Ed:
That will be quite the scene when it is finished. Neat! I wish I had the space.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Hi, Jeff
I'm right there with 'ya!
My Sylvan (I bought it before Walthers "marketed" it) ore boat sat for about ten years until just a few weeks ago when I finally decided to have a go at it.
Let me go back before the Sylvan...
Remember when Walthers was offering the Edmund Fitzgerald from Resin Unlimited? Well, I sent a check to the owner of R-U, Jason Davis, for almost $600.00 when he said my kit was ready to ship. He cashed the check then skipped town! I should have bought it through Walthers but that was a big mistake on my part.
SO, the Bearco Marine model? They were actually made by a gentleman in Chardon, Ohio called Voco Marine who sold the business to Esther and Rich Beris in Madison, OH. I bought one of the kits for about $250 and never put it together. It was a huge disappointment and I gave it away.
It is vacuum formed plastic and there is NO detail to the hull, deck or quarters. No rivet or weld lines, it is basically a huge bar of Ivory soap, IMHO.
Then the Sylvan/Walthers kit was my next adventure. Yes, many of the parts were warped and brittle and gluing was a pain. I really try to avoid ACC and use it only when nothing else will do.
I made a six-foot long work surface of 1" plywood to be sure all the hull sections went together squarely. I bought two hull extensions from Sylvan and then when Walthers offered the kit they had the hatches widened for the buckets of the Hulett ore unloaders to fit so I had to widen the hatches on two of the four deck tops.
"Milling" the underside of the deck to widen the hatch. I have not made the new coamings yet but they will be .080 Evergreen styrene.
Below is what I have so far. I was careful to match the joints on the "visible" side of the hull and not worry about the port side.
I had to make all sorts of compromises during the "fit-up" including cutting all of the hull dividers so the deck would fit flush and cutting the wall of the crew's quarters so it would fit on the small ledge provided. The resin is about as brittle as dinosaur bones!
I used a medium bodied ACC that set up pretty well and filled some of the gaps a bit.
I have a long way to go but I'm glad I got this far. I have four PRR F-22 flat cars from Fumaro & Carmalingo but put them back on the "to-do" list after attempting to ACC all the tiny stake pockets in place and keep them aligned. Most got glued to my shirt sleeves and one wound up getting glued to my forehead!
Have Fun, Ed
The Walthers Greast Lakes Freighter is made by Sylvan Scale
http://www.sylvanscalemodels.com/kits/1050.htm
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Hi Jeff:
I hear ya!
Personally I have found there to be a wide range in quality in the relatively few resin kits that I have done. Some are good and some are not.
I have a couple of Kaslo CP caboose resin kits under construction and I have to say that the quality of the castings was very good. There was some flash but it was really no different from cleaning mold lines off a styrene model. There were no cracks or damaged parts.
I have a couple of Sylvan vehicles and the amount of flash was disappointing, particularly on the frames.
I have almost completed a Funaro and Camerlengo McKeen Motor Car (still waiting for custom decals). The outside of the shell was great, but the inside and the window openings were a mess. I had to remove a huge amount of extraneous material from the inside of the roof to get the proper profile. Half of the detail castings were unusable.
A while ago I picked up a garbage truck box on eBay. I'll never buy another cheap resin casting again.
I like building models a lot, but I don't particularly care for having to spend hours getting the kit cleaned up so I can start to put it together. At least the flash on the resin kits is easier to remove than it is from white metal or brass castings.
Years ago after building and installing my Walthers Ore Dock, I "hinted" to my wife that what I really needed for xmas was the Great Lakes Freighter that Walthers happened to have on sale. It was under the tree, it was big...and it was resin. Fast forward to this winter,and my project is to finish the ADM GrainElevator, the Red Wing Mill, add a slip/wharf for grain loading a "Laker" and finish the water and slip alongside the ore dock. Which means taking a serious look at my Walther's Freighter kit. First of all, its really a Sylvan Models kit, just repackaged for sale thru Walthers. This is my first resin kit, so I'll defer to the wisdom/experience of those of you who have built resin kits before. The fit, the gaps, the flash...all HORRIBLE!! One large piece of the hull was cracked, a large deck piece had a corner broken off, and the smoke stack was missing!! I spent nearly an hour sanding and filing the rear main deck to "try" to get a decent fit. When all was said and done there was still an 1/8th inch gap across the rear. I recalled an old trick of filling gaps with baking soda, then adding CA, which instantly hardens into a servicable gap filler. Did the trick, but c'mon...really?? This will be the LAST resin kit I attempt, if I even finish this one. I understand part of the rationale behind resin kits being a "niche" market for hard to find or kits unavailable otherwise. But if I knew then what I know now... I would rather have spent the extra money and purchased a PLASTIC Great lakes freighter from Bearco, and saved myself all the extra labor and headaches!!! Just a heads-up for those of you modeling the Great Lakes areas...