I recently bought the METRA F40PH from my hobby dealer and in the box Kato gives you all these separate parts to put on which are cool. However, they are made of plastic and so flimsy and thin I have broken half of the parts just cutting them off the sprue with a hobby knife. Have anybody had the same experience as well? I was only able to put a very few parts on the loco and by the time I had broken like the 5th or six part I was frustrated and just put that stuff back in the box and said to hell with it. The engine runs fine and I guess that all matters. Maybe im not cut out to be a model railroader because some of these tasks are difficult. [:(]
Your Xacto hobby knife will break small detail parts - You need a ‘sprue’ cutter. Xuron among others makes them. Do not use them for cutting wire!
Jim
Have a little faith in yourself. We all have areas of the hobby that we are better at and areas that we really struggle. That’s one of the nice things about the hobby, there are so many areas we can work in, when one gets on our nerves, switch to another aspect for awhile.
As mentioned a sprue cutter will help get those delicate parts off from the sprue. I also learned the hard way, that many of the holes are just too tight to easily insert those parts. I bought a small set of reamers, made the holes just a little bigger and solved that part of the problem. You can also use some small drills, find the one that just fits and then go a size or two larger. Iprefer the reamers as they are easier to handle.
Relax, Enjoy your loco running around and when you are ready, give it another shot.
Good luck,
Richard
We’ve all been there before! When things don’t go as we envision we can get frustrated in a big way. No worries though. Patience and taking your time is half the battle. The other half is cobbling together some good tools for doing these kinds of assemblies. As has been mentioned, some good sprue nippers/clippers, sharp pair of scissors, X-Acto knife and extra blades (try to avoid using dull, chipped, or damaged blades), varying grades of sanding/polishing sticks (like what the ladies use for their nails), a couple different types of tweezers, and a pin vice with different sizes of drill bits to open up stubborn holes/ insertion points for grab rails/steps etc. All of these tools can be purchased for fairly cheap prices.
Good luck and enjoy!
Regards, Don
Sure you are! Great tips so far, and I’ll second (and third) SHARP blades. They’ll break less things but will still get some of the tiniest, which is where the sprue cutters come in. Relax and enjoy, skills come with time.
Get one of these: http://www.micromark.com/tweezer-sprue-cutter-despruing-tweezer,8012.html . You will be surprised how much grief it prevents.
Joe
Hey,
I feel for you, I been there too, & honestly none of us are any different!
Truely, I have Kato Days, days I belive I am reay for those challenges…
Most of the time I can’t come home after work & tackle this.
(PS: If you want a real challenge try the older ones)
I have to get into the groove & be ready for it, then it usualy goes smoothly, if not, I bag the parts, model, tools, & try later, when I think I feel it again…
We all have our tools of choice, our own styles, if you will.
For Kato’s I use a brand new Straight (single sided) Razor Blade & cut the parts off at an angle, (With the through cut [bounce] at the sprue). Angle helps with insertion.
Then a small curved tweezers to try & plant them.
Have a small smooth (no tooth) needle nose pliers, on hand for pushing.
Also a #78 drill (or the one the instructions say) to clear hose that appear to be jamming…
And a real effort on patience & calmness…
My issue is that my smooth tools fling my parts to never never land when I ‘Mandle’ them too hard.
My new blade cuts the parts real nice, (using a sligh one-way saw stroke).
My issue is loss not breakage.
However, in my early days doing this I accidently cut the parts, until I learned to let the cut through go to the sprue, never at the part itself, but there are times that is not possible…
Hope that helps, like I said, I CANNOT do that at any given time, but for me the psyche & my style gets me there.
Best of luck!!!