In-ko-pah RR: Upgrade projects

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

The past few months, I’ve had no time for modeling due to a lot of “real life” obligations. I’m finally starting to get a little bit of time, and have used it for a couple of upgrade projects on my 1/24th scale In-ko-pah Railroad…

First off, i converted my kitbashed, narrow gauge RS-3 to use battery power. With all the electronics inside the hood, there was no room to put the battery in the loco. Besides, I prefer to charge lithium batteries outside of any irreplaceable models, in case something goes wrong. So I turned one of my old gondolas into a battery car.

To hide the battery pack, I made a false load of scrap iron, starting with a basic box made from Sintra PVC foam board. Then I covered the top of it with broken and twisted bits of styrene shapes and strips – a good way to use up some cutoffs. I sprayed it with a coat of red primer, then black primer.

Then I used Sophisticated Finishes brand “Instant Iron” and “Instant Rust”, and finished it off with a few touches of acrylic to look like old paint on a few of the parts:

My next upgrade project was replacing the lights in my structures with LEDs. Originally I used grain-of-rice bulbs, which are cheap, easy to use, and fit into even very small scale fixtures. Unfortunately they keep dying on me, rather mysteriously and inconsistently. Some have lasted for years, others need almost constant replacing.

I’m getting LEDs in several sizes from this source:

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/bl-212.html

If you want to see how I installed some of them, go here:

2

Ray - c´mon, your pulling our leg! Those are not pictures of models, that´s real life! [8D]

You are an artist!

3

I have always thought that the larger the scale , the more detail that is required, and therefore the more demanding modeling. Looking at your bakery it is very easy to smell the freshly baked bread. Hmmmmmm.[:D]

Cheers, the Bear.

4

Very well done! I agree, you are an artist!

5

Fantastic!

It also looks like things are hoding up to the weather well. Well done.

6

Thanks, everyone!

7

I would have thought that from a manufacturer’s stanpoint, 1/24 would have been a no brainer ideal scale for these types of railroads. It’s already an established scale in cars and trucks, and other stuff. So what did they do? Jump on the every-scale-but bandwagon!

I highly applaud your decision to build a real scale model railroad, IN a real scale! Everything looks so right. Beautiful work. Dan