I just got two gondolas that I plan to use in a small scrap yard scene.
Whats the best (and cheapest) way of making a detailed scrap load?
Thank you for the replies in advance.
I make removeable coal loads, using a piece of extruded foam that just fits into the car. I think the same would work for the base of a scrap load. Put a piece of cling wrap over the car to protect it from cauld and paint and push the foam into place. Coat the foam with latex caulk and paint it a color that looks like dark rust. Put a piece of steel (a 3/8 steel washer works well) in the center to give you a magnetic point that you can touch with an extendable retrieving magnet from your local auto parts dealer. Into the rest of the caulk put pieces of aluminum foil, bits of rail, broken wheel sets, bits of wire, small springs, car parts, most anything that looks like some sort of scrap metal. You can “rust” these before attaching them so that they aren’t all the same color.
Good luck,
I just did a search here for “scap loads”. [(-D] It came back with 4,308 items… so this will be 4,309. [:-,]
Let’s tryto vary the theme a bit though…
We’ve had one system of drop in load described… just please give that some variety in height and/or depth.
If you go with the “random bits of junk” theme please put some holes in the load. Scrap oddments are (usually) dumped in by a front loader or overhead crane with a grab or a magnet. Only swarf and uniform scrap (some of it munched) loads from a conveyor like coal… and doesn’t make a very exciting or suitable load for a small scrap yard. Plus a lot of it is likely to have paint on at least one side and shiny bits where it has been cut/shredded.
If you go with a removeable load please think about what the gons will look like when running empty - which raises the question of whether they are fetching scrap in or taking it out… “Empty” gons almost always have something in the bottom of them… even if it is only water - possibly oily.
[I wonder how much water gets shipped around in gons]?
For most scrap carrying gons the floor - at least - should be pretty battered. There’s likely to be stuff left in there - odd (small) bits of metal, bits of wood, paper… an empty gon is a great way of disposing of the odd household/depot bag of trash… or a matress tipped off a bridge when no-one is looking. (Done the bag of trash - not the mattress).
How about some non-rusty high value scrap for a change? Some of the items will tell you how to shred cooking foil to make cubes of alluminum scrap. How about cutting up an alluminum pressure vessel though? (Worked at a pressure vessel factory last week…). Big chunks of vessel would be almost impossible to thieve but would also
You could recycle your washed aluminium foil or foil chocolate wrapper. Roll your foil into tight balls about 1/2" or so diameter then take a pair of slip joint pliers and using the jaws mould them into cubes.
Being Scrap metal, they would be discoloured so paint them with a rusty orange/brown colour. A number of cubes and you therefore have a load of scrap metal for your two gondolas… and you can enjoy your way on two fronts to make them!
Take a sheet of aluminum foil. Spray it with blothes of spray paint, primer red, black and any other colors you feel like. Let it dry well.
Put a couple cups of water into a blender, rip the foil into chunks and put it in the blender. Blend it. Dump the foil out and let it dry.
Use foam to make inserts for gondola loads or piles. Paint them rust color with craft paints. Cover them with white glue. Liberally sprinkle the shredded foil over the piles. let dry and vacuum or shake off the excess.
DANGER aluminum foil is conductive so don’t pile it over tracks or let it get into electrical stuff or it will short them out.
Food for thought.
Here’s some odd ball scrap I seen in gons while railfaning.
Scrap pup trailers…These really looked odd turn upside down with the stand sticking up.The tires had been removed.
Iron scrap…This was fine powder foundry scrap from milling operations.
Old semi or straight truck cabs…There was no glass in the windows,horns or mirrors.This was a first for me…I never seen a load like that before.The cabs was the COE type and seem to be in decent shape-maybe going to a rebuilder? Sadly I was caught flat footed and was unable to take a picture.
Old steel light poles…Another first.
Old tires…
For cheap scrap I used my old plastic wheels sets and left over rails from laying track. Better than throwing the stuff away.
Cuda Ken
I use leftover sprues, wheels, coupler shims, springs and whatever else is laying around the workbench. I cut a plate that fits in the floor of the gon, then build up layers of junk using clear acrylic matte medium. When it’s all together, I hit it with a base coat of flat black, then go over it with washes of rust, grime and a little bit of color.
Lee
I want to thank everyone for the replies. I will give everyone of those suggestions some thought. I might try the blender method.
Do you think this is the right tool for the job?
That tool certainly has great educational value for the guy’s grandkids! [swg] But those metal fragments may do bad things if they get inside a motor. So I used a hand-cranked pencil sharpener (like the kind you find in school classrooms) and emptied out the shavings. Since these pencils were made of a reddish-colored wood, that resembled rust; a few sprays of Testors silver, stir them around and it looks look shredded metal:
Blender is a great tool for several things. HOWEVER, don’t use the wife’s, pick one up at a yard sale, they are cheap and do the job just fine. Do heed the information on taking care not to get tin foil or any other metal bits into your locos.
Have fun,
OK. I’ll throw-in my half-a-cent’s worth here.
This is a series of scrap loads I made from a Central Valley truss bridge kit that didn’t go together quite so well 22 years ago…
The loads are removable. I cut a thin piece of styrene painted to match the car and weathered. The bridge parts were hacked up and dropped onto the styrene. Copious amounts of liquid plastic cement secured the pieces. I kept finding “torch cuts” that I’d forgotten to go back and hit with a light rust color to contrast with the weathered black and deep rust of the bridge parts.
They may not be “perfect,” but I like 'em just fine.
Chris[8]
I followed the idea of using sprues and other unused parts - I glued the pieces together in a shape and size that would fit into a gondola, painted the result a rust color and looks good. Since the parts were glued together I can easily remove the entire load to store and then reuse by simply placing it back into the gondola.