Rodger- I use the same process as Bill to get dead even sides. I sand on a
glass palette, the backs of the sides till the surrounding flash is super
thin. This does two things, it get gets the sides back to the approxiate
thickness of the master so the floor has a better chance of fitting and it
smoothes them out for the back to back sizing operation. I lightly sand the
top edge of both sides to smooth them out and to provide the "starting" edge.
Put the sides back to back with the top edges down on the glass palette to
square them up and adjust the ends to get them as equal as possible. With the
tops still down on the glass and holding one of the bottom corners firm,
touch the seam the a pinhead of super thin CA. Repeat at the other corner.
Pick up the sides and make sure everything is square along the top edge. If
so just go around the seam between the two sides and hit it eight or ten
times with a pinhead of CA and your there. Sand or file carefully and slowly,
checking with a metal square that you have good 90 degree corners. When done
just stick a single edge razor blade in the seam where you didn't put CA and
go around the edge. They will cut right loose.
Paul Lyons
Oceanside, CA

I recently finished assembling an Armour and a Swift 36' wood reefer. The
Armour car is a Sunshine "private stock" kit offered at Naperville and
similar to 24.20 but with rebuilt wide tongue in groove ends and reinforced
hatches. The Swift car is a 24.24 kit. Both kits share the same
instructions and data sheets and, typical of Sunshine, contain excellent
prototype info and photos on glossy paper. The instructions are generally
clear and include many detail photos of completed models. The decals are
excellent and made by Rail Graphics for these kits. IMHO, Rail Graphics is
the best and is used extensively by Sunshine and Westerfield.

Both kits are typical flat kits and the casting are sharp, well detailed and
of the usual styrene like gray resin. The flash is nice and thin and cleans
up easily. The sides and ends included all bolt detail and bolts for
locating grabs. As the Armour kit is a modification of kit 24.20 it is
merely that with new extra ends, hatches and special decals. Clearly, the
new ends were made later and this showed up by the new ends being a little
shorter than the original ends. This was fixed by attaching .015 styrene to
the tops of the ends. One side of the Armour car was one scribed board
longer
than the other and the process of squaring up and evening lost some of the
bolt detail on one side. I do this process by attaching the sides back to
back with CA to ensure absolutely even lengths. The Swift car had the same
side length disparity. After assembling the Swift body I realized that I
should have taken more material off the ends of the side as there was
insufficient overhang of the roof at the ends. I usually check for this
before assembly but I got careless. OTOH, removing additional material from
the ends of the sides would only remove more of the detail. Anyway, I fixed
the problem by attaching styrene strip to the ends of the roof to create the
overhang.

The roof is in two pieces joining at the ridge line which is typical of
Sunshine meat reefer kits. This construction offers little structural
integrety so peaked roof supports and a ridge pole are provided in resin.
The best way to assemble these is to attach all of the supports side by side
with CA and lined up with their roof lines. Then they are all sized at the
same time to fit snugly across the width of the body and are thus identical.
The slot in their centers to fit the ridge pole is also sized while they are
attached together. They are then cut apart and installed in the body with
the ridge pole. After the CA is set it is a good idea to lightly pass the
roof support surfaces of a piece of sand paper on a flat surface to insure
that everything is even. Then attach the two roof pieces from the underside
with CA. Having said all of that my preferred method is to discard the
resin support system and use .125 x .250 styrene for the ridge pole, a piece
along the upper edges of each side and a couple of pieces across the width
of the body. This is much easier and quicker but I didn't have any styrene
handy at the time.

Both underframes are one piece castings that include bolsters with rivet
detail, floor stringers and flanged centersills. The modeler has to add
crossbearers. On the Swift car the crossbearer locations were not entirely
clear so I lined them up with the rivets on the side sills. On the Armour
car the crossbearers are a little too short and did not reach the tabs on
the side sill.

Both kits include wire grabs, A-Line steps, styrene ladders (Swift only),
Bowser AB sprue, DA eyebolts and styrene (Armour) or metal (Swift) brake
wheels for the vertical staffs. Brass wire of .015 and .010 diameter is
included but not enough .010 for brake rods which is what I prefer to use so
I always add my own. I also keep .010 x .015 flat brass handy for things
like brake step supports. On the Swift car 24" side grabs are included but
they have to be rebent to 21" to fit the car.

These kits build into great cars and these and others of the Sunshine
meat reefers are favorites of mine.

Regards,
Bill

Bill Darnaby, in a series of welcome reports on the building of
various resin kits, has often mentioned temporarily joining various
pieces with AC cement in order to ensure that they are of identical
dimensions after filing, sanding, etc. to size. The following
comments found in recent reports are typical ...

.... I do this process by attaching the sides back to
back with CA to ensure absolutely even lengths.

The best way to assemble these is to attach all of the supports side

by side

with CA and lined up with their roof lines. Then they are all sized

at the

same time to fit snugly across the width of the body and are thus

identical.

The slot in their centers to fit the ridge pole is also sized while

they are

attached together. They are then cut apart and installed in the body

with

the ridge pole.

Bill, with my luck, and once I have joined the parts with CA, I will
never get them apart again. Is there a special technique for "tack
welding" with CA that will defeat the tendency for capillary action to
ruin the whole show?

Roger Miener
at Tacoma WA

Paul Lyons comes through with the blow by blow and the bottom line is
... yes, Virginia, it is possible to "spot weld" the edges of resin
castings with CA and then later break the joints by using a single
edge razor blade. Thanks, Paul. Now, let's see if I can successfully
practice what I have learned.

Roger Miener
at Tacoma WA

Roger,

Just use the smallest amounts, a small drop really, then the parts can be
easily separated by inserting a razor blade through the joint. Hope that
helps,

Bill