dknelson ...maybe foil impressed into a regular end casting could come close, but was wondering about durability....
That was one of my concerns with the gondolas, along with finding a suitable method to fix the foil versions in place. Naturally, the inside of the built-up styrene version lacks interior ribs, as adding small half-round strips to represent the inside of the narrow depressions on the exterior would lack depth, so I didn't bother...
mbinsewi...I was going to try the foil technique to make battered and dented gondola sides.....
The foil could work if you're scratchbuilding the gondola or cutting out the original styrene panels between the ribs, and replacing them with foil, but it's easier to do using a soldering iron.
For my first attempts, I simply pressed the hot iron against the interior of the car and pushed gently until it formed a bulge on the exterior. Naturally, it was also messy and created quite a stink, too.Later, I learned that the soldering iron should be used only to heat and soften the plastic, and that it was better to use a more suitable tool, usually something rounded, to create the bulges.
Here's a re-painted Proto gondola, done with a 200 watt iron and the handle-end of a small screwdriver...
I dug-out this old Athearn Blue Box gondola, done with only the soldering iron (and not much knowledge or skill)....
...while some of the bulges are okay (We are two wild and crazy guys!), there's too much damage to the top chords of the sides, and to some of the vertical bracing, too.The inside of the car, while somewhat reflecting the bulged-out areas, also shows obvious signs of melting....
Even if the damaged top chords were done by dropped hot ingots (I've witnessed many mill gons - non-interchange cars - with severely-damaged top chords due to dropped ingots or scrap, but none ever showed melted interiors) at worst, hot ingots would simply burn-off the paint, both inside and outside of the car.
Wayne
BNSF UP and others modelerYou CAN actually buy that tinfoil corrugated siding tool that he uses
That was the 1st video in this thread.
Ken Patterson has shown the foil trick, by Mike Budde, I think, to create rolling stock that looks like it was in a wreck. After making the mold of a railcar, you cut some of the car away and mash the mold with your finger to simulate damage, and of course paint it.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddy Two different topics. I was watching a Luke Towan video and he made corrugated siding using a tool. Unforturnately for most of us, Luke is down under, and there is no US equivalent, but it's a neat tool.
Two different topics. I was watching a Luke Towan video and he made corrugated siding using a tool. Unforturnately for most of us, Luke is down under, and there is no US equivalent, but it's a neat tool.
Ahh, so you are a Luke Towan fan too. Great stuff. I just saw that second video last night. You CAN actually buy that tinfoil corrugated siding tool that he uses. I checked it out once, and...immediately scrapped the idea of buying one. It is WAY too much money for such a simple tool. $20 or $30, I believe.
I'm beginning to realize that Windows 10 and sound decoders have a lot in common. There are so many things you have to change in order to get them to work the way you want.
mbinsewiNot too far off topic, but I was going to try the foil technique to make battered and dented gondola sides.
I recently saw, on an other modeling site, 1 where foil was pressed around a vehicle as a form. Then the resulting "sheet metal" could be deformed and/or corroded to make for very convincing damaged vehicles and railroad cars.
Reynolds makes a heavier, commercial foil at 23.62 µm that may hold its shape better than the garden-variety aluminum foils. Tin foil is actually pretty difficult to find these days.
1 Ken Patterson, What's Neat, August 2018
Good Luck, Ed
Re: white spots from alcohol. I learned from the forum that respraying the item with DullCote will get rid of the white spots.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Not too far off topic, but I was going to try the foil technique to make battered and dented gondola sides.
Wine bottles you say......heavy than regular tin foil......hmmm...
I haven't tried the gondola thing yet, but it might be a good time to start stocking up on foil materials.
Mike.
My You Tube
doctorwayneI use foil, pressed over a Tichy Youngstown end, then applied it, reversed, on the plain .060" sheet styrene ends of a modified Train Miniature boxcar, thereby representing (sorta) inverse Murphy ends....
Ingenious Dr. Wayne, as we have come to expect. Just the other day I was reading an article on freight car ends in an old (mid 1980s) issue of Mainline Modeler magazine and the author, John Nehrich most likely, was lamenting the lack of availability of inverse ends (not just Murphy). I remember thinking as I read it that maybe foil impressed into a regular end casting could come close, but was wondering about durability.
I myself have been doing some things with the (carefully removed) foil that comes at the top of wine bottles (no longer leaded, but it resembles lead foil the way it works) following an article by Bruce Petty on using that foil to model vehicle hoods and doors that can be opened - or dented. It may not capture enough detail to be usable for your gondola end project - it is thicker than household foil -- but you may want to give it a try. I am sure there will be no lack of volunteers to drink wine so you have a good supply to work with (by the way I use the cork from the bottle to smooth out and flatten the foil from the bottle) particularly since in my experience, the better the wine the better the foil.
Dave Nelson
I use foil, pressed over a Tichy Youngstown end, then applied it, reversed, on the plain .060" sheet styrene ends of a modified Train Miniature boxcar, thereby representing (sorta) inverse Murphy ends....
For some gondolas, built around Tichy flatcars, I made a master from Evergreen half-round strips applied on a sheet of .060" styrene to create foil ends...
...then applied heavy aluminum insulators' tape over a piece of regular household foil (to act as a barrier over the very agressive adhesive of the tape). I attempted to form it over the master, but had problems with it splitting open as it was pushed into the corrugations...
Since there were only five cars to do, I opted instead to use built-up ends, similar to the master created for the foil version...
For most of my corrugated siding and roofing, I use the sheets from Campbell...
However, the corrugated shed protecting the access stairs to the overhead crane behind the Lowbanks' Shops was made from corrugated Northeastern basswood sheet material...
The sheet material (and the crane) are most of what survived from my aborted blast furnace scratchbuild....
BigDaddyhe made corrugated siding using a tool. Unforturnately for most of us, Luke is down under, and there is no US equivalent, but it's a neat tool.
Indeed that is a neat tool but we have options. A "contour gauge" could be used to make your own corrugated siding out of foil. And either Jack Work, or Jock Oliphant, years ago, showed how to make corrugated siding out of foil using a file.
Of course Plastruct makes corrugated siding out of plastic and if you wan to be frugal you could make your own by impressing card stock or foil into the Plastruct product.
i might add that i cut the foil to a scale 3 ft wide and either 8, 10 or 12 ft long after corrugating it is app 24 scale inches in ho.
j. c. i've made it in past by placing heavy grade foil between northeastren wood corrugated siding.
i've made it in past by placing heavy grade foil between northeastren wood corrugated siding.
I've saved many scraps from several Walthers Cornerstone structures that represent corrugated siding (Rolling Mill, etc.). Tape the edge of thin foil to this and press it down with a rubber roller or soft pencil eraser (the wide type, not the one at the end of a pencil).
Some of the Walthers kits I used parts from, have corrugated steel siding. I took tin foil and pressed it into the sheet. I took a nether piece of Walthers sheet, and put it over the foil, so the ribs/grooves lined up, like a gear.
Not too bad. I've seen different "tools" for doing this, don't remember what or where.
I'll have to check out that video, just by the picture, I think I've seen it before.
BUT, I have so many projects going right now, and none of them need a corrugated steel roof or walls.
Somewhere,train show?, I found a small shed made by Tyco. It had a corrugated roof. By useing my finger on heavy foil over the roof I make all I need, fast and simple.
Second, he showed a road coated in dullcote. Some alcohol got on the road and created white spots. He claimed, spraying more alcohol gets rid of that. That one surprised me, but while have had the white spots, it never occured to me to blast more alcohol on it.
@ 30:55 The animation effects are worth seeing. The alcohol white spots and the cure are hard to see.