doctorwayne's 2013 Get Off Your Duff Challenge - Part 2

[doctorwayne]

Rather than make curved hatches to match the arc of the roof, or use hatch platforms, I decided to construct hatch pedestals to change the arc of the radial roof to the slope of a regular car roof.
First, I layed out the dimensions on a sheet of .060" styrene,, then scribed the sheet along the cut lines, leaving excess material between each pair of pedestals. I wanted to create a single unit for each end of the roof, which would span the width. To facilitate sanding the arc in the bottom of the sheet, I added a stiffener of .060" sheet styrene along the centreline, then braced it laterally with more of the same material. Here's what it looked like:




Using the same can which was used to trace the curve in the top of the car ends, I taped a sheet of sandpaper around it and began sanding:




However, the short height of the can left little room for effective sanding, and I was fortunate to find a taller container with the same circumference. The motion here is up and down, with the edges hopefully equidistant from the sandpaper. This isn't a very precise way to work, which wasn't too important at the beginning, but as
the arc was formed into the surface, it was difficult to maintain even pressure.




I continued sanding until the material along the centreline was removed right through to the stiffener, effectively separating the intended joined pairs which were each to do one end of a car. This was necessary because the arc didn't extend outward to what were intended to be the outside edges of the pedestals. Intead, after removing the stiffeners, I trimmed the outer edges to remove the unsanded portion, then cut apart all of the pieces.
Here's an end view of them installed:




As you can see, the roofwalk supports are also in place. They're simply short lengths of the same .020"x.040" strip as was used for the roof ribs. I put a bit of a curve in each, using my fingers, then cemented them along the centreline of the roof, atop the ribs. The next day, once the cement had fully cured, the roofs were rubbed over a sheet of sandpaper laying face-up on the workbench, and it took only a few passes to create a flat surface onto which the roofwalk boards could be cemented.
I added the hatches (leftovers from Accurail cars built with Tichy hatch platforms), roofwalks built-up from pre-distressed HO scale 2"x6"s, hatch rests (loops of .010"x.018" strip brass), "B" end brake gear (Tichy) and end ladders (also from Tichy).







I left the side grabirons and ladders separate for now, as they'll be a contrasting colour to the cars' yellow sides and will be easier to paint before installation.
The next task is to cast some lead weights for these cars, then they'll be ready for paint.


Wayne