Tag Archives: details

Frank’s Models, pt 1

Resin Car Works Chief Frank Hodina was recently trackside and grabbed a batch of photos to share on the blog. Here are his notes. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

I hadn’t taken any model photos recently and thought I should document some of my HO scale fleet on a sceniced portion of the layout. I had installed new LED lights on a portion of the layout and I wanted to see how these look under 6500 Kelvin lights. We lead off with Illinois Central 8976, an old, out-of-the-box Life-Like P2K GP-7. Extras details include MU receptacles, speed recorder, air lines to the truck brake cylinders, a new brass horn, cloth sunshades, and Chet French positioned as the engineer. Chet’s a longtime friend and a retired IC engineer. Chet also knows just about everything and anything you could want to know about the IC.

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Semet-Solvay Type 27 10K gallon tank car

Jim Kubanick sent details on his latest HO Scale freight car kit build. Here’s Jim with the scoop.

Well, I’m back to building another tank car. Semet-Solvay 3106 is a Yarmouth Model Works kit modeling a Type 27, 10,000-gallon tank car built by ACF in 1938 to transport industrial solvents. The platform surrounding the large expansion dome is unusual for this type of car and this makes it a very interesting model, in my opinion.

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Upgrading a Western Pacific 50-foot Automobile Box Car

Pete Hall has been busy working through a few projects. Here’s his update on a pair of HO scale Western Pacific automobile box cars.

I had two 50-foot MDC/Roundhouse single-sheathed automobile box cars with end doors that were lettered for Southern Pacific, but the bracing was wrong. They languished in a drawer until Frank Hodina sent me reprints of some old articles about this car. These cars can be made into very good models of Western Pacific (and others) 40000-series prototypes with some work. I owe a debt of gratitude to Frank and to those who have published articles on this process before me. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

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CB&Q GS-7 & GS-8 gondola details

Lester Breuer sent tips on detail additions for the HO scale CB&Q resin gondola kits. We also get a peek at his paint booth. Here’s Lester with more.

After taking a break from building resin models I returned to build two CB&Q gondolas, a class GS-7, number 75709, and a class GS-8, number 79784. The gondolas are RH Models resin kits produced by Jerry Hamsmith and Ed Rethwisch . The kit instructions are very well done and easy to follow. The prototype data and table listing each of the GS series and truck types can be found in Nelson Moyer’s RCW blog post. Therefore, I will only discuss several changes I made and the paint and decal process I used to complete my gondolas.

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