12-26-2010, 11:38 AM
There are so many factors at play here that it's difficult to know where to begin.
I understand the desire to "make a silk purse from a sow's ear", but a Reading "purse" from a Pennsy "sow" may be pushing it.
How about making it Pennsy and scratchbuilding your Reading one from either lead or styrene - I'd opt for styrene, as it's easier to drill for the detail parts. Simply build it around a passenger car truck of suitable wheelbase.
As you say, the Stock kit has lots of discrepancies once you start looking for them, from the bearing placement to the walkway, plus the shortcomings of the original casting. And don't lose sight of the fact that you're not modelling the Reading (or the Pennsy, for that matter) as your prime interest. That's not to discount your desire to make it as "right" as possible, either, but I think that your ambitions may be misdirected.
Of course, I'm in a similar boat: with a number of projects on-going for others, and a large backlog of my own projects, not to mention a third of my layout yet to be constructed, I've become engrossed with updating/improving a small lot of hopper cars - a task the results of which no one will likely even notice. Selfishly, I'm doing those upgrades because I'll notice.
Slave on, BiL, on the course which best fulfils your expectations.
Wayne
I understand the desire to "make a silk purse from a sow's ear", but a Reading "purse" from a Pennsy "sow" may be pushing it.
How about making it Pennsy and scratchbuilding your Reading one from either lead or styrene - I'd opt for styrene, as it's easier to drill for the detail parts. Simply build it around a passenger car truck of suitable wheelbase.As you say, the Stock kit has lots of discrepancies once you start looking for them, from the bearing placement to the walkway, plus the shortcomings of the original casting. And don't lose sight of the fact that you're not modelling the Reading (or the Pennsy, for that matter) as your prime interest. That's not to discount your desire to make it as "right" as possible, either, but I think that your ambitions may be misdirected.
Of course, I'm in a similar boat: with a number of projects on-going for others, and a large backlog of my own projects, not to mention a third of my layout yet to be constructed, I've become engrossed with updating/improving a small lot of hopper cars - a task the results of which no one will likely even notice. Selfishly, I'm doing those upgrades because I'll notice.
Slave on, BiL, on the course which best fulfils your expectations.Wayne