Monday, January 18, 2016

Putting Daylight Under the Locomotives

Today's project was using a Dremel tool to put some "daylight" under the three Peter Pig locomotives for my Old West game that's building.
 Safety first, especially the dust mask - don't want to breathe those tiny particles of resin.  The two pieces of wood are for use in the vice - to prevent crushing the resin.  I used one other tool, a reamer with a smaller point, in the Dremel.  The cone shape was most useful of the other three seen here but I used all three.
 Here is what the engine looks like, a block of resin with a locomotive on top.  My goal was to improve upon that without ruining anything.  Hopefully!
 Here is the first victim in the vice.  Ended up doing the other two in my hand because I had more control.
 Here you can see the dramatic difference between the unit on the right and the unit on the left.  To my eye at least, this is a considerable improvement.
 And here are all three after the work was 'done.'
 And a much closer shot showing there is now daylight under most of the engine.
 Here are those same three on a piece on HOn3 flex track - the rightmost isn't crooked, I just didn't notice how far off the track it was when I took the photo.
And a last closer view - a bit out of focus.

Not everything went perfect.  I will have to do a little repair on at least one each truck wheel and drive wheel but I'd rather that than put the blocky resin version on a game table.  Besides, if I'd ruined one of the engines I'd just order another one and then have an extra tender to use with one of my Glencoe locomotives and then re-purpose a flat car.  You might even say I was a little hopeful that might happen - but not tempted to force it.  I may go back and do a little more work on the under carriage but probably not.  Hopefully, once fully assembled and painted, they will look just fine.

Progress.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

The Project Begins - The Old West Trains

What follows not only shows my winter project, or the central "piece" of it, but also allows others interested in 15 mm Old West locomotives and trains to compare and contrast some of what is available from both Peter Pig and Glencoe models (just locomotives from the last, in plastic).
Above is an overview shot of my 15 mm Old West train project - the railroad items and a variety of scratch building supplies for modifying some of the cars into other things railroady.
Here you can see all but one of the freight cars.  The eight to the rear are the boxcars that just need to be prepped, assembled, and painted.  The flat cars, there is one more, and the cabooses will mostly get modified.  One of the caboose will be left as is as a drover's caboose, the other three will be modified to more standard caboose.  The sixteen flatcars break down like this - six become stock cars, three become the basis for tenders for some of the Glencoe model steam locomotives, two become tank cars, three become gondolas, and three stay as flat cars.
Here are the two resin pieces for a Peter Pig locomotive.
The box car and the flat car.
One side of the caboose, the other side is a little different with two windows on one end - you can just see them over the right side on the caboose behind.

A somewhat closer view of the locomotive.
Here are two of the Glencoe model locomotives, the Central Pacific and the cabbage stack - the latter needs one of those flat car converted tenders.  If you look to the right side you'll see two sets of trucks that will guide the gauge of the track.  (well, probably, might cheat this, see below)
Here is the box they come in.
Here are the other two Glencoe model locomotives, the General in need of a tender and the Porter.  And you can see the box they come in - you'll notice there is another box cover cut up, I have two sets of these.
Here is the passenger car and the parts to go with it - the four truck frames, the two axles, and the two end rails.  I have eleven of these, three to be converted to combines, one to be converted to an express baggage car, and one to be converted to a parlor car. That means six coaches stay as designed.
Here is a flat car and the parts - same for the box car and the caboose, four truck frames, two axles, and two brake wheels.
Here is the Peter Pig locomotive with the headlight, stack, bell and the sides and top of the cab.
And here is the tender with the four truck frames, two axles, and the one break wheel in metal sitting on the resin tender.
 Still in there bags are many of the metal components for the freight and passenger cars.  Those two bits of track in black come with the Glencoe models as display bases.
The observant among you will notice the set at the top right is missing one truck frame and both brake wheels - I'll have to contact Peter Pig about replacing the missing pieces.
 A different view of the freight cars less the flat car seen off by itself - the three to the far right will supply the basis for those three needed tenders for the Glencoe models.
 And the passenger cars other than the one by itself with the metal components seen earlier.
 This is an HO bridge I might convert for use, not sure yet.
The square piece of wood will provide the 'cores' for the six stock cars.  The largest dowel will provide the 'core' for the two tank cars - and one of the smaller dowels will supply the access hatch of the tank cars.
Here is what will be used to clad the tank car and in the back are lots of plastic pieces that will be used in various ways when doing the conversions.
And last, for now, is a reverse shot of the table full of railroady stuff.  What you aren't seeing is the material for the track, which might be scratch built or might be HOn3 track.  I have some of what I need to scratch build and I have one section of HOn3 flex track to see if it will work.

I guess I should point out that all of this has been assembled over a period of many years - except for most of the scratch building materials acquired as recently as the day before posting these photos, some others a week earlier.  Remember, if you click on the photos you should get a larger image.

So, does this project qualify as "epic"?  Maybe not.  Probably qualifies as excessive, though.  But fun. The real purpose of a hobby is fun - not just to fill time.  Hope you've enjoyed part one of what will be many more postings.