CN Prairie
Ho Scale CNR layout set in 1959
Wednesday 10 April 2024
Resin kit learnings
Wednesday 27 March 2024
Farm Details IH 3 bottom plow
I painted it IH red using an airbrush and then hand painted the rims and tires. My model is seen as a new item at the dealership so I left the plow shears red. There is also no weathering on it.
Can you see the difference between the first two pictures and the last two pictures?
Thursday 21 March 2024
Farm Details GHQ IH manure spreader
Farm Stone Boat
Here is a little 1hr project. It is called a stone boat because they used to haul stones on I guess. It has 2 4x6" skids and 2x6" planks on top of the skids. There is a chain attached to the end of the skids and could then be hooked up to a tractor or a horse. We had one and it was also used to haul manure from the barn to the field. You forked it on and you froked it off. My grandfather used to haul water in the winter in barrels which worked until you hit a snow drift and tiped them. This usually happened in the last few hundred feet from the house and so back you went so I was told. It had 2 posts on the front with a a board attached to the top of them. You stood behind this if you were driving horses. It was removed when there were no more horses being used. You can haul all kinds of awkward pieces around the yard. It finally rotted away in the 70's
Sunday 3 March 2024
Refurbished old passenger car
This was car was bought second hand for $10 and is 60' long. I use it as my way freight train on the branch line. It only serves two towns with 24" radius curves. It is not intended to be a model of an exact CN car but it is correct for the era. It needed to be repainted on the outside and touched up on the inside. I then added older square CN decals to age it a bit. I also added LED lights to the inside that get power from the axels. The roof was always removable so that helped when I refurbished the car.
Here it has been sanded to remove paint runs and brush strokes. The glass for the windows was glued in as a single piece on the inside so I cut out masking for the windows on the laser. It only took 40min to draw, cut and install the window masking.
Friday 2 February 2024
Track Cable Hoe My Toughest Build Ever
This kit is from Woodland Scenics which is not the best made kit. It required a lot of filing and filling to make it fit together. The best part of the kit are the tracks and the bucket. I suppose you get what you pay for. This kit requires alot of adjustments. I invested a great deal of time in this build... there were hours worth of filing and fitting it together and once I started I could not let it go. I did put it away 3 or 4 times and would go back to it. It requires lots of bending and straightening of parts and the body to get it to fit together. You fit bend, file, fit bend file until you get it to fit. You do need to paint the inside of the cabs and motor first. I had to file the seat so you could get the cab on and in the end I put the seat in by going through the door. I added the operator the same way through the door. I weathered it with chalks after it was painted. I would buy another one but only to acquire the tracks, bucket and motor for other projects. It will be far enough back in the layout you will not be able to see some of the flaws.
Here are some pictures of the final model
IH Model H Tractors
Here are some variations of the different models of the model H tractor. They all started out from the tractor on the left, I used the wheels from the tractor on the right to give me duals for the center tractor. I think they all look really good. This all took about 2hrs. Just used styrene tubing for the packer wheels. The packer tractor is the only one that is weathered, the other 2 are for sale at the dealership. I need to see if me decal guy and print these decals they are tiny.
Here is a picture of the real steel wheel packer
Here is a picture of the model H with duals only with a wide front wheel spacing
Here is a picture of the real orignial model H narrow front
The next one I will do is this tractor with the wide front wheels. So come back to this page if it interestes you.
Saturday 21 January 2023
Scratch Built Car models part 2
CN Boom Car
1. Construction
The car was built from my own scale CAD drawings and some parts were cut out on a laser. The entire car was scratch built except for the purchased parts. The walls for the cabin, end sill, and bolster were cut on the laser. This car also has an interior. It follows the pictures of prototype cars but not exactly as I took certain features that I liked from different cars.
2. Detail
I used semi scale couplers and wheel sets. air hoses, brake system, fish belly under frame. The interior has tools, bunk bed, desk, stove, pin up girl on the wall, safety warnings signs, notes and instructions on the wall and chains. I have added blocking, spreader bars, cable, tool box, pieces of rail to the deck. The under frame has braking and all the bracing. There is a kick plate on the bottom of the door front door.
3. Conformity
The building of this car closely follow but not exactly the CN type car that was built from a converted flatcar from CN. I did not have diagrams of the under frame or the interior. The car has a fish belly under frame. The sides of the cabin have 3.5 in vertically spaced boards on the walls and ends. The floor is 5in boards on the inside and out. The brake system is AB with a rising stem brake wheel. The exterior colours and lettering are correct for CN car pre 1959. The roof and the top of the end walls are plywood. It has a wood roof walk. The trucks are Bentendorf on one end and caboose truck under the cabin. There are no boards going up to the roof walkway in the pictures I had.
4.Finish
The top of the floor, and interior of the roof are finished with scaled and printed wood textures on paper. The inside of the roof is plywood texture. The floor is 6" boards. These textures are scaled then cut out and glued to the styrene roof and floor. The interior of the car is then weathered. The exterior and underside of the floor is scribed styrene. The car was air brushed a CN red #11 and weather with chalks. The lettering is a custom decal set I had made.
5.Scratch Building
The car is scratch built from my own CAD drawings with the exception of brake parts, trucks, wheels, coupler and box. The walls, roof, frame, bolsters were built from plain or scribed styrene. There is lead added between the fish belly sills to give weight. The spreader bars, deck boxes, stove, doors are also scratch built. The low sides are built using board by board.
Commercial Parts
-Tichy AB brake parts, grab irons and stake pockets
-Tichy grab irons
-Kadee air hoses, semi scale couplers, coupler pockets and 088 wheel sets
-Accurail Andrews trucks
-Trueline CN #11 red paint
-Custom made decals
-scale chain
-weathering chalks
Building Materials
-.04 scribed and plain styrene sheet
-.06 plain styrene sheet
-.005 clear sheet
-styrene 1x2, 1x4, 1x6, 2x2, 2x4,2x6, 2x8, 4x4, 4x6
-styrene round rod
-lead sheet .02
-cut wood for blocking
CN/GTP Horse Car
CN168108 Horse Car
It is the oldest built car I have on my layout it was GTP in 5/1889
1. Construction
This car was built from Cad drawings that I made from some pictures I have of this car and data from Ian Cranston's Canadian Freight Cars site. Styrene was used for just about all the construction. My main concern during this build was that this car would run properly as it will be a working car on my layout. Some parts were cut on the laser and lathe.
2. Detail
All the brake piping and parts have been added. The roof vents. The top boards on the wall. Trim around the small vents. Roof grabs. Custom decals. Cut levers. Queen posts are made from stick pins and .015 wire for the tension rods. I had queen posts but could not find them until I was done!!! Water tanks. Air hoses. Screen on doors, end doors and vents. Supports for roof walk, stalls, straw, feed and feed containers for the horses I know the cross brasses are not like the ones pictured because I could not make them work and have dependable support for the car due to the delicate nature of the parts that would have been required. So the design was changed. All the doors are glued on with tacky glue so the doors can be positioned open or closed.
3. Conformity
The building of this car closely follows the pictures of the proto type but not exactly. Some data was used from other types of horse cars. The car was built for GTP in 5/1889. The car was rebuilt 1930 then renumbered in the series 168100-168122. These cars were retired between 1961 and 1966. It received an all steel under frame in 1930. I did not have diagrams of the under frame or the interior. This car is IL 48’, IW 9’, IH 7’8”. The car has a fish belly under frame. The sides have 3.5 in vertically spaced boards on the walls and ends. The floor is 5in boards on the inside and out. The brake system is AB with a rising stem brake wheel. The exterior colours and lettering are correct for CN freight car per 1959. The roof and the top of the end walls are plywood. It has a wood roof walk. The trucks are Bentendorf. There is 1x4 strip added on the top of the sides and ends and metal on the corners where the ends and sides meet. It has 18”grabs, cut levers and roof vents. This car has no boards from car edge to walkway, when this car was built plywood was not yet standardized to 4’x 8’ sheets. The stalls are built to a common design that could be folded up on the inside of the car.
4.Finish
The floor, is finished with scaled and printed wood texture. These texture is cut out and glued to the styrene floor. The interior of the car is then weathered. The car was air brushed a CN red #11 and weather with chalks. The decals for this car were custom made. Straw has been add to the floor and a pile of feed for horses. Screen was added to the small vents, doors and end door opening using used plastic tea bag material.
5.Scratch Building
The entire car is scratch built with the exception of brake parts, trucks, wheels, coupler and box. The walls, roof, frame, bolsters and stalls were built from styrene. I drew the car in CAD. There is lead added between the sides of the fish belly frame to give weight. The walls, doors, centre sill, bolsters and braces are laser cut. The water tanks under the floor and the roof vents I made on my lathe. The wall and door board lines were rastered on both sides of plain styrene sheet, then the parts were cutout. The centre sill is laminated together with a layer of styrene on the outside and pieces of lead sheet in between to add weight to the car, then a trim was added to the bottom. The slots and holes for the brake lines were drilled and then used my Dremel to mill the slots. The bolsters were laminated together and drilled and tapped. The coupler boxes were placed and the floor was drilled and tapped for a 2-56 screw. This way they can be removed to replace springs if needed. The roof interior braces were laser cut. The roof was built and the braces in stalled. I manged to cut the walkway supports with the lathe, they are so tiny. These were glued on to the roof then 1x6 boards were glued to them. Due to the delicate nature nail holes were not applied. The trim around the small top vents was also laser cut. Door tracks, handles, supports, and small parts were added.
The 2 larger vessels are the water tanks
This shows the inside of the roof and the roof brackets that hold the roof panels and slides in against the walls
Here is a picture with it loaded with horses. The stalls are made from styrene strip
The doors are held on with tacky clue so they can be put in the open position if I want. The window screen on the doors is from nylon tea bags. It is an old car at this point and is weather acordingly. The decals are custom made, it has a pylwood roof and was built before plywood came in 4x8ft sheets.
Materials Used
Evergreen
-.06 plain sheet
-.04 styrene .03 grooved
-.04 plain styrene sheet
-.02 plain styrene sheet
-.01 plain styrene sheet
-.005 clear styrene sheet
-.02, .04 styrene rod
-.06 styrene tube
-.04 half round styrene
-1x2,1x3, 1x4, 1x6, 1x8, 2x4, 2x6, 2x8, 2x10, 2x12, 4x4, 4x6 6x8, 8x10 styrene
-.02 lead sheet
-.012 music wire
-.016 music wire
-straight pins
-1/8”, 1/4” wood dowel
-printed wood texture
-used tea bags for screen
Purchased Parts
-Accurail trucks
-Tichy AB brake parts
-Tichy 18” grabs
-Tichy stirrups
-Kadee air hoses
-Kadee semi scale couplers and boxes
-Kadee semi scale wheels