Quite a bit better looking Ray!
Excellent work as usual!
Greg
Visit my site: http://www.elmassian.com - lots of tips on locos, rolling stock and more.
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A little more progress...
I finished casting all the brake cylinders and install four of them on the rear truck.
The brake shoes on the original model are removable plastic pieces, and include a curved shape that is supposed to represent the sand line. As-is, these brakes look pretty anemic. So I reworked them, adding on new styrene bits to make the brake shoes a little larger and thicker, and also made the hardware stouter and more accurately shaped. (In silhouette, anyway. As on the original model, a lot of liberties have to be taken in this area.)
I cut off the original sand lines and built new ones that are much more realistic looking. Here's a shot of two remodeled brake shoe assemblies next to one of the unmodified parts:
Here's a couple shots of the modified parts temporarily installed on the truck. You can also see how the brake cylinder castings fit into place:
I still have to make four more brake shoes pieces, for the loco's front truck.
.
Today I made a mold of the brake cylinder master. Because of the complexity of the shape, a two-part mold was needed. I built a form out of styrene, and filled half of it with sulfur-free modeling clay. Then I pushed the master into the clay, and worked the clay in around it to make as clean an edge as possible. I pressed a few dimples into the clay to make "keys" that will keep the two halves aligned:
Next I poured in some silicone rubber mold compound. I use Smooth-On brand "Oomoo 30" because it's easy to use and doesn't require a precision scale. It mixes by volume, not weight, and is pretty/ forgiving. When this set, I pulled off the bottom of the form and removed the clay. Leaving the master in place, I then coated the face of the first layer of silicone with a very thin coat of vaseline as a release agent. I also used a spray on release from Michael's:
I poured in some more silicone, let it set, then removed the form and pulled the two halves apart. Then I started casting. The initial casting came out rough, which is typical. The rest came out better. I had also made a simple one-piece mold of another part that will be used on the side frames, and cast that too. Here's how they look after cleaning up the flash:
And here's one of the brake cylinder castings after being painted with a coat of primer. It's a little bit rough but not bad:
You project is turning out nicely, I'm also glad you have the patience to even get half way with those holes, I would probably just throw against the wall... - Peter
Modeling the Bellefonte Central Railroad
Fan of the PRR
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I finished making a master for the brake cylinders. It just needs a little touch up, and then I'll use it to make a silicone mold. I need eight cylinders, and I really don't want to make them all by hand, so casting is the most efficient way...
The grill over the radiator fan isn't totally accurate but it looks pretty good, so I want to keep it. Unfortunately the holes are much narrower on the back then on the outside, in fact they're barely open. So I'm carving them out, one by one, with the tip of an X-acto knife. Very tedious, so I can only stand to do a little of it at a time. I'm halfway finished so far:
I finished putting the grab irons and door handles on the long hood. I also filled in the overly-wide panel lines and scribed new, thinner ones; and replaced a couple of molded-on pipes:
I scribed some lines into the smoke stack, and replaced the molded details:
One of the reference photos I found included a close up view of the horn, which inspired me to go nuts and add all the little details to the horns on my loco:
The sideframes of the trucks have a lot of molded on detail, including the brake cylinder. I'm cutting those off and making my own, completely 3-dimensional brake cylinders. I haven't finished that yet, but here's a pic showing how I'm altering the shape of the steel arch-thingy (pardon the technical terminology!) to more closely approximate the prototype. I used epoxy putty to fill out the shape. Since this piece must be able to move up and down, I just put a piece of wax paper between the two parts before adding the putty:
That's all for now, more later...
Well, it's sort of semi-freelanced. I haven't found a narrow gauge prototype that fits. I think they did make some RS-3's in narrow gauge for foreign use but they basically just moved the wheels closer together. Since I'm working backwards and trying to scale up a smaller scaled, standard gauge loco, I have to take some liberties. But I'm trying to retain the look of the RS-3, and I'm using photos of real RS-3's to figure out all the details.
Lookig Good, are you following a prototype or is this a freelance home RR shop built engine
Dave
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
Today I've doing some detailing on the short hood. I replaced the original grab irons with new, slightly larger ones, spaced farther apart, as appropriate to the new larger scale. Most of the grabs are from Phil's Narrow Gauge, I just bent them a little to fit the corner positioning on the hood. I had to make the longer grabs myself. I used Phil's brass, nut/bolt pins to secure them:
I also carved off the molded door handles and replaced them with new handles made from brass rod:
I put some small details to the top of the hood. I also made the sand box fill hatch larger and added hinge and latch detail:
I've made a little more progress...
Finished framing the windows on the front and rear walls of the cab, and glued the cab together. To create the arched roof, I glued in strips of styrene, then sanded down the angled edges:
It still wasn't rounded enough so I filled it in a bit with spot putty:
Then I topped it with .015" thick styrene sheet. Unfortunately that wrinkled a little in places, so I had to smooth it out with a little more spot putty. I also rounded all the corners, and started detailing the side of the cab:
In this photo you can see some of the detail on the side of the cab:
That's all for now, more to come!
I haven't been able to get much done this weekend. Too many interruptions, plus I wasted a lot of time trying out a technique that didn't work before settling on one that did. Anyway here's the latest update...
I've been building up the frames around the windows on the front wall of the cab. There are two parts to these. The first is cut from a sheet of .010" thick styrene, then glued to the window. They overlap the inside edge of the window a little bit:
Next I glue down a thin styrene rod to form a sort of "bead" around the inner edge. This is really slow and tedious but adds a lot to the appearance:
Two windows done, six more to go! Then I do the side windows.
IRB Souther Engineer Are you going to modify the trucks or wheels?
Are you going to modify the trucks or wheels?
I won't be changing the wheels, but I do plan to improve the appearance of the trucks. I'd like to replace some of the cast-on details, for instance.
I'm glad to see you have started your project. I can't wait to see the end result! - Peter
In addition to installing a Revo receiver and Phoenix sound board, I'm also converting my Aristocraft 1/29th scale RS-3 into a freelanced 1/24th scale narrow gauge loco. For now I'm holding off on the electronics until I get the other modifications finished.
I started by widening the deck. To do this, I glued 1/4" square styrene strips to the edge of the frame, then topped them with 1/4" x .010" strips. I still need to cover the expanded deck with new non-skid treadplate:
Next I made the hoods slightly taller, by gluing 1/8" x 1/4" strips all along the base of the hood pieces. I also reduced the length of the short hood, in order to accommodate a larger cab:
I also removed the "bug-eye" classification lamps. Soon I will remove the existing grab irons, fill the holes, and replace them with new grab irons that will be larger and spaced more appropriately for the increased scale.
To make this look like a narrow gauge loco in 1/24th scale, it needs a new, bigger cab. I began scratch-building one out of .080" thick styrene. I cut the front and rear walls to shape, taped them together and carved out the windows. While doing the windows I also trimmed the curved edge a little more:
Here's how it will look on the loco:
That's all for now. I'll post more updates as I go.
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