I'm sure there are fortunes to be made by anybody building freight car models ;) Is it Westerfield that has the fleet of gold-plated Rolls-Royces? Certainly for the small market STMFC represents, the

If you have to manually paint them, I'd be tempted to make a template and paint them with a slightly thick paint. I have painted on details with acrylics, painful! Jim

Some of us don't bathe that often either ;) But On30 is not on topic... <SNIP> I think the classic example of that is the Rensselaer Model Railroad club where they bought cars they knew were not perfe

I seem to remember this article as an outstanding example of styrene scratchbuilding. Notable for MR since recently they have published so few. Recommended for anyone who wants to build something like

Yep, film can't even reproduce some of the colors you see and neither can print colors just a messy subject all around. Jim

Maybe that's true for them. The old MDC, etc. kits weren't anything really special. Though I've built up some of the Grandt Line kits. They are special.... Hmm, I'm weird, I've built up most of mine..

I've had very good luck with a Dremel drill press attachment and their small chuck accessory. This might be luck, but the chuck was made in Germany, so might be less luck than normal. It's more sensit

Try cabinet door magnets with a flat steel work surface and some angle plates. Fairly cheap and works well, you can also throw in some odd pieces of angle iron. Jim Eckman

I have a simple incline track that I use to test cars and locomotives that can be set to different grades. It can be set between .1 and 8%. I recommend that your cars roll down inclines of 1% while th

This is a great article, thanks! The vendor and brand information is very useful. Jim Eckman

Since the STMFC list officially runs from 1900-1960, one has to take into account changes in paint and practices over the decades. I've seen a fair number of early pictures (late 19th-early 20th) with

Wouldn't that make a great scene! Thanks, Jim

Naked freight cars! How neat. Probably one of the few groups who will like it. Jim Eckman

Titebond3! Works for me. Jim Eckman

The cheaters way.... Pick a location and period you like to model and try and find a photo of a nearby yard if possible. Buy only the cars in the photo ;) Jim Eckman

This may not be the best example since Microsoft has been convicted several times for illegal business practices. I did try googling several variations on "ajax company" brake antitrust case without s

For something this small, you could easily paint this detail if you wanted a few to show for weathering purposes. I've done this trick by painting a black dot followed by a smaller color dot over the

Thank you for the vivid description. Very interesting! Jim Eckman

I believe these kits were also arrange to easily fit in standard size wagons as well, make a great team track diorama! Did they really require two boxcars? I know Sears worked very hard to fit everyth

I don't know, the research material is so expensive, maybe someone can buy one and report back to the group ;) Jim