Picked one of these NIB kits. I have one other, or maybe two boxcars, one already assembled and the other I think I put together but I don’t recall having to cut any metal.
This model instructions ask me to cut 11 roof strips from a sort of half pre-cut and painted thin metal plate. Exacto blade makes no impression on the existing cut lines. How did modelrs finish these cuts in order to separate these external roof reinforcing strips?
CA glue should hold all these metal bits together or?
Nice cast metal trucks I must say. The wheelsets have corroded so that’ll be fun to change those out.
If your thin metal plate is sheet brass, a pair of good sissors should cut it smoothly if it is not too thick. Your wife will have bad things to say if you use her sewing sissors. Get yourself a pair of electrician’s sissors at the hardware store. CA does a good job bonding to metal. Make sure the metal is clean and degreased, no fingerprints. A wash in hot soapy water will do the trick.
A wire brush in a Dremel might clean up the existing corroded wheel sets.
So one of the old metal kits (Athearn’s early plastic kits were yellow box before they become blue box – there were even black box kits at one time)? After Athearn discontinued the metal kits line a few other manufacturers reissued them, most recently Menzies which sold them in clear plastic bags.
I have used metal sheers to cut off the roof ribs, and I seem to recall that is what the instructions told me to do. Done carefully you can avoid bending. It is a long time since I built one but I seem to recall the ends of the metal strips folded under a ridge at the sides of the roof piece and that was enough to keep them in place. I suppose CA would not hurt but might not be essential.
The edges are sharp by the way so be careful with your fingers. I used to rub the edges briefly against a sheet of emery cloth fasted to a wood board.
Similar sheets of metal strips of roof ribs, bare metal and often a bit rusty, were included with the old Silver Streak line of kits that were primarily wood sides, floor, and roof, with metal end and door castings and details in metal. They too folded over the edge of the roof and if done right that was tight enough to hold them in place,
Walthers used to sell those roof rib sheets with the pre-cut slits as a separate item, unpainted, because there was also wood roof stock you could purchase when making your own house cars.
As a kid (8 or 9) I got some HO scale locos and cars for Christmas. One of the boxcars was an all-metal one from Varney, in Pace Maker Grey & Red. A couple years later, I decided to repaint it as a CPR car, so brush-painted it a boxcar red, then added Champ decals with CPR lettering. It actually turned out fairly nicely.
Several years later, when I got back into model railroading, I decided that it didn’t really look as good as the plastic offerings from Athearn, and also those from Train Miniature, so I decided to once again “improve” it.
I stripped off all of the plastic ladders, the cast metal running board, and the wire grabirons, along with the stamped-metal door.
I also tightened up the tab-in-slot roof, then used strip styrene and styrene rod to plug the many holes in the body shell, revealed when I removed those details.
I used sizes slightly larger than the holes needing to be plugged, dipping the ends of the styrene into MEK, then letting the plastic soften before forcing it into the holes.
After the plastic re-hardened, I used my X-Acto knife to remove any excess plastic…
