Mr. Lincoln, your car is ready. Or, semi-first semi-successful kitbash

[Flashwave]

 

April 30 is the day that President Lincoln would pas though Indiana on his way to his final resting place. To commemorate the event, I have built a model for a friend of mine, (Yeah, Dad and I. Who'da thought?)a fellow history buff, and into the Ghost train lore as well. I'm gonna share it with you. 

I'll share some prototype pics with you to compare with in a minute. But first, I want to go through the basic regular mumbo. Start with a Roundhouse Ovrland coach painted fr Central Pacific (guess at the right color) and a spare set of trucks.

I WOULD reccomend this for new people. If it were to interest you. BUT, the car hails from the 1860s, which I do believe eliminates 90% of the posting board era-wise. The Lincoln car was built as his private Palace car with 4, count them, 4 sets of wheels. But Lincoln never rode it, for possibly two different reasons. 1) he simply didn't have the time due to it's construction dates, or 2, he hated the thing, which makes sense since he was an economy minded president. One of the reasons I like this project is that even if you screw up, all the color pictures come in black, white, and grey. SO even if smeone says you did it wrong, they can't say what's right, cept for one thing Dad and I missed.

Step 1) Everything must go. Start with the roof, the trucks, and all the undercarriage parts that are glued on. I stole a pair of trucks off another car, for time, but you can order replacement parts from Roundhouse. I'll replece the other car's trucks soon.

Next, you need a strip of stiff plastic to build the truck bolstwer out of. , needs to be about 1.5 inches long, and wide enough to fit around the molded-on bolster. Drill a hole for the bolster to fit through In the other end, screw in the preplacement trucks. Put the arm around the bolster, then re-attach the first set of trucks. Be sure that your screws are loose enough for free play in the truck, it will make railing the thing easier.

The roof. Trace the roof edges on Styrene in .6 thick or slightly thicker styrene ( I used too thin), (bottom) then cut another piece about an inch wide and 5.5 long in .20 (top). This will from the top and bottom of the wedding cake. Then build your clerastory area out of another thick sandwhich. It souhld be a little narrower than the top piece you cut for the top. Assemble the clerastory to the bottom, and paint it and the top piece (seperate) a dark grey color. Print off a decal of the roof vent and gold leaf, and decal the edge. then attach top of wedding cake clerastory. If you have some roof vents from other Rounhouse car kits, cut the stem short and glue them on.

The Bunting is next. cut yoursel some 1/8" wide strips and either get dome ribbon, or sparypaint some kleenex black (no kidding) and cut it into stips. Then take some thread, and tassele it on, using the side fo the car as a template. Then glue the styrene onto the side of the car. There should be four, one above and one below each row of windows.

The hearlad is the last part. I had to make an imitation. The Lincoln car has what looks like an eagle mural, not the now well known pres. seal. In lieu of the ral one, I had to fake it. Aslo to get aroudn the backgroud issue, the decal was run off, hen was too transperant, and used it;s own backing for thw white. In hindsight, I;d have used a white paper.

The real thing: http://awesometalks.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/lincoln.jpg

So, the what to do differently list:
The roof sags slightly. The clerastory itself is too heavy.
White backed seal
Have decaled the vents BEFORE i put the top on...
Dad did the bunting fro me to save time, he forgot the bottom row, but I';m not sure it wouldn't be overkill.

Overall: Full knowing that I'm gonna make me one next, I'm jealous that I have to ive this one away.

Oh, and the neat part, no modificiation to the packaging is necesary!

Rest In Peace, Ol' Abe.

[gmcrail]

A fascinating project car!  I wish, though, that you could post some pics that are less under-exposed.  Everything I'm seeing is coming out as a silhouette.

[richg1998]

 Here, I adjusted the brightness and contrast for a little better virew. Nice sixteen wheel car.

 

I have a sixteen wheel 37' flat car I hope to post in a few weeks.

Rich