I am about to wash the pieces of Walther’s New River Mining Co. and then spray them aluminum tomorrow when dry.
I looked at the photo on the box and the windows have these tiny frames which are painted black. If I install the windows the way they come in the kit they’ll look kinda not right. Does anyone know how to paint those extremely small frames around the panes of the glass or should I just leave it? Is it even possible to paint such small lines?
I haven’t examined this kit in detail, but … are the window “frames” molded into the “glass”? (I had another Walthers kit in which the windows were like this). Painting with a brush would be a royal pain. Masking and spraying, not much better. One suggestion was to use some kind of roller, which paints the frames, but leaves the “glass” untouched. Another idea might be to use a black marker, and a straightedge, and “paint” them with a marker. A paint marker could be used, I suppose. As a last resort, I’d consider masking each “line” and brush painting, though this could be rather time consuming.
It’s been awhile since I built mine, but I took a peek at it to refresh my memory. The windows have a grove cast in the back that represents the mullion around each pane. Mine look vaguely greenish. I think I simply inked them with a thinline black marker and the ink has since faded to this greenish color. It’s actually rather pleasing.
IIRC, all I did was carefully ink each pane, being careful to let the ink dry and not smear before marking the perpendicular lines on each one.
A roller! Or marker! GREAT ideas, why didn’t I think of that??? I’m gonna go with the marker idea. This really helps, thanks a lot guys, I appreciate it!
Paul, the way I painted mine was first I put black paint of a piece of cork roadbed. After it soaked up a little I laid the window on it so the paint got on the frame.
Might look at a ink pad, jut don’t press down hard, you get paint on the glass.
Back when I ‘minefanned’ a working tanko in Fukuoka-ken, a half century or so ago, the glass in all the windows was all but opaque from clinging coal dust, mostly inside but some outside. Here and there were little spots where somebody had wiped a pane or two to let a little light in - possibly to get illumination while making a repair.
There really is a LOT of coal dust all over a working mine - on the buildings, the ground and the people…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with collieries)
Paul, I used a Sharpie Fine Point. I used it on the raised outside part of frame. I didn’t fill in any of the panes, although I could still do that. Also, a lot of folks that modeled this building opened several of the windows.
Chuck, What can I say, I like clean windows. Actually, I will probably be doing a lot more weathering to all of my structures and rolling stock. I’m sure they won’t stay that clean.
The tip is about 3/8" x 1/2" and I just pressed the marker down on the raised parts of the glass (the Wathers Engine house and Car Shows had that type of Glass
It was easy to drag the Marker across the raised plastic!
And on the Coal Tipples - I always scratch the back of the clear plastic window glass with find sandpaper and then take the same Magic Markers and blacken in all of the window to give the darker look that most all Tipples have (due to the Coal Dust)!
I use the black windows on most all of my industrial building flats so that you can not see through the glass and see the wall behind the building flat!
I have no idea where item number 46 (8 of 'em) go. The directions are vague. They look like metal triangles. Also, where and how do the ladders attach? Can anyone send photos? If needed I can scan in the section of the directions in question. I wish Walthers had been a little more detailed in their directions like say a model car or plane.
The little triangular pieces go at the top of the support legs as can be seen in my picture below. Look just above the two hopper cars. I too had difficulty figuring out where these went, as they are not shown on the picture on the box. The ladders just get glued to a little ridge below each of the two doors.
Today I painted the doors on the mining company and started building the bottom support structure. But it’s gonna be a pain keeping the walls aligned at a 90 degree. So far it’s coming out nicely.
And, yes, that is the wye but I hate the code 100. No one on Earth sells a code 83 three way WYE and I have no idea why. So I bought some of those 83-100 joiners which work well if you bend them down a little with pliers. I could also do as Pelle Soeberg does, he crushes one half of the joiner then solders the rail to the flattened one.
