In HOn3, I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, it's the only one done as a kit. "C-21" is relative. It's not actually a model of one, but is roughly the same size. People have worked them over to "C-25" status, too.
If you're looking to buy, later runs saw the brass drivers upgraded to nickel silver. Not sure whether NWSL has options for this or not. They had a repower/regear kit at one time, not sure if they ever did NS drivers or not.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
For guys with the memory and knowledge base in hand..............Is the MDC C-21 kit that I posted the image of the only outside frame steamer ever offered in kit form?
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
snjroy Sorry Dan, English is my second language and I realize now that the word was too strong (I guess I was referring to the fact that there are much better and more detailed versions of the 0-6-0 out there). I also have an HO version of the MDC 0-6-0 and she does run quite well (it was the version with the stock can motor). She was the second loco kit I ever built. ... Simon
Sorry Dan, English is my second language and I realize now that the word was too strong (I guess I was referring to the fact that there are much better and more detailed versions of the 0-6-0 out there). I also have an HO version of the MDC 0-6-0 and she does run quite well (it was the version with the stock can motor). She was the second loco kit I ever built. ...
Simon
Ah. I have one from the early 80s, with the open frame motor, but it runs smooth and quiet. With a few added details and paint, it will be the main switcher when it's turn comes on my in-progress layout. Dan
Sorry Dan, English is my second language and I realize now that the word was too strong (I guess I was referring to the fact that there are much better and more detailed versions of the 0-6-0 out there). I also have an HO version of the MDC 0-6-0 and she does run quite well (it was the version with the stock can motor). She was the second loco kit I ever built. I still need to install DCC and she definitely would benefit from more ad-ons.
Richard: I also have an HOn3 2-8-0 kit waiting for me. I have all the parts, I just need the time to get the project going. Hopefully, I will be successful at making it a smooth runner. I've have a lot of success with these old kits. Tinkering can do wonders!
Cheers.
snjroy ...This latest find is an HOn3 version of the infamous MDC 0-6-0... Simon
...This latest find is an HOn3 version of the infamous MDC 0-6-0...
Infamous? (I just caught that comment) What is infamous about those? I have one, and thought it was a decent little kit. I replaced the drivers with Tyco "Prarie" ones for better rail contact than brass. Dan
Mike is right about R-T-R in most cases. It is just easier to actually do model railroading and get trains running if you don't have to fiddle with kits. By the same token, it is nearly impossible to avoid kit building, kit bashing, or scratch building.
Way back when the narrow gauge was just an itch that I never scratched due to too much scratch building and kit building, I started build a few HOn3 NG kits. As an example and to follow this post original plea....The last MR kit I ever built was in the early 90's. It was the MDC bold and interesting attempt at a D&RGW C-21 consolidation. I attach an image of the result. I even went the extra mile and bought the NWSL special gear upgrade kit for it. I installed it and was satisfied back then with the improved operation over my lone piece of 3 foot code 70 flex track.
It was put in storage in the mid-ninties when I got out of MR'ing for 12 years.
As I have mentioned before, Blackstone and modern DCC dragged me back in 2009 to a limited degree and now I am still working on my HOn3 road, with designs to fit the C-21 with a new can motor and DCC + Sound.
In the same image I show my next kit to be built. It is an HOn3 version of the SR&RL combine caboose. I bought two of these resin kits as I plan to kit bash this car into a longer version making it a special car combine passenger/freight/caboose on the Paradox Uravan and Placerville...........Only on th' narrow gauge.
Last Kit - Branchline Flour Mill.
Currently working on - Branchline Esso Gas Station
Next Kit - Walthers Chicken Coup
Dennis,
Thanks, Brian Banna's demo was enlightening. Nice how he airbrushed the hairspray on. Wish I had more experience shooting acrylic water based paint thru my airbrush.
Jim,
Eric's Trains salt weathering was episode #37, good demo. I crushed the salt up some with a motar and pestle for smaller size chipping. Thanks.
Enjoyed the videos, thanks again, regards, Peter
"Eric's Trains" video blog (O Scale 3 rail) on youtube had a demonstration of salt weathering that was excellent. I don't recall the blog # (somewhere around #40) where he completes his stainless steel viaduct bridge by salt weathering out in the driveway. A search should find it pretty easily.
Jim
Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.
HO-VeloNot sure about the long term effects of using the hairspray and salt under the finish coat of paint.
There is a guy named Brian Banna......from the Diesel Detailer forums that has videos on you-tube showing how he does the flaking paint using only hairspray under the paint......he calls it "chipping".
Dennis Blank Jr.
CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad
mlehmanI know you still want one of those cranes. They are pretty irresistable
Mike,
Noticed your Walthers traveling crane in the background. For the flaking paint and rust I borrowed a technique from a military modeling site called "Salt weathering." Not sure about the long term effects of using the hairspray and salt under the finish coat of paint.
You read my mind, the Sheepscot cranes are indeed irresistable. BTW, enjoyed the oodles of fine modeling photos while window shopping the Sheepscot site.
My crane project is on the back burner. My grandson is visiting from out of state and I'm helping him with a model plane kit. Very enjoyable and reliving the fun of building model planes.
Thanks and regards, Peter
December 1979 Model Railroader had an article about the coal dock/shed in upstate New York.......I started this project back in 2006..........a complete scratch build.......so far the only pic I have is of the building timber frames...........and I do plan to build the entire building......the whole 336' of it........in HO scale.
Southgate Does kitbashing count? I wouldn’t dare speak for Mike, but it does contain the word “kit” ,nice work BTW. Cheers, the Bear.
Southgate Does kitbashing count?
Cheers, the Bear.
Bear's got it right, even if you're choosing parts from here or there or entirely reconfiguring the original intent, that works for me. That's also one way to turn the all-too-familiar into something never before done. Kit's are a starting point, not the finish line, which is limited only by your imagination.
SouthgateDoes kitbashing count?
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Does kitbashing count? One of many current projects, I used parts from Boley cement mixers, CMW IH tractors, Herpa chassis parts and some scratchbuilt items to backdate the mixers to the tractors...
I'll post more pix when they're painted.
Jimmy_BraumMost recent kit- a Tichy Trains flat car. It was fun and all, but the stake pockets almost made me crosseyed putting them on.
Jimmy,
Nice work, but wait until you get old -- say 40 -- and the eyes start going. It's why Optivisor is a longtime MR advertiser.
Simon,
Looks like a project, but there's lots of HOn3 coming out of those bins under the layout these days. Some need considerable love to get going. Just sold a MDC HOn3 2-8-0 I built years ago. It ran but I was still tuning it when it was set aside, I think after I bought my first piece of brass. I remember it being on the layout here, but only briefly. So used to run, but not now. Got $70 for it, which seemed to be around the going rate If nothing else get her running well and looking good and it could provide some funds. People want good running locos, but they'll even buy a basket case for a fair price in HOn3 right now with Blackstone getting things going over the last decade.
Alex,
I really like Tichy kits, although I've only done 3 or 4.
Peter,
I know you still want one of those cranes. They are pretty irresistable You'll wake up one day and tell yourself, "I owe that to myself..." But give it a suitable interval. It's a great job on the transfer crane. I have a couple, but the paint is too "good"-- both need more rust like yours, May hit mine with some of those Tamiya powders, then they'll look great like yours.
OK, just finished with the decals, they're still getting good and dry before sealing. Then need matte finish, plus the trucks need painted. Then time to experiment with some weathering, I have some decent color shots, but it needs to be 50 years newer.
This is the next kit, a PSC HOn3 DL-535E. You get three sheets of paper with pictures of the parts, mostly ;labeled (in English, if it matters). That's it. YOU build it from, well, lots of parts, mostly brass, but geared wheelsets for the trucks, some nice wire, etc, etc.
What have I gotten myself into???
Oh, that's right, I've done one of these before: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/p/210285/2305410.aspx
OK, scared myself there for a minute. Yes, a kit like this is a challange. That's one of the reasons to build kits. You build your confidence with some stuff you soon conclude is easy enough. Then you start thinking...what else can I build? Anyway, I plan to take my time with this one. I do have the first one as a "pilot" model and it came out pretty well and where it's not, I know why and will try to be a bit more above average if at all possible in my blacksmithing...good luck...this time around.
I also have a cache of excellent closeup pics of one in brass that were online because it was auctioned. These along with the usual prototype references are vital, so do your homework if you should be so ambitious/crazy as this sort of build.
Please note specificlly this is not a complaint about a lack of instructions. People have been building some PSC kits like this for decades. They have lots of customers like this because they're in the business of selling parts to people who build trains...we dough need no stinkin' instructions
Anyway, it comes out something like this...
Of course, someone will ask, "But aren't those DL-535E's White Pass locos?" In one reality, true enough. In my version of Little Colorado, the Rio Grande was in the market for narrowgauge diesel motive power on several occassions (the 70-tonners in the pic above are also HOn3) right into the early 1970s. So this is/will be a Rio Grande DL-535E. The primary spotting feature is the Mars light in the nose, just like its hefty SG cousins, where the White Pass locos had a similar light on top the cab.
Most recent kit- a Tichy Trains flat car. It was fun and all, but the stake pockets almost made me crosseyed putting them on. Regardless, a little paint, some wood stain on the deck and weathering powders with a dull coat, and I think it became a good looking kit.
I'm looking at getting some more tichy kits. Or else some tank farm stuff.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
Well, I only have a 4X8 with no space left for new structures, so I enjoy loco kit building, when I can find a kit at reasonable cost. I usually have more luck finding old locos that need a major overhaul, like this one. This latest find is an HOn3 version of the infamous MDC 0-6-0. I found this on the Bay. Received it today and I look forward to remotoring and refinishing the little beast. So not a kit, but an exciting HOn3 project. I don't get many of these! But this is only an excuse to procrastinate on my real project: a dual gauge layout that I've been working on for the last 12 months, with little progress to date. Maybe this project will accelerate the other...
PS: my last project. She has DCC and sound..
My last kit was a NYC Accurail boxcar..
My current kit is a Tichy 4026 Boxcar.
My next kit... Woodland Scenics Garage.
I'll post pics of the garage and the boxcar once they are done.
-Alex
My Layout Photos- http://s1293.photobucket.com/user/ajwarshal/library/
Thanks again for the previous lead to Sheepscot Models. Seeing how good your Sheepscot crawler crane looks I was seriously considering one for a planned foundry scrap pile scene. But settled on a Walthers overhead traveling crane, partly because of job memories. The color choice and weathering was also influenced by those same memories.
It's nice to take a little break from the frenzy of summertime outdoor activities and recharge with a bit of modeling.
regards, Peter
Matt,
If it's a kit to you, it's a kt for us all
Wow, I'm just stunned at all the great work here! Some folks whose work I'm familiar with, but a whole bunch that I'm seeing for the first time. If you haven't done so yet, please consider contributing to the Weekend Photo Fun (WPF) threads. Works in progress are very welcome there, too.
I squeezed in some more hours and just need decals and weathering on my Westerfield Rio Grande Fowler boxcar clone. An in progress shot and one after I put the trucks back on with the paint dry this morning. The kit was much easier than my last resin kit, a pair of Westerfield hoppers. It advised 5 to 6 hours to build to this point and that's about what I have in it.
Does an older Athearn Genesis SD70M (1990s/early 2000s run) count as a kit? Handrails, sun shades, truck details, ditchlights, bell, grab irons, the lot... I've had plenty of freight cars that went together easier than that thing; it was quite a challenge...
The last proper kit I built was a Bowser 100-ton coal hopper... Easy assembly and it was rolling on my layout in less than 5 minutes...
My little 4x10' HO layout may be small, and I may not have enough money to make it a masterpiece, but that doesn't make me any less of a modeler!
My last set of kits involved my Walthers Coke Oven battery. It started with a local friend giving me an almost complete Coke Ovens kit, for the purpose of doubling the number of ovens. One piece that it was missing was the discharge-side door panel, so I had to make my own using Evergreen styrene:
Here's what they looked like after fitting them to the original model:
...then I assembled the quench car and the so-called "larry" car from a details ki; but first, I had to scratch-build a few more detail items, starting with a discharge guide car and an oven discharge door-opener car:
...my quench car also needed a specialized loco to propel it, converted from the remains of an old Athearn Hustler:
Then, to complete the coke mill, I partially assembled a Walthers North Island oil refinery kit [without the "furnace" part] and ran a connecting pipe to the coke ovens, to serve as a coke gas by-products facility:
These are all under-construction shots, I eventually got rid of the superfluous clutter from my layout surface.
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
My last kit was a Tichy USRA box car.
My next kit will probably be the Campbell's grain elevator.
I am currently in scenery mode so I won't be building structures for a while. There is too much bare plywood on my layout right now.
I've just purchased Bar Mill's "Sweaty Betty's Cafe". It'll be my lst wood kit so it'll be awhile before I start it as I want to read everything I can about sealing, xtra bracing, etc. lst.
If anyone has built this and can share their pics or tips to make things easier (if that's even needed) it would be great to see them/hear them.
My last kit was the completion of the roundhouse (Walthers Modern) and t.t. install. The r.h. was a pre-owned model, partly reglued with stall extentions being considered.
My definite next projects are the Bachmann City Scapes Metropolitan Bldg. and Trade Tower kits to start the big city scene mock ups. I'm trying to avoid the use of bldg. flats wherever possible and use the entire structures even though it's not a huge area.
peahrens Elmer, can you explain how you curved the building front? I may have a similar opportunity but had not considered that. It looks great.
Elmer, can you explain how you curved the building front? I may have a similar opportunity but had not considered that. It looks great.
Thanks.
This started as a square kit, and as such didn't have "floors" in it. To make the curved front, I had to add "floors" that would provide the curved support for the front at each level plus the roof. Each "floor" was shaped like the foot-print of the final building shape, minus the material that the sides and face would add. (I used .030 plastic in the form of a handicapped parking sign from Lowes.) The "floors" were then spaced apart with "walls" and everything was glued together as a framework similar to those interlocking egg crate type seperators that you see every so often, although the floors and walls wern't interlocking on mine. Since the back of the building is flat, the assembly of the frame was done while it was laying on it's back to keep everything even and in line. Once the frame was made, the front and side walls were glued in place. It wasn't hard to do, although you had to think ahead of the building and assembly process so things would work out right.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
My current kit is also my next kit, as I'm putting together a 12-stall roundhouse using four Walthers' Modern Roundhouse kits (two 3-stall full kits and two add-on stall kits). Here's where I was a couple months ago:
Since this was taken I've nearly finished the track wiring (with the help of a couple friends), weathered the floor and begun installation of the roof support frames. It's taking half of forever because it's been many years since I've built a structure kit, and I'm doing a lot of trackwork and such on other parts of the layout. Maybe I'll take a few pics of current state and edit the post to add them.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
A couple of car kits I am currently working on, while working on these and waiting for glue to dry I am usually building more simple kits like IMRC, Branchline, Front Range, etc. so I usually have from 6 to 8 kits going at one time.
IMRC Pflauder Milk car, has a lot of wire parts that have to be installed, a really neat car.
It is in the paint shop now, and will be getting its second color applied as soon as I get it masked. PC X79 60' Boxcar used in transporting Kellogg's Cereal. a Rail Yard Models kit. I have sort of stagnated on this one right now, have to install the brake rigging and airlines and it is a make it up as you go thing, a great help was the building of the Moloco GATX RBL I did a couple of years ago, now understand how all the parts go together. I am also working on a couple of Athearn Tank Cars, but they are a real PITA as all you get is an exploded parts diagram with no instructions and the part numbers on the spriues do not match the part numbers on the diagrams, no wonder Athearn does not want to sell undecorated kits anymore. As for next kit, I have a number of ExactRail, Railyard Modles, F&C, Molocco and other kits to choose from along with some kitbashes of other simple kits. Rick J
It is in the paint shop now, and will be getting its second color applied as soon as I get it masked.
PC X79 60' Boxcar used in transporting Kellogg's Cereal. a Rail Yard Models kit.
I have sort of stagnated on this one right now, have to install the brake rigging and airlines and it is a make it up as you go thing, a great help was the building of the Moloco GATX RBL I did a couple of years ago, now understand how all the parts go together. I am also working on a couple of Athearn Tank Cars, but they are a real PITA as all you get is an exploded parts diagram with no instructions and the part numbers on the spriues do not match the part numbers on the diagrams, no wonder Athearn does not want to sell undecorated kits anymore. As for next kit, I have a number of ExactRail, Railyard Modles, F&C, Molocco and other kits to choose from along with some kitbashes of other simple kits. Rick J
I have sort of stagnated on this one right now, have to install the brake rigging and airlines and it is a make it up as you go thing, a great help was the building of the Moloco GATX RBL I did a couple of years ago, now understand how all the parts go together.
I am also working on a couple of Athearn Tank Cars, but they are a real PITA as all you get is an exploded parts diagram with no instructions and the part numbers on the spriues do not match the part numbers on the diagrams, no wonder Athearn does not want to sell undecorated kits anymore.
As for next kit, I have a number of ExactRail, Railyard Modles, F&C, Molocco and other kits to choose from along with some kitbashes of other simple kits.
Rick J
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!