts of flash, the side and end castings began to break, or fall off completely, and as I read through the instructions, saw that it was "not recommended to drill for grabiron installation", due to the brittle nature of the resin...instead, the suggestion was to cement cut-to-length pieces of wire to the face of the ladder-stiles....not what I would consider an ideal way to create a sturdy model.
I resorted to rebuilding some of the broken pieces by using ca to affix strip styrene to the back (normally unseen) sides of some of the broken end bracing, but when I again attempted to drill through for the grabirons, further breakage occurred.
I was on the verge of simply dropping all of the kit parts into the garbage, but it bothered me to think that I would give-up, and simply let these difficulties overwhelm me.
In the end, I did finish building the car, and even if it's a bit of an anachronism appearing in Lowbanks in the late '30s, at least it's not yet decided to fall apart...
In return for Mister Nutbar's generosity, I did a little repair work on his "new" Northern.
Wayne
One of the most unenjoyable kits I've built was also one of two from Westerfield. The owner of the hobbyshop wanted $10.00 for a Fowler boxcar kit (which I wanted) but if I would also take the Westerfield kit for an old-style Norfolk & Western hopper, I could have the two cars for $9.00!
While the deal sounded pretty good, the N&W car was one which would have been very unusual appearing in Canada, especially in the late '30s-era of my layout. I hemmed & hawed about it, but my good friend cn nutbar was with me, and he had just been offered an exceptionally good price on a brass CNR Northern (and I do mean EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD!!).
I think that he was worried that my stalling might negatively affect his good fortune, so he whipped-out his credit card, and said, "We'll take 'em, both!"
My original intention was to build the hopper for him, but once I got into the project, I realised why the kit would be a problem to build and extremely fragile if it even could be built.
As I worked on removing excess amounts of flash, the side and end castings began to break, or fall off completely, and as I read through the instructions, saw that it was "not recommended to drill for grabiron installation", due to the brittle nature of the resin...instead, the suggestion was to cement cut-to-length pieces of wire to the face of the ladder-stiles....not what I would consider an ideal way to create a sturdy model.
I resorted to rebuilding some of the broken pieces by using ca to affix strip styrene to the back (normally unseen) sides of some of the broken end bracing, but when I again attempted to drill through for the grabirons, further breakage occurred.
I was on the verge of simply dropping all of the kit parts into the garbage, but it bothered me to think that I would give-up, and simply let these difficulties overwhelm me.
In the end, I did finish building the car, and even if it's a bit of an anachronism appearing in Lowbanks in the late '30s, at least it's not yet decided to fall apart...
In return for Mister Nutbar's generosity, I did a little repair work on his "new" Northern.
Wayne