I’d like to share with everyone a technique for repairing catastrophic body damage using a $2 tube of epoxy putty. I’m fairly certain I’m not so genius as to be the first person to have done this, but here it is for your consideration.
The victim: a #3562 Operating Barrel Car, part of a set that has been in the family for 55 years and 3 generations. Sure, I could buy another example of the same car, but why not try to see what magic I could work on a nearly lost soul. This particular car had been trashed before the trains were handed down to me, and it took until last year for me to get online and learn all about them.
One end of the car was completely separated, held on to the chassis by the single screw that normally secures the entire body. The frame was a rusty mess, with brittle wires and a loose solenoid dangling away from where it should be attached. The body shell was split along one side, with the split leading to a thumb sized hole in the top and side. There was no fragment left to fill the hole. If it was only the top side of the car, flat sheet stock of plastic cut to fit would be no problem. But the hole also extended down the side, carrying away 1/4” of seemingly hard to replicate riveted steel stiffener.
The solution I found was to backwards mold using epoxy putty, a favorite material for me when building model airplanes as a teen. The first step in repairing the hole involved removing some plastic from the hole, in order to give me a nice clean, square area to fill. This was easily accomplished with the trusty Dremel. I took special pains to not remove too much of the molded in detail on the side surface.
After testing the backwards mold impression on an old work caboose, I started on the barrel car by taking a chunk of putty and capturing a mold of the opposite side of the car. To keep the highly sticky putty from carrying any paint or possibly becoming a permanent part of the car, I brushed Johnson floor