Two loading projects

[modelsof1900]

Gus,
thank you very much for the "Master" and the "jewel". I think it is a result of that what I will like to do with a bit of experience.
And if there will be a question or a problem than write here in forum and I will like to help.
Or If there will be a wish if I could build a small item or a model than you should ask me per mail.

[Steamtrains]

Bernhard,
Thanks for the offer....The only problems I have are...all "thumbs" on my hands, and impatience. If things don't turn out right the first time I do something (which they usually don't...) I begin to get frustrated, and finally exasperated...so I walk away from whatever I'm doing and come back to it later with a "fresh" outlook.
What you do, and very few others here at the forum, requires skill, dexterity, and LOTS of patience....

[modelsof1900]

After a very long time of delaying I would like to reopen this thread again with two things.

First of all - many thanks to Don (Ezdays) for his help to repair my lost database connections. All pictures were gone lost because a server changing. Thanks again!
And second - I never have answered on a question by Gus (Steamtrains).
The gondolas are 65' long models, both. Sorry for the late answer!

And next post will show you the really news.

[modelsof1900]

The second of these load projects was to build a load for a PRR F29 depressed center flat car and what I have implemented was the addition of brakes to trucks. Look my last picture to this theme - here insert as repeat.



I have had a really problem to get a painted model that follows my wishes.
The first pailing was a mistake - really! And the including decel set was consumed.
Unfortunately - the quality of ordered and free (!) decal sheet made by Funaro was not good enough. The silk-screen printing has shown its boundaries. There are too many very small characters and these were all white paint spots. I'm sorry to write this about a well meant gift.
So I have drawn my own decal sheet ...



... and next problem did come with printing this file.
I think that all decal printers worldwide will have problems with printing white color on their Alps printers. The production of color tapes (white included) has been closed. All to me known decal makers have replaced their printing equipment by other products - and now they have all problems with white prints. Too weak and pale, no contrast and not usable on a dark ground!
With a bit of luck I have found a decal maker who cooperated with a print shop whom can make a double white print - and this is good or better yet than these from Alps printers. A lucky day with this success however that all has required a lot of time.

This is now the result after second painting and decaling and adding a few dust for aging the model.



I will like to add two more links with a background for this painting an lettering job.
First a link to a picture of PRR.railfan.net website with their PRR F29 overview page. This picture has given me the idea for adding a lettering to trucks.
And second a picture from GodFatherRails.com gallery - also a F29 flatcar without each color and lettering, only marked by a few chalk signs.
What for difference about the years - and I try to get a pure white lettering (which I have reduced the brilliance with color powder for aging).

Ok, the car was ready and now I could add the load - see next post.

[modelsof1900]

Do you remeber to this picture - that you can find on well known "East River Terminal Railroad & Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal" website?

I had purchased the ship screw two years ago already. That what was fascinating for me are the securing of screw by four rods fixed at the wings. Very interesting as also the use of a well car.
I had to realize a modified securing because my screw was loaded on a flat car. And this is my solution. (Click on picture for an enlarged view.)



Additional to the rods for securing the wings (this was a must!) I fixed the mounting rack direct on frame by four bolts and I added four chains with turnbuckles for fixing the upper ends of the support. This was my idea for a secure transport of this big ship screw by the (model) train.
Still a few pictures of the small fixing parts. Eye bolts, shackles, turnbuckles, chains with hooks.



Also here - click on picture for an enlarged view.



One of four turnbuckles - small or big?



9/32" long - this is small!



However in reality it would be 2 foot long - therewith still a more big part! Or what do you think?
I'm happy with this model and I would like to say - I can't model in a yet smaller scale!

[faraway]

Bernhard, those details are magic to me

I would like to use your model to raise an issue. The wooden blocks you use are made from real wood. To me is real wood is not the best choice to model 1:87 wood. It always looks like 1:1 scale wood (cut in tiny pieces) even if an expert like you uses it. I did see some very fine 1:87 wood made from scratched and weathered styrene. This http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/decks/ is an example of On30 styrene wood that looks to me better than real wood. This is a bad example for new wood as used on your model but it might demonstrate my point.

I thought your extreme fine detailed models may be the right place to raise such a nit picking point of view.

[modelsof1900]

Reinhard, thanks for honouring my work.

Thanks also for your opinion and link to using of wood or better not wood. I have taken a pure wood model in my hand of the former 66' gondola project in order to compare "my" wood solution, in this case also a car body.
It will need a few more words for that what I would like to say about this theme wood or well handled and aged plastic wood. Give me a short time until I will go in a discussion about this. The samples in your link are very well worked without each doubt.

[Sumpter250]

Seeing that turnbuckle on your fingertip. I, of course, had to figure out the actual size.
When I got done, the rest of the pictures had loaded, and :o :o I had guessed right !!!
In HO scale, 24" :o That is just about the right size to secure a 14 foot diameter cast bronze "Screw" ( The navy calls them screws, propellers are on airplanes )
As usual I am still striving to come close to that level of detail - - - - - I'm getting there - - slowly
You are a good teacher.

[faraway]

Just another direction than styrene. I bought several years ago some edged brass wood at a fair (and never used it). May be edged brass is a better way to get closer to perfect 1:87 scale wood? I know you feel very comfortable with brass.

[modelsof1900]

Sumpter,
I have corrected my ship propellers to screws where this was possible. And a short addition - the screw has a diameter of 60 millimeters, this are more than 17 feet, a really fat block.
(Sorry, before I have posted the German translation here.)

Reinhard,
I would like to write you a few arguments why I can’t miss wood in my work.

I assert that there is no another material than wood that also in a scale 1 to 87 looks like wood! All other things are imitations and in most cases I can see it on a first sight - latest with a second sight.
My question is should I use plastic when it should look like wood and if I can use wood without problems?
Look this picture. This a shot from the car body of my last gondola project - without each editing.



All planks are glued as single planks on the frame. I glued plank for plank and they have got very fine gaps by use of water while process of pressing the frame to an arched upward one and by the colouring with water-solvable paints and aging. Each plank has its own very specific surface and grain. And you can see my use of correct planks – without bevelling plank edges. Can you that all achieve by use of plastic? Planks in side walls of cars have grooves. And I'm sure that floor planks of railroad freight cars did never have them. Or I would like to see them – from the reality, not from models.Your last picture with Bavarian “brass wood planks” shows a very different look of “model wood” - planks with heavy grooves and all planks have an identical grain. I think that this is a very unnatural looking wood if you should use this "fine etched wood" for your modeling jobs.
And why should I use plastic instead of wood for a heavy pedestal that I need for this ship screw? Such a support is regularly built for a single use and for it new and fresh wood must be ordered from a local timber dealer. So I think that I must not age or weather this wood. And it should be raw timber.
After many discussions with my friend I have started my “White swan” reefer project with use of styrene – and it was a heavy decision for me switching from wood to plastic. However my friend was in right to say that a fine, smooth surfaces can built only with a material that has a smooth surface – and that will not be possible with use of wood strips or premilled sheets (from Northeastern). Wooden side wall sheets of passenger cars, reefers or also other (new) cars will have a well worked surface without a heavy grain and so I changed to styrene in this case. However each time I would prefer to use wood for an old and aged model where the original was built from or with wood. I’m sure that I never can get a typical old wood surface by use of plastic.
Sample in your link was done with a plastic model. Again, why should I build a wood model from plastic in order to give it a look of wood after? I would do is on other way. I would remove the plastic floor and add one made from wood - better yet by use of single planks. I’m sure that my result will be better!
And last yet a word about my technology and use of materials.
I use strip wood made by Kappler for walls and surfaces with a very fine and smooth surface. Each wood strip has absolute same dimensions like others. And these strips are smoothly with a very fine surface! However I use also Northeastern for frame work and especially for open floors of gondolas and flatcars. Northeastern strips have partially great differences in their dimension also in one pack. And you will see and also feel these differences at open floors, different changed by rain, by humidity or by pressure of loads! And this will be better than all what you can get with plastic. In a few cases you can’t see these differences but you can feel them by your fingertips. My gondolas deliver the proof.
Reinhard, can you understand my love to work with wood? And at last, I have seen pictures from O-scale models in highest price category and this company has inserted wood sheets for side walls to their extreme fine brass work. Also I was surprised!

[faraway]

Bernhard, the photo of the bottom of your gondola says it all. There is no doubt that real wood is the material of choice to model that wooden planks. There are many more examples (e.g. trestles) where real wood is used with fantastic results and outperforms styrene, brass etc. by far. No need to think about alternatives.
Just one exception. The fresh unweathered and unstained wooden blocks used to secure load cut from real wood do not look as perfect as real wood in other cases. I have no solution to offer and it becomes a topic on otherwise perfect models only (models like yours!).

[modelsof1900]

Reinhard,

if you have time to wait - 20 years or so - so you will get such a natural looking of aged blooks that you see here with the smaller shaft in background - without that this was while one day in a free area with sun, rain or humidity.



But with a bit more seriousness. I will give the fresh wood a light handling with dirty water or solvent.

[faraway]

Bernhard, thanks for posting another example on a larger photo.
I think I got the clue! The cut ends of the wood still show the single fibers. The prototype is raw cut in a hurry and lots of fibers are visible at the cut ends. But in scale 1:87 should a raw cut look very close to perfection too. Have a look at the cut ends of the front example.
Some are close to perfection and look very prototypical. Some look not so perfect cut. But they do not look like raw cut in scale 1:87. They look wrong to me.
The single fibers to not scale down. Therefore they should be not be visible at the cut ends. I am sure the problem is solved if you use hard wood with thin fibers and sand the cut carefully like you did it with brass or styrene.

ps. Average skilled modelers (like me) use sometimes sloppy cut parts of matches for wooden transportation support. Matches are made from soft wood with long fibers. The result is almost always not very good. A frequent bad example are little triangles cut from matches used as stoppers at both sides of wheels.

pps. This has nothing to do with weathering or staining of the wood. The prototype uses very fresh wood.

[lajry]

modelsof1900
If you're modeling the 1930s then there won't be Consolidated Stencils (black boxes w/ white borders) & EL gondolas (65'). The stencils started in '70s & EL was created in mid '60s. Check here for info on various types of freight car markings & when they were applied: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hosam.com/mod/rsdet.html">http://www.hosam.com/mod/rsdet.html</a><!-- m -->

[modelsof1900]

lajry,
you are right! With the gondolas are a few more problems. The CNJ car is a very old model that I built 20 years ago - and at that time my favoured modeling era was not so strictly fixed like today. And on other side the car is a PRR G26 gondola and that do I know today by my many recherches in the web.
The EL car is of newer date and did not find the right decals for an "old" lettering - I'm modelling 1900 (+) and 1930 (+) times. And there is a big mistake - the EL was foundet in 1960 and that is really to late for my modelling.
So there are many, many errors with thes both models which I can solve only by a new coloring and lettering in next time. New decals are not the problem there I draw them now self.
Thanks for your hint!

Reinhard, you are right, too.
But I'm not sure if I would like to rework all these fine details. At end we all live with our small errors and I don't feel the need to be an absolte 100% modeller. And I'm lucky when I can close a modelling job. On other side the two gondolas need a relettering. Absolutely!