Scratchbuilding How To Books?

[nachoman]

Early 1950s... that's a little bit different. I am not aware of anyone that currently sells craftsman kits for steel cars. There are kits that are much more "raw" than the standard athearn or accurail kit, but those still are plastic or resin casting that need to be glued together. Those kits could help teach you the way model freight cars are constructed so that you can learn to make some of your own, but one way or another you will need to learn making rivet detail. I would experiment with these
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.archertransfers.com/">http://www.archertransfers.com/</a><!-- m -->, but you could certainly try the old thin brass overlay and rivet punch method. I would also suggest using styrene for constructing car bodies, and using DrWayne's lacquer thinner method of gluing. Hold the pieces that need to be glued together, then touch a small paintbrush dipped in lacquer thinner to the joint. It is the neatest, strongest, and cheapest gluing method I have used on plastic. Before styrene plastic was commonplace, people modeled steel cars using cardstock and wood - with good results - but there is a reason most people use styrene these days .

If there is something particular you want to make, start a thread on this site and ask - as there are plenty of people to give specific pointers. Or, do a google search for things like "scratchbuilt steel boxcar", and sometimes you get lucky and find someone else's project that can be great help.