Category Archives: Models

Resin Car Works new kit!

Models, New Kit,

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Resin Car Works announces a new kit to kick off their Scene Setters line focused on once common elements that weren’t far from the tracks. These simple kits can enhance a scene on your model railroad. The first Scene Setter kit represents an iconic Midwest structure, a round corrugated metal grain bin.

The prototypes began with a government grain storage program in the 1930s and thousands of these grain bins were installed in towns across the Midwest.

The Resin Car Works HO scale model is a one piece resin casting and will only need to be painted before it is set into a scene on your railroad. Four grain bins are included for only $36, plus postage and handling. Check out some completed model photographs and review the kit instructions on our website.

Resin Car Works has several of the acid tank car kits in stock, but supplies are getting very low. A new freight car kit is also nearing completion. We hope to share more news very soon on this exciting HO scale model.

Building resin kits on this side of the pond

Models, Resin Freight Cars, Techniques, ,
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A Southern Pacific B50-15 box car produced by Sunshine Models.

Paul Doggett has been sharing images of his completed resin freight car builds on Facebook and the resinfreightcars YahooGroup. We asked him for a little background on his inspiration and work, since he lives across the Atlantic Ocean. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

You can blame Ian Clasper for my models. I met Ian at a British NMRA meet. He arrived at the carpark on a rather nice Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle which we got talking about. Then he opened his top box and produced Kadee product boxes but not with their PS1 cars. Ian had rather exquisite resin box cars, mainly Sunshine Models, in these Kadee boxes. That really got me interested. I arranged with Ian or Barry Bennett to collect six kits from Martin Lofton, which he had kindly agreed to take to Napierville or an NMRA convention, and Ian or Barry collected them for me.

Continue reading Building resin kits on this side of the pond →

A Weathering Rookie Tries PanPastels & Colored Pencils

Models, Techniques, Weathering, ,

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Bill Welch returns to the RCW blog with a beginner perspective on Pan Pastels for weathering freight cars.

I thought I would describe my first weathering experience primarily using PanPastels (PP) with a little assist from Prismacolor Colored pencils. The subject model was built 19 to 20 years ago from a Funaro & Camerlengo kit, probably purchased from The RPI Hobby Shop in Troy, NY. I used a photo from “The Bob Charles Collection” at the NMRA Library to guide me in detailing and decaling. It is painted with Accuflex paint using my Binks “Wren” airbrush. The decals I am pretty sure are Champ and I very likely pieced together the Dimensional Data with individual numbers to match this car. Continue reading A Weathering Rookie Tries PanPastels & Colored Pencils →

Storzek Soo Line boxcar converted to a NOT&M boxcar

Models, Resin Freight Cars, ,

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Charlie Duckworth returns with another interesting build summery.

History
In 1921, American Car & Foundry (AC&F) built 500 single sheathed boxcars for the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Railroad. These cars had peaked roofs and wood ends with steel bracing. The Missouri Pacific added these cars to their boxcar fleet when they acquired the Gulf Coast Lines railroads in January 1925. The cars were repainted into the parent company’s standard with the revised ‘Mopac buzz saw’ (the revision being the addition of ‘Lines’ to the logo) now appearing on the sides of the newly acquired GCL and I-GN equipment for the first time.

Although the cars only had 8-foot high interiors, they lasted quite a long time with 451 still on the roster in 1948. Due to a shortage of cabooses on the Mopac during WW2, 90 of these boxcars were converted to war emergency cabooses with personnel doors and windows added to the carbody. After the war, many of these cabooses were transferred to maintenance of way service.

Continue reading Storzek Soo Line boxcar converted to a NOT&M boxcar →