Category Archives: Blog notes

Holiday wishes

Here we are rounding out another year. The Resin Car Works minions thank you for your support and encouragement. May you and your families find peace and joy this holiday season. We are looking forward to the upcoming year with exciting kit releases, blog posts, and RPM events.

As a reminder, Resin Car Works will be shut down until the second week of January. Please be patient if you have sent an order. We will catch up when we restart operations after our holiday break.

In other news, RCW web guy Eric Hansmann is on the move again. I plan to complete a move to metro Philadelphia within the next couple of months. My wife and I are excited for this new adventure! We soon hope to find a basement that includes suitable above ground living quarters.

If all goes according to plan, Frank is retiring in mid-February to spend more time in Florida, create new freight car patterns. and live life. To keep your RCW interest elevated, this will be our first kit issued in the New Year.

Onward!

Holiday wishes

It’s been an exhausting year. The Resin Car Works minions thank you for your support and encouragement. May you and your families find peace and joy this holiday season.

We look forward to a New Year with exciting kit releases and blog posts.

A difficult year

Blog coordinator Eric Hansmann shares a few thoughts this holiday week.

2020 has been a tiring year as we each deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Our usual hobby activities and events have been put into hibernation until the National and Global situation eases.

On top of these alterations to our lives, we are losing friends and family members to the virus and to other health issues. The prototype modeling community was hard hit recently with the passing of three gentlemen who have contributed to our knowledge and skills in their own ways.

Many were shocked when Bill Welch revealed his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in early November. He departed our world within weeks of his announcement. Bill inspired and encouraged modelers with his extreme freight car detail work. He showed us how to harvest rivets from plastic model shells and install those on detail parts to upgrade other models. He helped take the mystery out of using an airbrush. He enjoyed sharing his knowledge of the Fruit Growers Express Company and had compiled two volumes of history that were nearing publication. He was a regular at Railroad Prototype Modeler (RPM) events in Chicago, Cocoa Beach, and St. Louis enjoying discussions with friends and making presentations.

Rob Manley was a regular at the Chicago RPM and CB&Q Historical Society gatherings. He was a member of the Mid-West Mod-U-Trak group, working to set up and staff their stunning HO scale modular layout. Rob introduced many modelers to the wonders of Pan Pastels as another media to use in weathering our models. He often performed real time Pan Pastel weathering demonstrations that convinced many to try this interesting material.

Dick Flock founded the RPM-East event with Larry Kline in the late 1990s. The metro Pittsburgh event was held every other year, alternating with an RPM hosted by a Philadelphia crew. Dick was a spark plug in the NMRA Keystone Division, which encompasses much of western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. He co-chaired the 1990 NMRA Pittsburgh national convention. He’s the one who sparked my interest in HO scale model railroading in the early 1970s, when I was a young pup. It was a thrill to join the RPM-East crew in 2004 to create the event website and marketing plans.

These three prototype modelers recently passed away within a week. Since January 2020, we have also witnessed the departures of Dr. Denny Anspach, Greg Martin, and Jeff Sankus. Each of them had been participants and leaders in RPM events and other groups related to our hobby.

As memories of these hobbyists roll through my mind, I am thankful to have had time with them as I have learned from each interaction. They offered encouragement to try a new technique or perspective that expanded my skills on the path to become a better modeler. Readers who have had interactions with these gentlemen have memories that will inspire their hobby enjoyment.

Pass along what you learn and help fellow hobbyists move forward. It’s one of the best ways to honor those teachers who have departed our mortal station.


Questions and comments can be posted below. Please follow the instructions so your comment can be posted. All comments are reviewed and approved before they appear. To subscribe to this blog, add your email address to the function at the bottom of the right column on the main page. Share the blog link with other model railroaders.

Archer surface detail decals

Bill Welch has created a PDF tutorial to help modelers use the Archer surface detail decals. It’s an eight page PDF with high quality photos to illustrate Bill’s techniques. The lead image shows part of Bills work. The document is available to download on the Resin Car Works blog Helpful Links page. Don’t forget to download the Resin freight car kit primer while you are there.


In other news, Resin Car Works now owns the Sunshinekits.com domain. Jim Hayes created and hosted the original site but he felt it was time for it to move to a new home. Unfortunately, the website structure did not transfer. All the files are at hand but the site is being rebuilt listing the kits by road name in alphabetical order.

Here’s a sample image of a data table for the new site. There will be links to PDF files of the kit flyer and the prototype data sheets. The site will include PDF files listing the kits in kit number order. Many Sunshine kit releases covered a few variations and also different railroad that rostered the same, or similar, prototypes. It took 90 minutes to enter the data for kit numbers 15 through 17.

We hope to have part of the site up and running soon so there will be some documentation available. The RCW minions thank you for your patience in this matter.


Questions and comments can be posted below. Please follow the instructions so your comment can be posted. All comments are reviewed and approved before they appear. To subscribe to this blog, add your email address to the function at the bottom of the right column on the main page. Share the blog link with other model railroaders.