Christmas creep

Scratchbuilt model trains are best started well before Christmas.  I don't quite have all of the framing ready to assemble, but it is coming along.  It is fun and I hope my kids enjoy it!

Christmas prep

Christmas will be here in three months. That means that it's time for me to get busy working on my kids' Christmas gift! Last year, I waited too long to get serious about their Colorado central 23 foot flat car.  Accordingly, I did not get the trucks 3-D printed until New Year's.  So with a more ambitious car planned for this year, I decided that I better get started earlier.  This time it is not a Colorado central or south park car, but if you look at the running gear, you might be able to figure out what it will be.  1:20.3 scale again.

Ultrasonic cleaning

I made the plunge and ordered an ultrasonic cleaner.  Yes, you can clean 3d printed parts without it, but I want to reduce the effort.  I also do not plan on using bedtime...there's a fair bit of confusion that the wax makes the parts translucent and that when they are clean, they are I opaque white.  As an engineer, I am completely comfortable stating that this is only half true...the opaque finish is from the bestine attacking the acrylic...the opaque white is akin to putting a million tiny scratches into acrylic sheet...no thank you.

The ultrasonic cleaner should arrive a couple days before my first sets of or&l freight car hardware arrives from Shapeways.

So what is missing?

I believe there are a few pieces of lettering left to apply...going for early 30s style...

Why the 1116?  Because my daughter and I road in the 1116 on the Georgetown Loop!  Today, she's named "Gray's Peak".

The Blogger iPhone app is great...it's eliminated my least favorite blogging task...the hassling with photos...If only I could find out how to rotate the photo...

Paint shop

Here's my slightly modified San Juan boxcar...tweaked to resemble the 4xxx series.  I haven't bothered with all of the lettering correct, as it will be mostly illegible once the car is lettered up for Navy Yard Pearl Harbor.  This may be the only D&RGW car I ever build.

I'm also working on the c&s reefer.  It's Polly scale armour yellow...with peeling paint.  I had an air brush problem which led to an unusually heavy coat by my standards.  I've given it some peeling paint treatment, but no weathering as of yet.

Oct. 2013 was quite a while ago.  I have been modeling, mostly for 3d printing...but some traditional work as well.   After Christmas, I created 1:20.3 scale Colorado Central trucks,1872 D&RG trucks, and D&RG bobber running gear (a la caboose 49 at CRRM).   I printed two sets of each truck and one of the running gear for my kids...they received a 23' CCRR flatcar as a Christmas gift.  

Most recently, I've been working on wrapping up long delayed projects...the C&S reefer is midway through the painting process...the Carter trucks are finally up on Shapeways for sale, the HO version of the way car rg was finished up during the long drive to Coloado three weeks ago...but needs uploaded now.

Currently, I'm thinking about...and working on test prints of freight car hardware and locomotive parts.