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Stubborn Projects

Marty McGuirk
 

Ever have one of those projects that fights with you all the way? That’s been the case with a certain otherwise non-descript Sunshine Cotton Belt double-sheathed boxcar. I started building it back in October 2001. I remember that since it was my “hotel room” project while I was in Colorado and my family was back in Wisconsin. I remember the underframe didn’t quite fit and took a fair amount of sanding to get it to seat in place inside the bottom. I also remember struggling to get the roof to go on straight and level, and correcting the rather pronounced warp in one of the sides. Getting the basic “box” assembled square and straight was a challenge. But I did it, and put the car in the box and didn’t touch it again for several years. Somewhere along the line I learned the Sunshine directions didn’t give a lot specifics on the brake component arrangement – and I ended up redoing the brake rigging on the car back in 2005 or so, only to put it back in the box again.

In fact I only dug it out of the box a couple of weeks ago. I thought there was still a lot of work to finish it up, but all I had to do was add one lateral, install a pair of grabs to one of the sides, and install the uncoupling levers and brakewheel. Then I washed the car off and set it aside to dry.

Last Saturday I decided to paint the thing. I carefully mixed the paint, tested how it was spraying through my airbrush on a piece of scrap styrene. “Everything looks good” I thought. I placed the car in the spraybooth, aimed the airbrush at the center of the car, pulled the trigger…..and….managed to put a big splotch of paint spatter right in the middle of the side and along one side of the roof.

Perhaps I was out of practice (it's been a few years since I used an airbrush on anything other than track) and made what is frankly a rookie mistake. But maybe this thing is just cursed?

Ever have one project that seemed to have one problem after another?

cj riley <cjriley42@...>
 

back in the '80s I started a Western Maryland Pacific using Bowser components for a NYC loco.
Shortened the boiler, modified the cab, turned a couple of domes from brass rod.

Now, after a move across the country, 3 different houses and a recently relocated train room, it popped up again as I was sorting way too many boxes of stuff.
I might even get back to it one of these years.
 
CJ Riley
Bainbridge Island WA


Tony Thompson
 

Marty McGuirk wrote:

Ever have one of those projects that fights with you all the way? 

      I had an NP box car awhile back that I began to call "the unluckiest freight car." In building it, it seemed like everything that COULD go wrong, did. I had to rescue the model several times during construction. But it did finally get done, and now is as anonymous as any car on the layout.

Tony Thompson             Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705         www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, tony@...
Publishers of books on railroad history
Armand Premo
 


    Funny you should bring that up Marty.I am currently working on a kit that is basically wooden with a resin roof , styrene and metal parts.The instructions call for drilling some 126 holes of various sizes.Dimensions are given in decimals,fractions and scale.Can anyone suggest a common adhesive that will bond all the various materials? Struggling with a kit from hell.Armand Premo

----- Original Message -----
To: STMFC
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 1:02 PM
Subject: [STMFC] Stubborn Projects

 

Ever have one of those projects that fights with you all the way? That’s been the case with a certain otherwise non-descript Sunshine Cotton Belt double-sheathed boxcar. I started building it back in October 2001. I remember that since it was my “hotel room” project while I was in Colorado and my family was back in Wisconsin. I remember the underframe didn’t quite fit and took a fair amount of sanding to get it to seat in place inside the bottom. I also remember struggling to get the roof to go on straight and level, and correcting the rather pronounced warp in one of the sides. Getting the basic “box” assembled square and straight was a challenge. But I did it, and put the car in the box and didn’t touch it again for several years. Somewhere along the line I learned the Sunshine directions didn’t give a lot specifics on the brake component arrangement – and I ended up redoing the brake rigging on the car back in 2005 or so, only to put it back in the box again.

In fact I only dug it out of the box a couple of weeks ago. I thought there was still a lot of work to finish it up, but all I had to do was add one lateral, install a pair of grabs to one of the sides, and install the uncoupling levers and brakewheel. Then I washed the car off and set it aside to dry.

Last Saturday I decided to paint the thing. I carefully mixed the paint, tested how it was spraying through my airbrush on a piece of scrap styrene. “Everything looks good” I thought. I placed the car in the spraybooth, aimed the airbrush at the center of the car, pulled the trigger…..and….managed to put a big splotch of paint spatter right in the middle of the side and along one side of the roof.

Perhaps I was out of practice (it's been a few years since I used an airbrush on anything other than track) and made what is frankly a rookie mistake. But maybe this thing is just cursed?

Ever have one project that seemed to have one problem after another?

Tony Thompson
 

Armand Premo wrote:

    Funny you should bring that up Marty.I am currently working on a kit that is basically wooden with a resin roof , styrene and metal parts.The instructions call for drilling some 126 holes of various sizes.Dimensions are given in decimals,fractions and scale.Can anyone suggest a common adhesive that will bond all the various materials? Struggling with a kit from hell.Armand Premo__._,_.__._,___


      Armand, as I always observe, canopy glue gives me the best results with dissimilar materials like you mention. You can read my comments at:


Tony Thompson             Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705         www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, tony@...
Publishers of books on railroad history
asychis@...
 

Many times, Marty.  Mostly when I run up against a problem scratchbuildng a certain part or a difficult assembly procedure.  However, I find that if I put it away and move on to something else for a week, month or year, when I finally come back, the problem seems less daunting.  Resin kits seem to be the worst.  I have some B&O wagontop boxcars that have been "aging" in the closet for a couple of years. Just have not bee able to get the correct "hang" to the sides.  Hmmm, maybe this weekend while watching Denver?
 
Jerry Michels
Mikebrock
 

Marty McGuirk writes:

"Ever have one project that seemed to have one problem after another?"

Well...one comes to mind. Prototype Rails 2014.

Mike Brock
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