Workbench Wednesday

Workbench Wednesday, ,

Warren tank car kit


Chief Resin Car Works minion Frank Hodina has been busy finishing off one of the new tank car kits. Sales are picking up and additional lettering schemes will be coming soon. Ordering details can be found on the Kits page of the Resin Car Works site.


As with all Resin Car Works kits a page of prototype info is available to assist your efforts in building the models. PDF instructions are also posted as downloadable files. Here’s the extras page for the latest AC&F Type 27, 8,000-gallon, insulated tank car kits.


This color image has surfaced to help you with the light gray color of the tank. There are few color photos of Warren tank cars. Frank recalls the gray as being a shade off of white. YMMV.

What’s on your workbench?

Workbench Wednesday

Workbench Wednesday, Xxtreme Modeler, ,

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?

RPM Chicagoland update

RPM, ,

Planning for RPM events continues through the year. Mike Skibbe sent updates for the 2018 RPM Chicagoland meet. Dates are set for October 18 – 20, 2018. Here are some details Mike shared.

  • Bon French, chairman of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, will be the Thursday evening Banquet speaker.
  • It’s the 25th anniversary of this RPM conference! There will be a special Friends of the Freight Car dinner and celebration with Tricia Lofton as honored guest.
  • The 2018 mini-kit will be a Fruit Growers Express truss rod reefer

Registration is now live, so make plans to attend and bring your models to display!
Here’s the registration link.

Resin Car Works update for the RPM


The Resin Car Works minions have been busy prepping a new release for the 2018 RPM Chicagoland. An HO scale, 50-foot 10-foot 5-inch interior height, Soo automobile boxcar is in the works. These will feature new etched brass ladders from Plano Model Products. Decals and detail parts are in hand. The master patterns are complete and should be cast soon.

These Plano ladders will be available later this summer (2018). If they sell well, additional variations will be added to the Plano line.

Rock Island 40-foot Automobile Boxcar

Models, Techniques, , , ,

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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