Detailing a Hopper
I wrote a little bit about a week or so ago about starting to convert some old American Flyer S scale hoppers to O scale narrow gauge. I do a little bit on this project every now and then and today I made some more headway on this project.
I had already stripped the bodies in a bath of rubbing alcohol. The lettering and any paint came off easily with a toothbrush after only a few minutes in the bath. Of course, I had previously removed all the trucks and couplers.
After taking a dip in the alcohol bath, I quickly found that three of the hoppers are molded gray plastic and one is molded black plastic. The black plastic is softer than the gray plastic so it is easier to work... cutting, filing, sanding... but that does not mean the more brittle gray plastic makes any of these things difficult to accomplish. I suspect the black plastic will hold paint better too.
I built a small jig to start bending brass grab irons. I will need 16 small ones... and 8 large ones. I might also bend some of this brass rod for stirrup steps... four on each hopper... or, I'll pick up some flat brass stock for the stirrup steps... I haven't decided yet. Today, however, I started bending brass, drilling tiny holes and dry fitting these tiny grab irons...
My plan is to put a dab of super glue in each tiny hole using a toothpick and then carefully slide each grab iron into the holes until the correct depth is reached. They should dry within seconds.
Once all these grab irons are cut, bent and glued in place, I'll decide what to do about stirrup steps hanging off each corner... flat brass stock or brass rod. I need to order some brake wheels to install on one end of each car (the ends shown in these photos... hmmm... I really need to order these). Then I'll install the coupler boxes to the correct height. And then, I can spray on some black paint.
I'm planning to number each of these cars too... nothing fancy... just a big 'ole number on each side of each hopper. This will be a small narrow gauge railroad pretty much going by their own rules so I'm not going to add all the railroad car specs on each car... just a number on each side. Once this is all complete, then I can do a little bit of weathering to finish up the project.
I'm not really planning to go crazy with a lot of details nor worrying about exact "standard" dimensions (after all, I decided to leave some of the molded details in place) but I want just enough extra details to make a bit of a noticeable difference and make these hoppers "mine".
These four open hopper cars are coming along and they should look nice!
I had already stripped the bodies in a bath of rubbing alcohol. The lettering and any paint came off easily with a toothbrush after only a few minutes in the bath. Of course, I had previously removed all the trucks and couplers.
After taking a dip in the alcohol bath, I quickly found that three of the hoppers are molded gray plastic and one is molded black plastic. The black plastic is softer than the gray plastic so it is easier to work... cutting, filing, sanding... but that does not mean the more brittle gray plastic makes any of these things difficult to accomplish. I suspect the black plastic will hold paint better too.
I built a small jig to start bending brass grab irons. I will need 16 small ones... and 8 large ones. I might also bend some of this brass rod for stirrup steps... four on each hopper... or, I'll pick up some flat brass stock for the stirrup steps... I haven't decided yet. Today, however, I started bending brass, drilling tiny holes and dry fitting these tiny grab irons...
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| Brass grab irons dry fit into holes... |
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| Brass grab irons... two on each end and a long one on each side... are dry fit in place. |
My plan is to put a dab of super glue in each tiny hole using a toothpick and then carefully slide each grab iron into the holes until the correct depth is reached. They should dry within seconds.
Once all these grab irons are cut, bent and glued in place, I'll decide what to do about stirrup steps hanging off each corner... flat brass stock or brass rod. I need to order some brake wheels to install on one end of each car (the ends shown in these photos... hmmm... I really need to order these). Then I'll install the coupler boxes to the correct height. And then, I can spray on some black paint.
I'm planning to number each of these cars too... nothing fancy... just a big 'ole number on each side of each hopper. This will be a small narrow gauge railroad pretty much going by their own rules so I'm not going to add all the railroad car specs on each car... just a number on each side. Once this is all complete, then I can do a little bit of weathering to finish up the project.
I'm not really planning to go crazy with a lot of details nor worrying about exact "standard" dimensions (after all, I decided to leave some of the molded details in place) but I want just enough extra details to make a bit of a noticeable difference and make these hoppers "mine".
These four open hopper cars are coming along and they should look nice!
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