Such a week I've had!

Looking at the last 6 or so postings, it's been quite a week.
A couple of new products, some large jobs completed, and an argument of sorts with Yahoo Groups.
Time for some me time.
I played around yesterday afternoon with some scenery effects and I very pleased.

First was wild flower blossoms in the long grass east of Jarvis. I used a few of the colours from Scenic Express and very lightly scattered them on top of the static grass. I had sprayed cheap hair spry before hand for adhesive and it's holding rather well.

Feeling emboldened, I tried another idea I had. There was a bit of an ugly line under the RoW fence so I hid it with some tufts of Poly Fiber and some red blossoms. I think it works.
The row of generic shrubbery along the backdrop needs to be extended more to the left, I know. Maybe tomorrow.

Then it was tree planting time. My favorite, Super Trees. And here I tried another new thing for me. Behind the tree line, I tried a technique from Lance Mindheim. I used strips of a sanding medium, Mirlon, to add depth to the tree stand and soften the edge. I really like the effect.
Now to add RoW fences and telegraph poles and add the final ballast on this stretch of main.
I'm thinking tomorrow will be a scenery day after I get back from the post office.

12 more

If you've been following this blog, you might recall this posting, http://elgincarshops.blogspot.ca/2013/08/can-you-say-unit-train.html.
Well today the other 12 got packed and will be in tomorrows mail.

There were some trials building these cars, I don't mind saying but I'm certainly ready should anymore come my way.
24 coal gons! That will make for an impressive train.

Another first

I just finished building an HO Mullett River caboose kit.

While I've built a few of his O scale caboose kits, this was the first HO kit I've done.
The kit is every bit as good as the O scale offerings. Just not all the detail that one can have easily in O scale.
The laser cut plywood makes for a very solid and stable car body and everything goes together just like it should. Looking forward to doing more of these.

A slighty different kind of job

Recently I was contacted to create a piece of promotional material for a grain handler in the Mid-West.
They wanted models of their leased 67' Trinity hoppers with the addition of the logo and the full name on the side.
Fortune was on our side.
Walthers have a large array of Trinity hoppers available. I chose a style that had minimal lettering to remove and ordered 6.

With the cars in hand, I lightly sanded the factory lettering down and painted over the affected areas. This is where having a wife with a good eye comes in handy. We had gone to the local military modeling shop and chose a grey that matched the factory paint job. Gotta love Model Masters paint!
With the cars painted I applied the custom decals I had created by a friend.
Ta Da!

I'm very pleased with the end result and I expect the client will be as well.
BTW, 67' covered hoppers are huge!

More data on the ACF Type 3 covered hopper roof

A full description of the AC&F 1958 cu ft covered hoppers is available in the RP Cyc #27.
The version we are offering is on a "Murphy" style roof.
Over 950 were built for 13 different railroads. Some had the open side configuration and some the closed side option.
The roads using this car were,  ATSF, CIL, D&RGW, DMIR, DPCX, EJ&E, GN, I-GN, LS&BC, M-I, M-K-T, MP.
And it appears the CB&Q built a version in their shops which was very similar to this car.

 Built in the CB&Q Havelok shops I believe.

How about a sneak preview?

These are the first samples of our new etched running boards.

from top to bottom,
Apex,
US Gypsum,
Morton,
The first 2 etched running boards are 0.012" thick, closer to scale thickness and the Morton is 0.015" thick. The detail is as close to scale as the etching process will allow, in fact we managed to bend the "rules" for etching with these running boards.
Brake steps will also be part of the parts we'll be offering.
I suspect that initially the running boards will be offered in some boxcars we're working on, but they will be available separately eventually. Something for you to look forward to.

And the casting elves are catching up,

I now have a few of the ACF covered hopper roof mini-kits available to ship.

And will have more after Christmas.
The mini-kits will sell for $15.00 USD ea. Contact me for postal rates. With the hullabaloo at Canada Post these days, it's tricky to predict their rates.