Hi!
I’m working on kitbashing a couple of Canadian Pacific “shorty” cabooses out of a couple of Athearn Standard (Cupola) Cabeese. Can’t remember where I saw the article. ANYwho: I’ve got the body shells cut. Can anyone tell me how best to “square up” the cuts before mating the two parts into one?
Thanks!
Jack.
I use a method that I seen on a video of how to properly assemble a DPM building, and make sure any cut edges are square, I used spray glue to fasten down a sheet of fine grit sand paper to a flat piece of wood, like plywood, or anything that will stay flat, hold the piece against a square or a block that you know is square, or by holding the piece with even pressure, and using the eyeball method, and lightly sand, until the pieces fit together to your satisfaction. I also use this for other building projects. Seems to work OK.
Mike.
Mike has pretty-well covered it, but it also helps to make the original cuts as square as possible, and it’s easier to do so by making three separate cuts, one for each side, then one across the roof. If you’re planning to shorten and re-use the original floor and underframe, make the cuts so that the joint on the shortened frame doesn’t align with the one on the shortened floor, and that neither align with the splice on the carbody. Use solvent-type cement to re-join the parts, and add styrene splice plates to strengthen the joints. If you’re careful with the sanding process, there should be no need for filler putty.
The easiest way to align the parts as you re-assemble them is to cement the splice plates to one section first and allow those joints to set fully before proceeding. Apply the solvent cement to all mating surfaces and re-coat if the surfaces dry-out before you can assemble the parts. If material oozes from the joints, don’t touch it until it has fully hardened. A sharp #17 or #19 blade will remove any excess, and there should be no gap left at the seams, as the softened mating surfaces will have provided any needed filler material.
I recently rebuilt four Tyco wooden reefers, originally setting out merely to replace their sagging floors. Early into that simple project, I decided to replace the steel ends with wood ones, and then figured why not replace the roof, too, with its cast-in-place roof walk. The whole project, as usual, seemed to take on a life of its own, and the abridged version is shown below in photos.
One of the original cars, slightly modified with body-mounted couplers, and metal grabirons and steps:
Shortening the car:
Astounding and inpirational work, as usual, Wayne. Just got 3 TM double-sheathed boxcars for (hopefully) similar treatment.
Mike
Thanks for you kind comments, Mike. [:$]
The old Train Miniature cars are among my favourites. [tup]
Here’s a couple of reworked doublesheathed cars:
Wayne
This is old school but,it still works…I use a fine jewelers file for smoothing edges…