Stock car Chronicles, To the paint shop!

Yes indeedy.
Assembly is now complete.
With the addition of the airhoses we are no ready for paint

So that's what a pile of 30 air hoses and brackets look like before they are mounted onto the cars.
I also added retainer lines up the B end made from 0.008" wire as well as brake shafts and cut levers.
The little details that escalate a model from hohum to full tilt boogie.
We'll talk about paint choices later.
Right now I'm going to not think about models for a little while

Stock Car Chronicles, Running Boards

And lets get this part very clear. They are properly called running boards, not roof walks. If you doubt me, read a Car Builders Cyclopedia.
While a straight forward job, running boards can make or break a car model.

They need to be carefully centred in both axis. So careful measuring and checking and rechecking is the watch word here. I tack the running boards to the stand offs at each end and make sure I'm happy with the location before adding CA at every standoff.
I add a length of 1 x 2 styrene to each end to replicate the end cross brace. There is a cast resin bit included, but I feel that that part is far too thick. Some careful marking and fitting results in the running board braces mounted to the car end and the running board.
Most of the cars are being built with a wood sheathed roof. The car history indicates that the NYC reroofed most these cars with a wood roof in the early 50s. Those roofs do not receive a lateral running board, while the metal sheathed roofs did.
It also worth noting at this time, that the wood roofs are a replacement roof offered by Speedwitch Media. This spectacular roof was crafted, board by board, by my friend Bill Welch and it needs to be seen to be fully appreciated.
Supports for lateral running boards can be a trial to create and mount.
I have the advantage of having lots of etched parts lying around, so I used some supports that I had in hand.

I drilled the ends and then drilled holes into the roof edges and pinned the parts in place and then simply glued the laterals in place.
The corner grabs were mounted in advance of securing the laterals and I used my etched eyebolts to support the corner rather than the supplied wire eyebolts.
It's worth noting at this time that Westerfield is no longer including wire eyebolts in their kits. Rather etched eyebolts from Yarmouth Model Works are part of the kits now. A little bit of self praise there.
Not much left now, some B end details, airhoses and cut levers. And then we paint.

And that other large project

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, other things have been worked on in between sessions on the stock cars.
Ta Da

A pair of S scale coaches from MLW Services.
These are mostly brass construction models of coaches owned by CNR, which roamed all over the country at one time.
I'm always intrigued by S scale. It is a nice size, yet sadly doesn't have the product array of other scales. If there was more product out there, I'd be very tempted to switch scales.
I've had a lot of fun operating on Trevor's layout and have spent many an hour just looking at the models. But it's highly unlikely that anyone will release high quality Wabash models in S, so I'll stick to HO.

Stock car Chronicles, Sill Steps

To his credit, when Al Westerfield created the patterns for these cars there were no commercially available sill steps that reflected the style that these cars carried, so Al created sill steps and cast them in resin. And they look very nice.
But they are rather fragile and do not do well on layouts that have ham handed operators.
And they're a royal pain to deflash.

This is where our good friends at Des Plaines Hobbies come in. Some time ago they had these lovely injection molded sill steps created for MDT reefers. And they're a perfect match to the stock car steps.
So rather than struggle with the resin steps I bought a few sets and installed those instead. Theya re Delrin, so will handle the rigours of a layout far better

I know some of you have been worried

That I've been so deep into the stock car project that I might be loosing my mind, just a little.
Have no fear, there are a couple of other projects that have been worked on as well.

This is 3 of four brass reefers I just painted for a client.
They just got boxed and shipped out this afternoon.
Very nice Overland 50' SFRD reefers. The decals were a mix of Sunshine, Champ and some one else I can't recall now. A pleasant diversion from the stock cars. The only real drag was the Champ decals. They were showing their age and cracking as I tried applying them. Liquid decal film came to the rescue, but a few choice words were uttered.
There's another large project finishing up as well. More on that when it's done.

Springfield 2016, not for me.

After careful consideration, I've decided that I will not be attending the Springfield Railroad Hobby Show.
Between the fights with the US border types, an ongoing dispute with Mass tax department and the perils of January weather across upper New York State, I've had enough.
To all of my friends who I usually get to see there, I'm sorry. I will miss seeing you.
Particularly the "Dead Railway Society" and the annual feast of tatonka.
I will focus my traveling budget on RPMs instead.
See you in CT next.

Stock Car Chronicles, Grabirons

Waste not, want not.
That's been the byword for the latest step.
With over 450 grabirons to install, I'm not interested in wasting hardware. Most of the drop grabs supplied by Westerfield are not fully formed.

The drop portion should be fully perpendicular to the mounting shaft, but for years now the drop grabs from Westerfield have been as above. It's easy enough to fix. I just clamp them in a pair of square nose pliers and complete the bend.

Easy. I could have tossed the supplied grabs and used Tichy grabs, but 450 grabs is a lot of hardware to toss.
With the grabs now the desired shape, the holes are drilled and the grabs attached. I use strips of styrene to help maintain consistent spacing from the sides.

The end result.
We're getting closer. I might be painting this coming weekend.