Couple of months ago I purchased a kit from Portland Loco Works for a Franklin & Megantic combine that would later become SR&RL's No. 11. The kit features laser cut walls and underbody floor framing.
My kit came with white metal castings for the end platforms. For some reason my two end platforms were slightly different heights?? I ask PLW for the correct replacement but was told he didn't have any more......so I had to use what I had gotten in the kit.
Most interesting was the kit's one piece 3-D printed clerestory roof! It was nicely formed but had a couple of issues to work around. First, the resin itself was not of the best quality available today and was a little rough when it came to the top letter boards. I had to do a lot of sanding to get them smooth enough for paint and decals.
Second the small rectangular ventilation windows along the clerestory were printed solid (closed). I debated opening each of them up and installing clear styrene, but gave up when I saw how difficult a job it would be given fraility of 3-D printed parts.
I ended up painted them with a light green wash and followed up with a light orange rust wash to give it a bit of a colored glass look. (only moderately successful here)
In the end, while a lot of time was spent on the kit, it was a pleasant build. I painted it a mixture of green/black paint with the standard SR red roof. I lettered it for the Franklin & Megantic Railway, as this was the name of the railroad just before being absorbed in the SR in the consolidation in 1892.
Nice build, Tom. And you answered my question regarding those windows. I have a couple of PLW's printed roofs in HO with plans to model something. I was debating opening them up. I like the results of your build!
ReplyDeletePete