P5se Camelback’s EOY Challenge

[P5se Camelback]

The next step in the resurrection of a 45 year old Zamac casting is to address the surface of the casting. Modern-day castings are downright jewel-like in comparison to some of the small run castings produced by “cottage industry” kit producers of the ‘50’s and ‘60’s! The surface of this particular one is no exception!

Taking the advice of Gary, "the Bridgemiester" and Ess Two Fiddy, "Master Boat Builder," I grabbed one of the four inch square pieces of 1/8” tempered glass in my Kennedy Box (I have no recollection of how I acquired the six of them!) and used it a mixing surface on which to mix Squadron Green Putty and generic plastic model cement. It mixes to the consistency of butter cream icing (for those of you who have ever piped a bunch of decorations onto a birthday cake for your four-year-old daugghter’s birthday party, thereby saving the few bucks not spent at the bakery.) A whittled-down popsicle stick makes a great spreading applicator … and if you whittle it thin enough at the end you can spread the putty into some pretty small areas.





After the initial application of the putty “icing,” the clean up was easy. A fresh industrial single-edge razor blade scraped the putty off the popsicle stick (while it was still soft) and the choice of glass as a mixing surface proved to be a good one, as the putty-cement mixture came up with one pass of the blade.



I allowed the putty-cement application a couple hours to dry/cure and used that time to sketch up concepts for a photo diorama, to be built as a test bed for learning about using 2” foam for developing land mass and trying out some scenery techniques. Never having gotten to the scenery stage on any of my previous layouts, I look forward to this adventure! Plus, when it’s done I’ll have a nice scene in which to photograph some of my motive power and rolling stock models to post on the WPF thread!

A couple jeweler’s files and rifflers were used to take down the first application of the putty mixture.



At least one more application will be needed … this next “skinning” will be mixed a bit thinner to allow for more accurate control of both the amount applied, the thickness of the application and owing to the thinner consistency, permitting it to be applied into some rather awkward locations. The mixing of putty-to-cement is proving to be one of those “try it, modify it, try it again” types of processes, much like finding the paint/thinner mixture you like when atomizing pigment!

The next step is another application of the putty/cement and initial preparation for the brake system details as well as fabricating the railing. I'm still unable to source proper decals … but I haven’t yet given up!

Until the next installment …