03-19-2021, 12:01 AM
It seems that there were a lot of modellers who had difficulties assembling those kits. When Proto released their ready-to-run versions, a nearby hobbyshop (now long gone) couldn't move the kits which remained, as everyone was buying the r-t-r versions.
In the meantime, the "used" table was rapidly filling with botched Proto kits, at very low prices - the latter feature an unusual occurrence at that store. I bought a few of them, stripping off the factory paint and the mangled details, and was able to make them into pretty decent cars.
I went into that store a week or two later, and the "used"table was covered with the unsold kits, again, at surprisingly reasonable prices. I bought a bunch, but the best bargain was some Walthers kits for undecorated 50' boxcars. I had bought a couple of lettered ones previously at full price, but got 11 undecorated ones for only a couple of bucks each.
Here's one of them, with dry transfer lettering from C-D-S...
...and I have 9 of them, lettered using custom lettering from C-D-S, for my freelanced EG&E...
This one was one of those bargain messed-up attempts at kit-building...
...with the excess glue scraped-off, and the broken plastic grabirons and sill steps replaced with metal ones. I also added the boards for the lettering, which keep it out of the range of the sprayed lime, which was used as a disinfectant.
This one is another Proto car, which a friend picked up at a train show. He thought it to be pretty decent, until he got home and looked at it through his Optivisor. He saw some of the glue mess, but what bothered him most was the BLT date, which was too modern for his layout.
He offered it to me (it was too modern for my layout, too, but that's an easily-done modification). What I saw when I got it was what must have been at least a third-of-a-tube of glue on the underbody, so much that the floor was badly warped, the doors overlapped and glued to one another, side ladders and grabs broken or over-glued. I spent a lot of time scraping off the excess glue, but with the use of some heavy strip styrene and small screws, was able to straighten the floor. The running board was beyond salvage, so I scratchbuilt a new one...
I also scraped off the BLT date, and replaced it with one more suitable, and offered it back to my friend, but he thought that the work I put into it was so excessive that I should keep it.
Here it is in service...
While some of this recovery work can be tedious, it's always satisfying when you succeed in making it useable again. I wonder what the original owner would think.
Wayne
In the meantime, the "used" table was rapidly filling with botched Proto kits, at very low prices - the latter feature an unusual occurrence at that store. I bought a few of them, stripping off the factory paint and the mangled details, and was able to make them into pretty decent cars.
I went into that store a week or two later, and the "used"table was covered with the unsold kits, again, at surprisingly reasonable prices. I bought a bunch, but the best bargain was some Walthers kits for undecorated 50' boxcars. I had bought a couple of lettered ones previously at full price, but got 11 undecorated ones for only a couple of bucks each.
Here's one of them, with dry transfer lettering from C-D-S...
...and I have 9 of them, lettered using custom lettering from C-D-S, for my freelanced EG&E...
This one was one of those bargain messed-up attempts at kit-building...
...with the excess glue scraped-off, and the broken plastic grabirons and sill steps replaced with metal ones. I also added the boards for the lettering, which keep it out of the range of the sprayed lime, which was used as a disinfectant.
This one is another Proto car, which a friend picked up at a train show. He thought it to be pretty decent, until he got home and looked at it through his Optivisor. He saw some of the glue mess, but what bothered him most was the BLT date, which was too modern for his layout.
He offered it to me (it was too modern for my layout, too, but that's an easily-done modification). What I saw when I got it was what must have been at least a third-of-a-tube of glue on the underbody, so much that the floor was badly warped, the doors overlapped and glued to one another, side ladders and grabs broken or over-glued. I spent a lot of time scraping off the excess glue, but with the use of some heavy strip styrene and small screws, was able to straighten the floor. The running board was beyond salvage, so I scratchbuilt a new one...
I also scraped off the BLT date, and replaced it with one more suitable, and offered it back to my friend, but he thought that the work I put into it was so excessive that I should keep it.
Here it is in service...
While some of this recovery work can be tedious, it's always satisfying when you succeed in making it useable again. I wonder what the original owner would think.
Wayne