Wednesday, March 13, 2024

The Building at Weigh Scales is finally in place

Well, the block station and scale house at Weigh Scales has finally been completed by my good friend and excellent modeler, Greg Cassidy. It features the scale house on the left and the block station, passenger shelter and offices on the right. It is built to resemble how the building looked in the mid 1950's. I am thrilled to have it and will now have to detail the whole area. 
There is a road that ran behind it and some buildings along the highway. I will need to make some facades to represent those. It is loaded with features like custom windows and chimney, two operator bays and additions to the base structure. 

It is going to add a great deal of flavor to Weigh Scales. Thank you, Greg! 

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Back to the Plaster and imagining what it will look like.

Well, we are working to complete the area around the tunnel portal and the hard shell plaster cloth has been installed from the face of the portal to the bases of the tower and a lineside shed. 
Stepping back, you can see that we have more webbing down in the foreground. I am approaching the corner of the backdrop where it turns to the right to go along the track.
Moving along, we now have covered the additional webbing and, in fact, extended it to the location of the control panel
We are coming around the curve to the aisle 
The area to the right is where i have to make the transition from the 3D hill side to the photographs. I am looking at materials that might allow me to make that easier than just by using plaster. 
There will be a big dairy company alongside the track on the level ground next to the track. I need to add a retaining wall between it and the track. 
This gives the best perspective on the whole corner. I am looking at that 2 inch thick green foam as a way to put a low ridge along the backdrop and then add the photograph above it. The plaster that is on the webbing on the right would then terminate on the foam ridge line with the photo emerging from behind it. 
 

Sunday, February 4, 2024

The F7 Saga Continues

Well, I finally had an opportunity to paint the body. I had figured I would save the side that was not damaged and paint the rest, so I had masked that side off. 

The damaged side came out okay and the rivets that I added worked well. 
I had masked the nose herald and it survived okay
Unfortunately, I was not so lucky on the lettered side. The masking tape damaged the lettering and striping. It also pulled off the screens on the vents. Not a good start to my day!
Half the herald came off along with portions of the road name and the striping. 
I was trying to save the road name as I cannot get any more dry transfers because they are no longer made. I am less disappointed as I would also like to make the stripe narrower this time around. 
Looking at it from the rear. 
Left side came out fine. There are some slight wrinkles in the body panels but that is prototypical.  My rivets look good.
As I mentioned, the nose herald survived and I have to put in the headlight housing shortly. This had a sharp crease in it and Mike did a good job getting it out. 
So, I attacked the lettering with a diamond tipped, fine, grinding wheel. 
It removed the lettering and stripe without removing all the paint. The shiny panel is the first coat of paint from the earlier paint job. 
Thus, I carried on to remove the rest of it.
Here is the cleaned up side. Back to the spray booth the coat it. The tank car is awaiting lettering as a SHPX car. 
 

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Back to the Layout - The Tunnel at Herdon

So, this mass of debris is where we have to develop a webbing and mountain to cover our exit from one side of the view block to the other. I have had a heck of a time attaching the Scenic Express wing walls to the cast plaster tunnel portal. The casting is done in a rubber mold originally fabricated by Ed Rappe and the portal was cast by Doug Jones, a member of the Washington group. Ed used individual blocks to make the master. I obtained it from Doug's old layout.  On the wing walls, I added an extension as the wings were not as high as the portal. You can see the ends of the extension in white as I carved them from the foam casting. They are stepped down.

The green tape covers the track leading around the curve and into the tunnel. This was a trying exercise to make work as I had problems holding the extensions vertical as they are in the air. So, I eventually settled on some webbing holding them in place plus some wide shipping tape around the back. Then I ran white glue down the rear of the joint. I will have to go back and add some plaster to the seam to make it look right. That will come once I do the plastering of the hill. You can see I had to pull one piece of webbing all the way across the track to hold that end of the extension up. There is still a lot of work to be done but it now has some form. 

This distant shot shows the run of the hill to the right. It will turn down about where the webbing on the wall ends and I will begin a photo mural just to the right of this point. It will simulate a hill in the foreground, made of plaster, and blocking our view of the more distant scenery. There will be a tower where the glue bottle is located, and a maintenance shed on the other side of the track. I hope progress speeds up as this has taken me too long to develop. 
 

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Replacing Rivets on the F7a

As on the F7b, when Mike made his repairs, his filing of panels and joints, caused him to remove rivets on the battens. So I had to replace them to have the detail back. I used Archer rivet decals which, unfortunately, are no longer made. Hopefully, someone will bring them back out. On this shot, you can see the black rivets in place on the rear quarter panel.
The rivets come in strings that you cut to fit and then secure with decal setting solution. They require paint on the brass to have them stay in place. 
I matched the size and spacing to what was still on the car body from the builder. 
Each area he repaired had to have the rivets replaced. I ran out of the spacing that was a close match, so I used one string that was a little closer on the upper batten strip. This unit will look like it spent some time in the shop for sure! Now we go back to the paint booth for the dark green locomotive enamel final color spray. 
 

Monday, January 15, 2024

More Progress on the F7a

Well, I have completed the patching of the antennae posts using the strip brass. So, now we have the familiar PRR look again.
I am now covering the areas of the original paint that I believe I can save. This includes the steps to the cab on this side. 
I also have been cleaning out the glue from the grill that h as been removed
The patches are not too obvious and should further disappear once painted. 
I am trying to save the paint on the other side to avoid having to use another name set. I also have to cover the grill on this side, which was not removed. I will have to change the unit number so I had to sand off the decal in the lower left portion of the side. 
Top down view of the side. 
Primer has been applied to the body
It is beginning to look like a fresh F7
A lighter coat of primer in the rear. 
I covered the keystone on the nose door to avoid having to do that over. I will place the reflector into the headlight housing after I apply the body color. 
 

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

The mechanism of the F7

Here is the mechanism which appears okay. I test ran it and it ran very smoothly so I hope I am okay. 
This is the cab interior and the electronics for the headlight and the back up light. I also have to re-install the headlight housing inside the nose. 
As you look into the nose, you can see that the headlight casing is empty. It is going to be a bit of a problem to get that reflector housing in there, as there is some residue from the reconstruction of the headlight. 
I have now secured the wires to avoid pinches when I reassemble the body. I have put the mechanism aside until after the repaint. 

Now back to soldering the antennae - I can only do a few stanchions at a time.