Tag Archives: upgrading plastic

Workbench Wednesday

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Bill Welch (The Xxtreme Modeler) shared images of a recent project. He’s working on an M-K-T War Emergency boxcar. He’s rebuilding the underframe using a Branchline reefer underframe as a starting point.

Styrene rod was installed for the train line with a 3D printed T-connection for the air line connection to the brake valve. The black dots are Archer rivets.

The body is from an Intermountain War Emergency boxcar kit. Bill has been whittling details off of the car body before the roof is glued into place. This will stiffen the box so the floor can be cut out. Eventually, he will shorten the 5/5 Dreadnaught ends.

Photo from the Richard Hendrickson collection.

Bill works from the prototype and is using this image for inspiration. He has not yet decided if the car will be painted boxcar red or Sloan Yellow, which is how they were delivered from the M-K-T shops.

What’s on your workbench?

Rock Island 40-foot Automobile Boxcar

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George Toman shared details on building a Rock Island car from the 161000-161349 car series. The model is inspired by the 2015 Prototype Rails Shake-n-Take project. Here’s George with the details.

When I saw a photo of the Rock Island 40-foot automobile boxcar from the 2015 Prototype Rails I knew that I had to try to build one. The original instructions can be found on the Shake-n-Take discussion group. You must sign up as a member to view and download.

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Workbench Wednesday

Workbench Wednesday

Frank Hodina, chief Resin Car Works minion, has been building a few HO scale plastic freight car models. Here are his notes.

Here’s what I’m working on besides RCW models. I like pre-painted and lettered kits as they save time. Branchline were some of the best as the lettering is as good or better then decals. Upgrades to these models match a prototype or nearly so. The stock car is an old LifeLike Proto2000 kit. The others are Branchline kits. All were picked up at swap meets for about $10 each.

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