I built this car about 2 yrs ago using tenax glue. the car was placed in a cuboard till today I went to look at it and the sides were distorted even my wife noticed it .Has any one else had this problem? rambo1…
could this also be from temprichurechange?rambo1…
IT’s a proto2000 kit also!
I’ve only had this happen a couple of times. The first time was because I used Walther’s Goo. The second time was when I left a model on a window sill on a hot day.
it could be the temp the cuboard is down stairs cold in winter.rambo1…
Never had any rolling stock kits warp & I’ve built my share, some more than 50 years ago. My one guess is that in order to make the slats on the side as close to scale as possible The cross section didn’t have enough strength to withstand the effects of the glue or temp. change. A box car will “never” warp because it is reinforced on all planes, with no weaker side. I have a couple of the kits yet to be built…I’ll see how mine turn out. Jerry
I’m dissapointed with this kit rambo1…
I have dozens, all fine. It just got too hot one day in the cupboard, it doesn’t take long!
I’ve built one about 12 years ago and it went though many movings and different storage locations (damp basement, hot attic, etc.). It never warped. However, as someone stated, these cars are quite frail and lack of rigidity which will cause warping under stress. I would have suggested to brace it from the interior, but if you glued the underframe to the body, it won’t work.
Matt
must have been a heat thing since you used tenax.
one of the posters metioned contact cement or walther’s goo, (about the same thing) those are only good for metal and wood kits in my opinion. any kind of contact cement can cause grief when used on plastic.
years ago when centralia car shops came out with their ICRR cabooses, the little yellow people used contact cement to fasten the steel weights to the floors inside the car bodies. since the windows were glazed, the solvent fumes must have been trapped inside the car and the floors all warped so badly that the couplers were pointing up at an angle. i had to rebuild 6 of them.
i am glad you brought this up since i have several of those stock car kits sitting on the shelf to build. think i will try some discrete cross bracing inside the car bodies when i do.
grizlump
Tenax-7r is not a contact cement but a plastic welder like Pro-weld by Ambroid.
I have 2 of these. They’ve been on my layout for a couple of years now, and they are fine. They don’t get excessive temperature conditions, as the layout is in a temperature-controlled-for-humans room.
I use styrene cement or CA for everything on these kits.
I have about 20 of these cars, some bought RTR, some assembled as kits, over a couple or three year period. No problems in AC here in Florida. My guess: large temp/humidity changes.
Hal
After reading the responses, it seems to be you have condemned a certain car kit as “no good” when most seem to have had good results building them. One person having bad results indicates to me a problem in the construction phase or in the storage of the car, and should not indict the car as a whole. Just my thoughts.
Bob
As do the others I suspect heat is the culprit in this instance although it would have to be pretty extraordinary interior heat to do this (a closed car in the sun in summer can easily create that kind of heat). The only other thing that strikes me is if you had to “force” a part to fit that over time tried to return to its original condition. That is a lesson learned while scratchbuilding structures of styrene – yes the wonderful adhesives we use can be used to force plastic to a certain shape or curve or angle but over time it will fight that and the better route is to use heat to get the shape, curve or angle you want first, and then cement it.
I second the comments about Goo. I foolishly fastened the plastic deck to a P2K flatcar using Goo - I assumed the gas fume buildup would be vented down below – and sure enough the deck formed “bubbles” and had to be carefully removed. I replaced it with a laser cut wood deck that looked better anyway. I have heard of tank cars that cracked due to the pressure when Goo was used to fasten the weight. Tenax and regular plastic should never do this.
Way way back some of the early kits used a plastic more like bakelite than styrene and they would sometimes warp. And a kit i bought with very thin sides for the stock car (Central Valley?) had badly warped sides, again almost certainly due to exposure to heat. Fortunately I bought it cheap at a swap meet for just the frame.
Dave Nelson