Thursday, March 1st, 2007
So I begin again. Cutting, gluing, fitting little pieces of basswood. The last time I made a logcar was prior to my purchasing these nifty books that have the cars drawn to scale. These books are fantastic and very informative. I see my best guess as to how this car is made were a little off, so I am adjusting my design from last time to be more accurate. Essentially, the car was right, just a few items need adjusting.
And there will be numerous details added that were simply omitted in the previous version. This version will have a better paint job in terms of color and application of paint, it will have brakes and wheel journals, and it will have a car number - Kkp 7352.
…is progressing nicely. It is belly-up in the photo. And it is ready for “dirt” to be painted on.
As you can see, the underside structure is flat and not sloped at the ends like the boxcar under-side structure. The logcar [Wagen für Stammholz] is supposed to be this way according to my book and upon closer examination of logcar photos. I had previously not given it much thought and had assumed it would be the same as the boxcar undersides. […]
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
Today was a difficult day artistically. It was totally gorgeous outside around noon and I had to go outside and walk in the warmth and sunshine. Then after that, I had the distraction of doing four loads of laundry, calling Mom, etc. So, I didn’t really sit down and start doing any actual work today until about 7.30p. I think part of that is because sometimes it is hard to sit down and work knowing that your next task is difficult. […]
Wednesday, March 7th, 2007
The couplers are Kadee #714 couplers. When I first started making model train cars, I had no idea what to use for couplers. Some general reading around the web suggested using Kadee couplers and that folks liked the #714 couplers for converting their Bemo plastic models. Apparently folks don’t like the couplers that Bemo uses on their plastic model cars. So, I bought a bunch of these couplers for my train cars. It didn’t make much logical sense, but I’ve always been happy with them. […]
Wheel parts, that is. I am continuing to make the trucks (sic) out of basswood and using a styrene (plastic) tube to hold the axle in place while letting it rotate. I’ve not made significant changes to this design, though I have steadily improved the neatness of the craftmanship. It is not the ultimate solution, but it is a solution that I like. It is also a sturdy solution, and it is easy to be exact regarding how high the couplers end up being - which is critical for the train cars to link together.
The photos shows the logcar belly-up with the wheels and the euro-cents positioned, but not glued. You can see from the drawing that it is on top of, that there are supposed to be some things stuck to the underside of the car. I am thinking about modeling those items, but I don’t think adding them will work with having the euro-cents stuck to the bottom of the car. The euro-cents add weight, which the cars needs, but can be omitted — and the NMRA judges don’t like the coins. So, I’m in a quandary regarding the coins.
I decided to omit the coins and have glued the wheels on. I think this is the right decision for this car in general. There is no place to hide coins on this car, whereas most cars do/will have places to hide coins. By omitting the coins, I set the wheels closer together, which is more correct for the vehicle. I plan to attempt the stuff on the underside - I think this will be a good decision - hopefully resulting in the car scoring better with the NMRA judges. I will make future logcars that don’t need to meet NMRA judges critics.
This car is off to a good start.
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
I tried to add some idea of stuff for the underside based on what little info the drawings provides. I’ve never found any photos that show this stuff….so here is my attempt. In general, it adds detail to the car, but it isn’t very convincing.
Thursday, March 15th, 2007
I’m still not convinced about the underside stuff. I have no idea what it should look like. I really just want it to add to the general appearance of the car - so I don’t feel strongly that it needs to be super-detailed. Overall, the items that I added don’t really add much to the cars profile. I could add some more details, but if the original items are too small, then more details don’t really fix the problem. […]
I’m letting the underside stuff gel in my brain for a bit. Meanwhile, I’m working on the brakes [Bremsen]. They are made in three pieces for each brake, the wooden parts shown above. Each brake gets two of these held together with a skinny strip of bristol board. The wooden parts are cut from basswood. I painted the stick of basswood prior to chopping it up at 45 degree angles. It doesn’t really do much good to paint them in advance, but it does make the sides look different from the edges. […]
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
The brakes that I made for the boxcar didn’t fit too well. This time I am playing around with the length of the skinny strip that connects the two wood pieces of the brakes to make the brakes fit correctly around the wheel. The photo shows my third attempt at this. Each attempt has been an improvement, and this attempt fits pretty good.
This skinny piece is made from bristol board. I tried painting it first, but the glue doesn’t stick as well to the paint as it does to the plain bristol board. So, the next attempts have been unpainted. I’ve been using the carpenter’s wood glue, but I think I will use the contact cement for a slightly stronger bond. The surface area is very small, and I’d prefer to not be spending my life fixing brakes that fell off. […]
I finally got the brakes made and glued onto the logcar [Wagen für Stammholz]. Adding the brakes to this car was harder than the boxcar because the undercarriage is narrower, so there is less space to wriggle them into position. They came out fitting better, though they seem a little high in relation to the wheel. So, the measurements will need a smidge more tweaking on the next car. […]
Saturday, March 24th, 2007
I took a short break and played around with mixing paint colors for what might be the car I make after I finish the logcar. This is a gravel car [Kiesgutwagen - I think]. I’ve worked out the basic design construction for it, but am still pondering the details. The photo is from http://www.polier.ch/
The paint colors are the Holbein acryla gouache paints. I plan to get another one of those rubber stamps made - this time for the text on the side - so I needed to paint the sides with the gouache paints. The stamp ink doesn’t dry on the acrylic paint because it isn’t porous enough. […]
I’m working on the wheel journals for the logcar [Wagen für Stammholz]. I liked the design that I used for the journals on the last boxcar (Gb 5091) [Güterwagen], but they don’t fit on the logcar because the undercarriage of the logcar is quite a bit narrower.
The boxcar journals had three layers of bristol board layered together, then a thin piece of “2×12″ basswood lumber, then a round bit of styrene plastic. The three layers of bristol board won’t fit in the reduced space, so it has to be one layer of bristol board (which doesn’t really fit, either). […]
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
The journals are progressing slowly. By trying each one on different wheels, I found that they each fit somewhere nicely. In the photo, you can see the journals showing the holes for the pointy end of the wheel axles. The bristol board is still white, and the basswood piece is painted brown. Each journal gets an end piece - the little brown bumps in the background of the photo. Next, I will glue on each plastic piece, then paint the journals entirely brown, then glue each into place. Since it is important that each journal go in its current location, I will do each one in turn.
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
And I am sitting here reflecting on design changes for them for the next train car already! I’m also contemplating tweaks for the brakes for the next car. Somehow, I’ve progressed from struggling to make the brakes and wheel journals at all, to making tiny detail improvements to their designs.
Sometimes I wonder what I’ll accomplish as an artist making these little cars. When I first started, I didn’t think about making them realistic - I started at a design stand-point of ‘they’re cute’. Then I progressed towards realistic - a slow steady journey that continues on. […]
Thursday, March 29th, 2007
I started drilling the holes for the front steps to be attached. Unlike the boxcar, where these holes are drilled straight in, the logcar design has the holes drilled at a 45-degree angle. Drilling at a 45-degree angle isn’t so easy. I got two of the holes drilled and it sort of looks like a vampire bit my logcar.
Ok, I photoshopped in the red.
Saturday, March 31st, 2007
Drilling holes is always a challenge. I’m using a tiny pin vise (which is a drill for drilling very small holes and you twist it manually) and I have no method to ensure that I hold the drill straight up and down. To add to that, the tool itself doesn’t always seem to hold the drill bit straight. I may have to try and get a better one of these things. The end result, is that after drilling the holes for the vertical pieces in the front railing, you stick the metal pieces in the holes and the pieces aren’t straight up and down. […]