Funaro&Camerlengo HOn30 SR&RL Caboose #556

[roughneck]

Thought this past weekend would be a decaling party, but an antique boat and motor show kept us busy. I did get a sub roof layed out and cut. The kit came with .020 thick styrene but it was a mite too thick for me. I've made a F&C before and struggled with the thick plastic. I cut a sub roof from some .010 thick stuff I had in the supply draw. First it was cut to an overall size plus about three scale inches more that the finished roof. An opening for the coupola was removed and then the complete piece of plastic was wrapped around an exacto blade handle. I clamped it with some of those old metal spring clips used in an office to hold papers together. I used my heat gun to carefully apply heat to the plastic. Slowly moving the heat back and forther from about six inches away. The heat helped form the plastic into a concave roof. This will make attaching the roof easier. Spray the car with some gloss finish and tomorrow it will be decal time.

subroof.JPG (24.67 KiB) Viewed 575 times

[roughneck]

Well tomorrow became yesterday and finally got this little guy decaled. The decals supplied are very thin, thank goodness it had three sets. The first try ended with frustration and one set down the drain. I needed to work much quicker. One name across the top and numbers at both ends, Done!

decals.JPG (28.41 KiB) Viewed 556 times

All handrails are attched along with the brake wheel at both ends. Two coats of flat and I had to try the sub roof to see how it will fit with the coupola. Some final trimming and it might fly.

roof.JPG (20.28 KiB) Viewed 556 times

Next, window material, some inside back supports for the bench seats running along the outside walls and work on the trucks. Slow and steady.

[ReadingBob]

Looks great! Keep the pictures coming.

[Railman28]

That's a good looking caboose

[jimmillho]

Nice Looking Caboose Cuz.

Jim

[roughneck]

Thanks Bob, railman and Jim. I'm having fun with this one. Have finished fitting the roof to the body and attached with ACC. Posting a picture taken before I applied tissue paper to the roof but it needs to be trimmed and a coat of black paint added.

roofwalks.JPG (23.56 KiB) Viewed 506 times

Trimmed the roof walks and painted with primer, again after this pic. Still more to do.

David

[roughneck]

Spent some time today laying out guide lines for the roof grabs on the cupola. I thought a template would help with the placement of the grabs. Attached a paper pattern and drilled through it into the roof.

DSCN0859.JPG (36.1 KiB) Viewed 494 times

Also attached some thin balsa wood for roof walk supports. These will be sanded down to a thin profile and then the walk can be glued on.

DSCN0860.JPG (37.37 KiB) Viewed 494 times

That's it for now

David

[roughneck]

The roof walk supports and walks are attached, need to add some dry brush and A&I to complete but first the caboose needs trucks.

Walk supports & walks attached

roofwalksattached.JPG (38.36 KiB) Viewed 411 times

Attached the trucks to check height. The kit as designed allows the couplers to sit at scale height but the HOn30 groups decided to use the n-scale coupler gauge to have all our equipment conform, makes it much easier to have a train of different members cars assemble a consist at meets and run a train. The picture shows the caboose sitting on trucks at the correct height. I will need to insert spacers to get it to the N-scale coupler height.

coupler height

couplerheight.JPG (37.38 KiB) Viewed 411 times

David