Anybody ever do. Or attempt to model the damage to boxcar roofs done by forklifts?
shane
Are you talking about the dents that pop up when the mast or load contacts the roof?
If so, I have never done it, but I would just add these with spots of milliput putty.
-Kevin
Those would be the dents in question. Mast and load contacts against the roof
Would putting a soldering iron near the roof work to make different spots warp?
Or the inevitable fork hole patches on the ends and sides? Like distressing a scrap metal gon.
Pete.
Anybody remember the wording/signage ‘‘Do not open or close doors with forklift’’ on boxcars?
. A detail missed. Never seen that one a model
Yes the forklift jockies have done their share of damage to doors, sides, ends and roofs. If the roof is dented but not punctured no harm done I suppose UNLESS the dent actually pulls the metal and separates the roof panels where they interlock. I have seen boxcar roofs where the joints have been caulked or puttied with some sort of sealant. In fact I have photos of one boxcar whose roof must have had many leaks where the paint brushes used to apply the sealant were still up there, stuck in the now-dried sealant!
For doors I recently saw an older circa 1969 boxcar in a railroad museum in Sioux City Iowa and the steel doors showed definite signs of being punctured at some point probably by the blades of a forklift. The holes, about the size of a half dollar, were crudely sealed with a gunk that looked a bit like, and may well have been, Bondo.
By the way back in the days of the old Athearn and Varney stamped metal kits those kinds of dents in the roof would have been absurdly easy to model because the metal kit parts would dent just like the prototype! And the stamped steel doors were prototype thickness too.
So for plastic the way I dent gondola sides (and the bulges out are always BETWEEN the vertical ribs) I have a holder for my low watt soldering iron so that I don’t have to hold it. I bring the pastic car side near the heat and wait for tell tale signs that it is about to melt. This takes practice and experience. I use a blunt dowell end or the end of a wood paint brush to actually touch the inside of the car and push the plastic out. Too many guys use the end of the soldering iron for that and all it does is leave an unsightly gash and a nasty smell of burning plastic. The key is not to overdo it. I keep a small bucket of water nearby to immerse the entire model in in case I sense the melting is about to go too far – cold water ends that pronto.
It should be possible to do something like tha
I’ve damaged plenty of HO boxcars, but never on purpose.