First progress shots on kit bashing Accurail 4300 series model into a C&S 13500-13999.
Stripped most of the paint - that was stubborn! Used both 99% alcohol and that purple stuff (can’t recall the name).
Used a new knife blade and single edge razor blade to shave off the ladder and grab irons.
I started cutting the roof off with a 1.25” circular blade in the drill press, moving the car into the blade with the car body resting on a fitted block that helped keep the car body level. I made it from a scrap of plywood about 3” x 8”, and glued on a rectangle of balsa wood to fit tightly inside the shell. Drilled a shallow hole into the plywood base where the bottom of the vertical brake stand protrudes lower than the rest of the shell. The plywood and balsa block worked OK, but I still had to hold the shell down on it with my hands. That’s not ideal around moving cutters! If I was to do it again, I’d clamp a fence of some sort in place rather than guiding the block free-hand. That would control the federate better and be safer as well.
I ran into a problem with the blade melting the plastic rather than clearing chips of plastic saw dust. This accumulated and - after I thought I was nearly through - the blade wandered upward just enough to spoil some roof detail. I could blame the blade, which was flimsy, but I think the whole method was a bit too much for the set up. I switched the blade out for an end mill and cleaned things up that way. I’m planning to add some Yarmouth (Stafford Swain and Dan Kirlin) Hutchins roof panels to replace the original roof.
Not sure if I have the nerve to remove the horizontal angle iron across the mid-height of the door . . . Also, not yet sure I will carve the ladder (or the obviously wrong right ladder stile) off the end.
Rob
