George Toman kicks off the New Year with a neat kit for a flat car load. Here’s George with the story.

I have always liked flatcars carrying heavy equipment and various loads. After seeing pictures of Artitec’s Caterpillar D7 Bulldozer I knew I had to add it to my roster. This is a resin model of a Cat D7 which was first manufactured in 1938 by Caterpillar Inc. I am not sure of the exact version of this model as there were variations offered such as a D7, D7C and D7D, but they were all similar in appearance with differences being in horsepower and options.

This resin model is offered in kit and built-up. I choose the kit version for about $18.00 (US). The built and painted weathered version is closer to $45.00. I took a few photos and notes as I built and painted my models.

I have left the blades off as I have not built my Speedwitch Media resin Northern Pacific flat car yet. I think I will model with the blade off and installed on wood cribbing. Artitec Models can be purchased direct or from a dealer. I purchased mine from Reynauld’s here in the US.

Here are the Cat D7 parts right out of the box. The upper one remains on the sprues. Also pictured are the nicely done Photo Etched Parts. A #11 Xacto Blade was used to lightly score the main parts to easily bend and break from the sprues. A couple of light passes with the blade on both sides helped make a clean break.

The dozer blades were a bit rough on the bottoms, so a little bit of plastic putty was used to fill in the voids.

After cleaning the parts of minimal flash, I taped then to my paint booth turntable. Stynylrez Neutral Yellow primer was sprayed for my base coat. This worked out very well for my base being a lighter shade of what I used for Cat yellow. A Grex airbrush with a 0.5-mm needle was used.

The Cat yellow was sprayed next. I used a mixture of 95% Vallejo Model Air Yellow 71.078 and 5% of 71.083 Orange. Note the only small parts to assemble are the air filter assembly and what I believe is the photo etched tow bar to the main frame.

In the photo above I have used CA to attach the tracks to the body as well as the winch assembly. I also installed the two foot pedals on the floor and the air filter.

My next step was to hand paint the seat and arm rests using a 5/0 red sable brush and Vallejo Model Color Black 70.950. I also painted the control handles on the photo etched parts fret. After the paint was dry I cut the controls from the fret and used CA to attach into the #78 holes drilled for these parts. I followed the instructions on placement. The front and rear lights were hand painted using a silver color Vallejo Model Color 70.997. The two Cat D7’s are now ready to be loaded. The blades and lift pulleys will not be installed on my models until after I determine proper mounting on the NP flat car. I found a nice prototype image to inspire the Cat D7 load.

This was a fun and quick project that was not difficult to build. I will probably leave these unweathered. The only disappointment with these kits is the lack of Cat decals. I may use some N Scale lettering to at least put on the D7 on the sides.

George Toman

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Thank you George for the flat car load inspiration!

FYI, Frank Hodina will be attending the upcoming Prototype Rails RPM event in Cocoa Beach, Florida. There is a possibility he will have a new Resin Car Works kit for sale.

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