IRON RAILS 2015 GB

Thanks Sprue,

Wayne, Terry

I went ahead and finished it. The wife is prepping for T-giving diner so I was up anyway.

Here is. Sorry to finish it before you blinked. It was a great little kit and would recommend it to anyone who wants a rail gun but doesn’t have the room. Really nice detail and some PE which I did not install. The men and ammo are made from the rubbery plastic, but worked out OK.

Steve

a friend at my other ipms club has one and looked at mine. no bad things to say about Trumpeter but the Meng has more pe, the back may be more detailed, all the hatches to the right of the cab are separate so you can have them open. all i know for now but i may pick up the meng one with a club black friday group buy. yes i am certifiable. picked up my SA-8. that and the SS-23 are going to be fun builds too.

armored trains are so cool. that is coming along nicely, especially given the manufacturer. i have to figure out separating track bases too since my K-5 could go 5 feet if i add cars.

you’re hooked now. DOOG (Karl) suggested washes on my Syrian police BRDM and i have never looked back. i have gone over older models with pin washes and filters and entered them in newer contests with good results. and yes i’m bragging. these were good wins against more than 6 competitors.

1st in a regional. multiple color filters and final pin wash

2nd in a regional pin washes and powders/pastels

Thanks Wayne,

And I thank you and Terry for running this GB, it was fun. This was my last entry. I don’t have any more rail related subjects in the stash, and have plenty of other builds to complete before the end of the year.

Steve

Thanks Wayne! I use the Trumpeter track bases that are also avaiable by themselves. They may not look as awesome as some track laid over some real ballast, but they really do simplify things.

Okay, I managed to get some more progress done on my two Armored trains; almost all of it was on the flatcars. First off, I finished the second short flatcar so that I had both of them done and ready for P/E:

And here’s a shot of the two of them side-by-side so you can see I did actually build two:

Next, since I had three long flatcars completed to the P/E stage, it was time to finish the rest of them. I did finish up two more, to make this five finished flatcars. Here’s the first one:

And the second one:

I wanted to finish all six of these, but I couldn’t find the sixth one. All it needs are the upper sidewalls and end pieces too. Oh well, here are the five of them all side-by-side so you can see them all:

Next, I decided that the truck chassis for the one flatcar needed to have the upper part completed so that I could finish the truck. I assembled most of the cab; only leaving the rest off until I can paint the interior of the cab and add the windows:

Next I built the bed of the truck:

Here’s what I built all dry-fit together to see how it will look:

Finally, here’s a shot of all the flatcars I got to the P/E stage:

Yeah, now it’s time for adding the P/E to all these train cars, flatcars, tenders and engines. That will take several days; I’ll probably wait until Hobby Day to do this. Meanwhile, I can continue to build the truck, gun and tank for two of these flatcars. So stay tuned, more to come in a few weeks.

Wow, I don’t think I’ve messed with PE at this scale yet. I’ll stay tuned in for that super fine detail progress.

I measured the exposed floor area then cut styrene material (junkmail CCs) to cover this gap. I didn’t like the flat look and it wasn’t prototypical anyway.

Finding the roof-walk part that was removed in the begining stages of this build conversion, I placed it in the miter box and cut to size.

sprueone

It is the exact thickness as the two end walkway parts so the fit was perfect.

I’ve already started work on the uprights using styrene angle strips. The rails that were removed earlier were also reinstalled

Thanks for looking…

There are objects on each end of the caboose. One looks like a storage bin and the other looks like a fuel tank. I’ll make these from material cut from the kit.

The storage bin (fire fighting equipment bin?) I cut from the bottom piece earlier. Also, notice the red hand grab handles that I pulled off the model earlier. They’ll be glued into place vertically into the prototypical positions.

Fuel tank parts in the miter box being fabricated from the roof parts cut off earlier.

sprueone

The finished parts now assembled but before primer and paint.

sprueone

The ‘Fuel Tank’ is dry fitted into the position on the prototype. Also, I’ve drilled little holes and glued in all the grab handles back into prototype positions.

sprueone

Detail shot of the ‘Storage Bin’ on this end.

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Ready for primer . . .

Next: the pulley system for the power generator.

This was made with parts from the parts box including cassette tape cartridge parts, a 1/72 tank road wheel and other parts I don’t remember where they are from.

This will be non-op and just for looks

spares box parts pulley system

spares box parts make pulley systemnow under primer

Sprue, you’re making some great progress. That is looking so fantastic!

Now for my update. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to; I’ve been so busy this week and ran out of time.

I did manage to get further along on my Russian Armored trains. I had wanted to get started on the photo-etch for them, but was too short of time. So I pulled out the little BT-7 tank and added the last pieces:

Since there were only a few photo-etch parts for this tank, I added them to it to finish this little tank:

Now I’ve seen a few different pictures of how they stack the tracks on the fender when they remove them. I need to research a little more to determine how I want to add the tracks to the tops of the fenders on this model after I paint it. Meanwhile, I also finished the last of the long flatcars I had still to do. I finally found all the parts so now this last one is done except for the bumpers and photo-etch:

Just for fun, here’s how these two will look on the train:

That’s all I got done so far on these. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to get some more progress done before too long. Thanks for looking in.

nice tiny work. How did you shape the engine grille so even and consistantly?

Thanks Sprue! I curled the edge around a paintbrush handle until it matched the curve of the side pieces. Easy peasy.

Good thinking [I]

Last weekend I sprayed an under-base color of Rustoleum red primer and flat black so the following Krylon bright yellow wouldn’t be so bright. This replica build will not look like a brand new caboose but almost 30 years of service later.

sprueone

Preshade under-base coat

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UP yellow base coat.

Decals and weathering to follow. . . thanks for looking

This is looking better and better. Nice job getting a strong, even coat on the yellow. Looks like you are almost there.

Thanks for the compliment

Decals from Microscale are set and some pre-weathering

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sprueone

SPRUE that looks really good. all the wok paid off.

DUKE the "tracks " on some BA-6s were on the rear fenders or wrapped around the back. i imagine they would be rolled up and set on the back deck on their side. or, in your case, rolled up on the flat car. that green plastic, like black plastis, is just weird.

Thanks Wayne! I have heard that their tracks were also laid on the side fenders along the length of the tank. I’m going to be checking out various photos to see what looks best and try to copy that for this tank. Meanwhile, I still have other work to do on so many other train cars. I agree, this green plastic is a bit hard to work with; I can’t wait to get the P/E on these so I can paint them!