Part1.
Now I should warn you right from the start that you will learn no new scratch building or kit bashing techniques from this thread, it’s just me waffling on about the whys and wherefores of what I’ve done. If anything was to come of this post I’d hope it may encourage a fence sitter to have a go at kit bashing/ scratch building even if it’s on the basis of “ if he can do it, so can I, (and better too!!)”.
It’s all very well, and quite enjoyable, “oohhhing and aaaahhing” at the work of those who I suspect would be slightly embarrassed to be called “Masters” but the trouble was that I wasn’t actually achieving anything. I had some projects in mind using styrene but as I hadn’t used it before, needed to actually work with it to see if I was at least capable.
Now this first car was bought for me by my two, then young, children from some of their paper run earnings so even if it was a Frateschi kit of a Brazilian prototype hopper it was still special to me. To make it “serviceable” I using my battery drill and a file I turned down the pizza cutter flanges and replacer the European style coupler with a Kadee, with the vague idea that with a paint it would end up as a freelanced MOW ballast hopper.
Fast forward some years and a chap on another forum was pondering on how to make roofs for a hopper to covered hopper kit bash he was undertaking. doctorwayne offered some of his tips, techniques, and examples and for me it was then the time had come to act!

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Brake end and side view of the Frateschi car.

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The roof and roof walk is made from .020” styrene sheet that I scribed as I’d seen plans of a wooden roof hopper, the hatches were scratched using the hatch dimensions from a Tichy cement car I’d recently completed and the green bracing was my rough interpretation from the plans of a PRR H30 I’d seen. (This was before Bowser had produced their RTR version).

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Nothing like a coat of paint and a close up photo to show the flaws. :cry:  
Cheers, the Bear.

That is very cool! Nicely done!

That turned out great, well done

Cheers,

Kev

JaBear,

That is a very neat and interesting hopper, it does look purpose built as most M.O.W equipment does. I really like the cover and hatches, a job well done

Neat gift, and a neat way to make it into a more useable car. Nicely done.

Wayne

Thanks for the kind comments, one thing I should really stress that while I may acknowledge Individuals tips, techniques, and articles, ALL FAILURE IN EXCUTION IS MINE!!!

Part 2.
While reasonably satisfied with the Frateschi kit bash, I certainly needed a lot more practise and looking through my notebook dug out the reference for my next project.
An article in the May 1993 Model Railroader by Don Mitchell described how Cris Hollinshead shortened a Model Die Casting covered hopper kit into one owned by Du Pont and while the prototype was probably too modern for my modelled time frame I wanted one and thought it well worth giving it a crack. Having obtained a 2nd hand assembled car for the purpose I set about dissembling it and with some trepidation made the first cut.

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Then truing the 2 halves with my 4” engineers square I taped them firmly together and proceeded to slowly remove the excess material with sand paper laid on a flat surface.

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When I was finally satisfied I glued the two halves together reinforcing the join with two free .030” green styrene supermarket bag ties, which unfortunately they no longer supply.
I then attacked the underframe and though I wanted to make it strong, not wanting the car to come apart especially if it was up the front of a consist. I must admit I got a bit over excited. Not only, once clamped together did I drill an interference fit reference hole to take one of her-in-doors stainless dress making pins, she doesn’t know I “borrowed” one, but I also drilled and tapped a hole for 2-56 screw that would not only hold the underframe together but also attach it firmly to the body. Well there is no prize for guessing what happened to the screw when I applied the epoxy adhesive to the mating surfaces, suffice it to say that the body does not need attaching to the underframe with a screw. :oops:  

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The round roof hatches and detail were then removed, the roof shortened and glued together, again using the supermarket reinforcements, and the roof walk supports fitted. With a file I also thinned down the roof walk, subsequently I’ve settled on taking a .060” MDC roof walks down to approximately .035” as that is about the point my patience runs out which is just before I run the risk of turning it into a real pigs ear!

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Now this photo clearly shows two things.
(1) When removing detail take care, the fact that the gouges were hidden by the hatches and in any case there is, if needs must, filler putty, is for me, a pitiful excuse.
(2) When a scratch building plan calls for scale 4x2, sorry I’ll “Americanise it”, 2x4 styrene strip (.023” x .046”) go buy some. As you will see my attempts at cutting some from .025” sheet is less than satisfactory, though it does stand scrutiny if I invoke the “Three Foot Rule”, and close one eye.

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Cheers, the Bear.

Part 2 ½.
(Trying to post too many photos at once.)
Here is the shortened hopper next to a MDC donor, what this photo tells me is that I should make sure all the wheels are actually on the track, and also brings up what doctorwayne has referred to in a recent topic as an “Oh! Oh!.....here we go, down that slippery slope” moment, as I have now  convinced myself that I need to rework that stock MDC roof walk.

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In common with all my “modified” rolling stock I have yet to decal the car, and am wondering if this should be my GERN INDUSTRIES car, for the carriage of “Flux-o-ment” “the cement additive where a little goes a long way in making your concrete 3% lighter, 3% stronger and 3% more durable!”. Is it possible for me to be issued with a mid 1950s GERN reporting number please?, doctorwayne.
Thanks for looking,
Cheers, the Bear.

JaBear,

Another successful hopper chopper job. Those green bits of plastic look similar to the ones here used on bread and buns bags, when my father worked for a bakery(long since retired) they had a color code as each day of the week had a different color bag tie/thing as well as the date, I have been saving them(a handful so far)with the idea of scratch building a piggy back flat car(s) and using them to make the hitch thing for the trailers. Free scratch building and kit bashing material is great stuff, keep up the good work.

Gidday AF350, thanks for the kind remarks.

AF350 Wrote:Those green bits of plastic look similar to the ones here used on bread and buns bags

Yes I think we're on the same wave length, the green ones are .030" thick and 1" x 3/4" though I have to allow for where it clasps round the bag. Sadly I'm running out, though the last time I was at a hobby shop I stocked up on various styrene sheet and shapes, though inevitably I never seem to get all I want for the next project that takes my fancy. :cry:
Cheers, the Bear.

Part 2 3/4.
Well as you can see doctorwayne was gracious enough to issue me a GERN reporting number and it was the catalyst to finally stop Dithering about Decals.
I was trying to recall when I first started building kit set aircraft and think I must have been 11 or 12, the point being that I can't recollect that applying decals having been as hard as I seemed to make this effort, and yes I did ruin one. :cry:  

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You may also notice that I've replaced the original stirrup steps, another example of that "Slippery Slope" which I will further expand on in Part 3.
Cheers, the Bear.

That turned out very nicely.

Wayne

Thanks Wayne, even with the screwed up decal I’m quite “chuffed”, now I’ve got to learn how to “weather.”

Part 3. (or how to inflict more suffering upon your fellow forum members).

In the November 1995 Model Railroader there was an article, “Maine Central Covered Hoppers” by Allan N. Houghton, in which he described how he kit bashed two different series of Maine Central covered hoppers using the MDC covered hoppers as starting point. Now I while I’m not interested in Maine Central as such, the 10 square hatch series built in 1940 -42 caught my eye as something different.
Paint stripping. As Isopropyl alcohol is used in manufacture of illicit drugs, it is very hard, here down-under, to purchase in large amounts, so I use methylated spirits with, as you can see, at times somewhat indifferent results. Both cars were purchased 2nd hand assembled and I think that one had been sprayed with some type of matt clear.

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Mr. Houghton had used Detail Associates square hatches which had been showing on the Bowser site, at which time I managed to get an approximation of their size. Now when the local hobby shop, an hours trip each way, doesn’t carry much in the way of even freight car kits, (they’re not good sellers), getting detail parts is problematic, freight out of the States can cost more than the item required, and having scratch built the hatches in my two previous kit bashes I decided to do it again, though this time I cheated by using Tichy hinges and grab irons.

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As per the article I cut out the triangle out of the sides, fabricated the extra ribs from sheet styrene, added the roof sheet, thinned and fitted the roof walk the same as my GERN car and added the hatches.

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A Cautionary Tale!!. As the roofs were already glued in place I used lead bird shot to bring the cars up to the recommended NMRA weight using the same adhesive I’d used many times before. Now I had read before that using certain adhesives to attach weights to cars could cause warping to the plastic carbody but had dismissed it as “how sad, too bad, I’m alright Jack, I know what I’m doing”, so it should come as no surprise that “pride comes before a fall” and the first car developed a soft and soggy bottom. As a consequence, and after having figuratively kicked myself several times, I decided that I should have listened to those who knew better and so used caulk to attach the lead shot to the second car. After about a week the plastic hardened up again and as the metal under frame does all the work I got away with it though the warping is obvious with close scrutiny. All Luck, NO skill. :oops:

With the hatches on things were looking pretty good (apart from a soft and soggy bottom) BUT this is where doctorwaynes “slippery slope” came into play again as I  was starting to become unhappy about the lack of a latching mechanism. A prototype photo that I found of one of the later series of Maine Central square hatch covered hoppers was not really clear on how the hatches were latched, so after looking at my small collection of various covered hoppers by different model manufacturers, I decided that Bowsers RTR H30 with its 10 hatches and associated latching mechanism looked that it would suit these cars. So after much muttering inter-dispersed with outbursts of loud “muttering” ( Her-in-doors is very forgiving) and using some HO scale 2x4 styrene strip and .014” wire, I came up with this.

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To be continued,
Cheers, the Bear.

Part 3 1/2 (or where the Bear gets an attack of the Clevers!!!)

Now this is where the “slippery slope” gets more slippery and steeper. Having completed the latching mechanism I once again started to become unhappy with how things looked, it was obvious that the latches, of which I was quite proud of, didn’t actually latch!! But what about the “Three Foot Rule” and “Good Enough” I argued with myself. ( I gather talking to yourself is reasonably acceptable in Psychiatric circles these days, arguing with yourself not so, but suspect that arguing with yourself and Loosing would be a definite No-No) and not only did I lose but then I got an attack of the clevers.  
Note: Some years ago in a company where I worked, to be accused that you had “an attack of the clevers” actually had the completely opposite meaning, to be called “a clever chap” was one of the greatest insults there was. (Just so you don’t get the wrong idea, the Chief Engineer, Foreman , Leading Hands, and the rest of the crew were the best people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with).
So being very “clever” I made forty of these.....

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....... and with even more muttering, louder, and more frequent outbursts (did I mention Her-in-doors is very forgiving??) I managed to CA them all in place without spilling the CA or even gluing my fingers together!!! Though I will admit to trying to glue the tweezers jaws together, and that three went piiinnnnggggg off into a conveniently lurking black hole.
So finally deciding to quit while I was ahead I quickly gave both cars a coat of paint with my rattle can of grey,and  took a photo which I then posted on another forum I’m a member of.

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Why, oh why should life be so simple?? Guess what? Yes that “slippery slope” struck again!!! While complementing me, a gentleman whose work I respect, suggested that as I had gone to all the trouble on the latching mechanism, I should “replace those god awful sill steps” and suggested the detail parts I could replace them with. However I once again decided, as it would be quicker and cheaper, that I could make them from 26/6 staples, after all I’d done it before. Yeah, that pride thing again, because checking up on the prototype photo again I found that the sill steps had two rungs. Not to be beaten at this stage I plugged in my soldering iron and came up with eight of these.

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Yes I know that I need to practice my soldering, and that I really should have made a holding jig for soldering.
The end result, (well decals and weathering to come).

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So what was the point of it all? Well believe it or not I actually ended up with the satisfaction of something I have done, and four reasonably unique cars.
I would strongly recommend to anyone considering giving kit bashing a go, dive in, you may tread water from time to time, but the water is warm and it is FUN.
Thanks for looking, Cheers, the Bear.

Nice work, Bear.

Nice