I was on eBay a bit ago and ran across some kits by Red Ball. They produced a WWII troop car kit that looks to be hybrid - i.e. a plastic body with brass plate sidings and doors (manufactured by Prototype Specific Products)?
Has anyone put one of these kits together? How did the final product turn out? I'm assuming that the brass plate sidings were CA'd or epoxied onto the body?
I appreciate any info anyone has to offer...
Thanks,
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Saw another eBay listing and it stated the "kit does not include trucks, wheels, or coupler". I'm still interested if these kits are worth pursuing and turn out well once assembled...
These look to be based on the Canonball troop sleeper/kitchen kits. Those kits appear to me to be pretty awful, though I've never held one in my hand. I think I read a review, or something.
If you want to play with troop sleeper/kitchens, I recommend the Walthers products. FAR superior. You could, I suppose, buy these Canonball/Red Ball items and paste the brass sides onto a Walthers kit. THAT seems like a good, though expensive, idea. Maybe just do one, to keep costs down.
If you want the early troop sleeper, Hallmark brass is the way to go.
I wouldn't touch these. Someone else may have a different opinion. Perhaps they have even worked on them.
It is unfortunate that Walthers never made the early troop sleeper.
Ed
It also looks like these are unique to the Boston & Maine's four-door type, 17 cars total (3260-3276).
http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/bmrr/bm_pics/Troop4door.jpg
Kind of hard to tell from the photos the seller has posted at exactly which models are being offered.
The Walthers troop express cars come up pretty often on auction sites, not so much the original sleepers and kitchen cars.
Good Luck, Ed
Thanks, Ed(s). The few photos posted on the auction showed considerable flash on the plastic sprues but not so much on the parts themselves. The brass appeared to be in decent shape but it was difficult to glean whether the plastic and brass parts would fit together well.
I got burned on a rosin switcher kit (HH660) a number of years ago so I like to get as much info on unfamilar manufacturers before "stepping into the unknown".
Someone else had a post about the Redball kits, http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/113119.aspx.
Don't know if these are the same or not.
7j43kThese look to be based on the Canonball troop sleeper/kitchen kits. Those kits appear to me to be pretty awful, though I've never held one in my hand.
Yeah, Cannonball Car Shops acquired the old Red Ball tooling to a number of kits and for the most part, what Red Ball offered as cast white metal, often on a wood floor, CCS converted to cast plastic and sheets of styrene. I am not speaking here of the troop sleeper kit which I never had. Ironically I found that what was possible to "bull" into shape with white metal and basswood in the original Red Ball kit was often much more challenging with CCS's somewhat brittle red plastic, which had tons of flash to clean up. In fact if you had both the original and CCS version of the same kit (I did, of a depressed center flatcar) you could see that while the molds were the same, the two materials must have "shrunk" slightly differently in terms of size. Very odd. The detail on the Red Ball stuff was not too bad, in fact surprisingly good for its era. But I would not go out of my way to try another - either Red Ball or CCS. I enjoy a challenge as much as the next guy (well maybe that depends on who the next guy is -- not Doctor Wayne for example, who thrives on challenge) but enough is enough.
Dave Nelson
Thanks for the input, fellas. From the limited photos on the auction and what I've read here so far, I think I'll pass on the kits. Too bad. I always enjoy finding, acquiring, and/or building unique pieces of rolling stock.
I (almost, sort of, mostly) agree with Dave about the old metal and wood Red Ball line. I think you MIGHT still be able to come up with some very presentable cars if you view the Red Ball kit as a parts source. Pretty much meaning, the castings.
Approach it like this: "I've got half a dozen castings here. How can I modify them so that, when mixed with carefully crafted raw material like wire and styrene, will give me a nice looking car."
Consider the possibility that the only way you're going to get a model of a particular prototype is by using Red Ball parts.
Except for that, I fully agree.
I did build a Red Ball kit--the 6-wheel trucked depressed center flat. Looked pretty good 50 years ago. Maybe I should disassemble it and start over. I think the wood "frame" warped, and the car has a bit of twist.
I think it's a model of a PRR class F29 car.