Today I went to my LHS and picked up a Life-Like Proto 2000 8,000 gallon tank car Time Saver kit. When I got home I spent almost an hour and a half building it. It is now finished and all I can say is “WOW”![:D] It’s the most amazingly detailed car I’ve ever owned, it rolls like it’s flying on a cushion of air, and it was only about $1 more than an Athearn kit.[:D][:D][:D] I’ll definately buy more P2K kits if my LHS gets them in.[:D][:D][:D] (All they’ve got now is the tank cars, and they’re all in the same railroad)
They are nice cars. I have some of the time saver covered hoppers. Be careful as kits are addiciting!
Rick
I hope the plain black UTLX ones have different numbers than the ones I already have - mine were the original kits, NOT Timesavers. Wow was that an adventure puttign the first one together, byt he third one I had it down pretty good and it ony takes me a couple of hours. Three is probably plenty for what I am modeling, but I just love the detail on those things so maybe just one or two more… sure breaks up the monotony of all-hopper trains, but I picked an Anthracite road so… actually, I need more B&O hoppers, NOT home road, ticks me off the new Accurail 3-bays have dates that are too new for my era.
–Randy
a #11 blade can be used to carefully scrape off part of the old date, and a little paint on a pincan be used to alter it. Plan it out, and take your time. Then weather the car, and no one will know. [:D]
DSF; welcome to kit building, it is great !! After a few P2K’s, you’ll be ready to move on to Westerfield, Sunshine and others.
Glad you enjoyed your P2K kit–I’ve had nothing but headaches with the ones I’ve tried, and I’m an old hand with Red Caboose and Intermountain. Maybe it’s just me, but nothing seems to want to go where it’s supposed to on those kits. I’ve got several ready-built P2K cars, and I will agree–they’re superb cars. But the kits–I’ll pass, thanks.
Tom [B)]
Actually, I’ve been building kits for a while.[:D] This is my first P2K kit.[:D] Some kits I’ve built include a Bowser A-5 0-4-0, a Bowser 4-6-6-4 Challenger, about a dozen Athearn car kits and the list goes on. I love kits.[:D]
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Westerfield.
Is the Sunshine you mentioned the same Sunshine that makes brass engines?
SunSET imports brass locomotives. SunSHINE manufactures polyurethane
resin craftsman kits of less common rolling stock-as does Westerfield, and
Funaro and Camerlengo. Very good kits, but not really for a novice. And Darth,
I am not insinuating that you are a novice-it is just an opinion of mine about
these kinds of kits. Experience helps. But, if you are ready for a challenge, then
I recommend them.
SWEET! I bought a couple of Walthers large tanker kits about 10 years ago and just built them last year and they where HORRABLE! Nothing fit, the detail was crap and they derailed all the time. One is being turned into a deisel refueling station and the other one hit a cement wall at 5000mph (scale) went I whipped it at it!!!
I wasn’t going to build another tank car till I saw your post. I might give a P2K kit a shot.
(I know I can trust Darth’s judgment when he says somthing is good.)
yes i can agree i have 2 P@k kits i put together a year ago ,and there CNW i love em .only down fall get nice couplers for em they dont come with the good ones,but yes great cars !
Carl…
Obviously the pre-apply a lot of the detail ont he Timesaver kits - but the key to the P2K cars I’ve built, ESPECIALLY the tank cars, is to pre-drill the grab iron holes. They all need cleaning out so the grabs drop in easily - when they paint the shells the paint gets in the holes and reduces the size. My ‘trick’ on the tank cars was to do the grabs BEFORE assemblign the tank - and when I predrilled the holes I ran them through the shell, so I could glue from inside the tank. I also conenct the tank to the chassis BEFORE putting on the tank saddles - you can use tweezers to tilt them into position once the tank is sitting ont he chassis and then glue them.
Besides the tank cars I also have a pair of P2K 50’ automobile boxcars, drilling ot for the grabs and detail helped there, too, but they were a lot easier than that first tank car.
Another quality kit is Branchline, the Yardmasters go together as easily as an Athearn kit but look nicer, and the Blueprints have ALL the detail and need the same care as the P2K - again predrilling is the key.
The Branchline and P2K kits all have very fine grabs and details - forget the sprue nippers, you will cru***he part you are trying to cut out. A new sharp knife blade or single-edge razor blade is the key to getting the grabs off without breaking them. Just hold your hand over the side away from the sprue you are cutting from, as they WILL take flight and are nearly impossible to find if they hit the floor. They’re hard enough to find laying on the workbench.
–Randy
Randy,
I got quite a few of the auto box cars and tank car kits over the years. The first one just blew me away. I figured “that’s why there’s ready to run.” I took on the second one and my figuring turned to “OK, that’s not that hard.” After the fourth car it became “wow, this is a cool car.” Now I love putting the things together. More difficult than an Athearn Blue Box? Yup. But they look fantastic!
I’ve built the P2K tank car, the war emergency hopper and bunches of the 50’ auto parts box cars. They are all nice kits and I only had trouble removing some of the more delicate parts from the sprue. On the tank car I managed to break the railing that goes around the perimeter of the tank in a couple of places. This was when Life-Like owned the line and when I called to get a replacement part they sent me an entire new kit within a week.
That’s about how I went at it Dave. The first auto car went together OK for me, it was the most difficult kit I had attempted up to the time, but I had done more difficult things than Athearn and Accurail. Second one was pretty easy, so I figured I could tackle the tank car. i was wrong. I ended up puttign it away in frustration after I broke too many grabs. But glutton for punishment, maybe 6 months later after doign some Branchline Blueprint cars, I picked up yet anothe tank car kit. This time it went nicely, although it took a lot of time. And I didn’t break anything, so I had enough spares to fini***he first one. And then I bought a third, that one practically flew together, usign the tricks I learned from the other two.
Project #592340923 on the list, I still have 3 unbuilt Branchline Blueprint cars on the shelf. That will gve me a nice set of 5 Reading boxcars. Then maybe it’s tiem to try some F&C or Sunshine kits - I need some mill gons and Sunshine has an accurate Reading one.
–Randy
I’m with Tom. Just built my first P2K kit tonight and what a pain. Even with predrilling all the holes and some creative violation of the order of assembly to glue things from the inside, it was still the most temperamental and difficult kit I’ve built. I’ve got 3 more which I’ll complete, but after that if I want P2K I’ll get RTR or at least the timesavers.
Previously I would build a good-quality but less detail intense kit, then add the ‘superdetail’ parts separately - I think I’m headed back to that method: I’d much sooner work with metal castings or wire than all this super-fine plastic detail that breaks if you look at it wrong.