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Post by acelaphillies on Mar 24, 2014 20:26:30 GMT -5
Hi guys, As I am nearing completion of my custom NJ Transit P40, I have recently begun work on my three Island Modelworks Bombardier Multilevels for my ACES train. This is my first time building a resin model (and I guess I am diving in head first LOL  ), so I am going to need some help from some of you more experienced modelers. I would like to take my time with these so that they come out well. Here are some older pictures of what these cars looked like out of the box:   This is what the cars look like now:  As you can see, I have removed a lot of the flash from the windows. I have also given these cars a good bath. The next step is filling in many of the casting imperfections with putty. This is where I am hung up.  As you can see in this picture, many of the little imperfections are in hard to reach areas. What tools do you guys use for applying putty in such spots? Also, how do you get the bulky sandpaper in there to get the surface nice and smooth? I don't want to sand too much and sand off some of the molded on details, such as window gaskets. Also, for those of you that have worked on resin models, do you sand the entire car? I am planning on putting on a clear coat of Future floor polish before giving it a primer coat of paint. I read about this on Kyle's MLRR site, and I am hoping that this will help hide some of the micro-imperfections in the shell. IMO, Kyle's MARC cars came out very nice. His tutorials are always very helpful and informative. Thanks! |
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Post by backshophoss on Mar 25, 2014 1:51:52 GMT -5
Harbor Freight Tools,and maybe Hobby Lobby/Michels,have small dental type tools that can help fill some of the scratchs,figure on burning thru a few X-acto blades as well. Unless you need a lot of putty(modeler's bondo  )file/sand where needed,beware of the dust,clean files to prevent clogging. |
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cab4
Member
Posts: 149
Primary Railroads: Conrail, NJ DOT, Amtrak, SEPTA, NJT
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Post by cab4 on Mar 25, 2014 23:13:08 GMT -5
I might avoid sanding the whole car.... that said, that door is a problem.
Here is what I would do- get some K&S Engineering "Sanding Films". Not only will those reach in easier, but they can wet-sand, and they standard assortment should allow you to refinish nearly every surface.
Next, pick up some Squadron Puddy. In this case, the white puddy may be wise depending on your paint plans, but I also use the green puddy successfully.
anyways, without to much excess, rub in some of that puddy while it is "fresh" (it gets crumbly fast). I just leave it alone for ~20+ minutes. Then I come back with the sanding films.
There are 5 films, and i start with the middle one to knock off the excess puddy, and as I get close to the plastic, i switch to the finer grits. The last one will make it shine! Ideally, the only place that will have puddy are the cuts in your door, and the bare plastic will be flush around it.
Sometimes when you do this, the sanding film will take out a chunk of puddy, so just start over until it is smooth and full.
Its a pain, but almost all of IMW's shells will require this kind of work.
Because of all the molded on details, it might be harder to really get rid of the finer "ridges" in the body shell, and you might be better off living with these than trying to polish every single car.
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Post by backshophoss on Mar 26, 2014 2:50:58 GMT -5
A thought,the cars get banged around a bit when in regular service,so a dent,ding,or scratch would not be out of place.  |
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Post by acelaphillies on Mar 26, 2014 15:08:22 GMT -5
BSH, I have already burned through a few X-ACTO blades, so that is a definite! I might avoid sanding the whole car.... that said, that door is a problem. Here is what I would do- get some K&S Engineering "Sanding Films". Not only will those reach in easier, but they can wet-sand, and they standard assortment should allow you to refinish nearly every surface. Next, pick up some Squadron Puddy. In this case, the white puddy may be wise depending on your paint plans, but I also use the green puddy successfully. anyways, without to much excess, rub in some of that puddy while it is "fresh" (it gets crumbly fast). I just leave it alone for ~20+ minutes. Then I come back with the sanding films. There are 5 films, and i start with the middle one to knock off the excess puddy, and as I get close to the plastic, i switch to the finer grits. The last one will make it shine! Ideally, the only place that will have puddy are the cuts in your door, and the bare plastic will be flush around it. Sometimes when you do this, the sanding film will take out a chunk of puddy, so just start over until it is smooth and full. Its a pain, but almost all of IMW's shells will require this kind of work. Because of all the molded on details, it might be harder to really get rid of the finer "ridges" in the body shell, and you might be better off living with these than trying to polish every single car. Cab4, thanks for the tips. I already have the Squadron white putty which is what I am using. I will look into the sanding films. Do they not have a paper back like normal sandpaper? What do you use to physically rub it in? Just your finger or do you have a specific tool? |
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cab4
Member
Posts: 149
Primary Railroads: Conrail, NJ DOT, Amtrak, SEPTA, NJT
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Post by cab4 on Mar 26, 2014 17:44:46 GMT -5
A thought,the cars get banged around a bit when in regular service,so a dent,ding,or scratch would not be out of place. If it were a boxcar, maybe, but these passenger cars probably won't have that sort of damage. Hopefully, when Joe puts IMW back into action, he might improve the nature of his molding process to avoid these defects. Cab4, thanks for the tips. I already have the Squadron white putty which is what I am using. I will look into the sanding films. Do they not have a paper back like normal sandpaper? What do you use to physically rub it in? Just your finder or do you have a specific tool? That is correct, the grit is mounted on a clear film-like substrate. this lets you bend it a little easier, its not as stiff as sandpaper. You really shouldn't use your finger, but I do sometimes. I usually end up using a flat screw driver or a chisel blade (either #17 or #18, i can't remember the specific blade number) to apply it in thin layers. |
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Post by acelaphillies on Mar 27, 2014 6:07:22 GMT -5
A thought,the cars get banged around a bit when in regular service,so a dent,ding,or scratch would not be out of place. If it were a boxcar, maybe, but these passenger cars probably won't have that sort of damage. Hopefully, when Joe puts IMW back into action, he might improve the nature of his molding process to avoid these defects. Cab4, thanks for the tips. I already have the Squadron white putty which is what I am using. I will look into the sanding films. Do they not have a paper back like normal sandpaper? What do you use to physically rub it in? Just your finder or do you have a specific tool? That is correct, the grit is mounted on a clear film-like substrate. this lets you bend it a little easier, its not as stiff as sandpaper. You really shouldn't use your finger, but I do sometimes. I usually end up using a flat screw driver or a chisel blade (either #17 or #18, i can't remember the specific blade number) to apply it in thin layers. Cool, those sanding films sound like they will do the job. I was thinking that you shouldn't really touch the stuff. Thise suggestions to use a flathead or chisel blade are perfect, thanks! |
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cab4
Member
Posts: 149
Primary Railroads: Conrail, NJ DOT, Amtrak, SEPTA, NJT
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Post by cab4 on Apr 20, 2014 12:48:37 GMT -5
Looks like I'm in this boat now, I ended up with 4 coaches and a cab car recently. I've had a spare ALP46 shell for a long time, and I'm thinking about doing that one up fancy with see-thru grill and such. I gotta study the March 2003 RMC a little closer. I did do one ALP46 shell before, but its not as fantastic as I'd like.
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Post by acelaphillies on Apr 21, 2014 9:12:11 GMT -5
Looks like I'm in this boat now, I ended up with 4 coaches and a cab car recently. I've had a spare ALP46 shell for a long time, and I'm thinking about doing that one up fancy with see-thru grill and such. I gotta study the March 2003 RMC a little closer. I did do one ALP46 shell before, but its not as fantastic as I'd like. Nice! Maybe we can work through them together... A see-through grill would be really neat. If you are custom painting the ALP-46 I would highly recommend picking up some Tamiya tape. Apply it and then burnish the edges with a toothpick. That's how I have had the most success at keeping crisp paint lines. |
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Post by backshophoss on Apr 21, 2014 15:51:31 GMT -5
The only Commuter rail that runs mixed bi-levels and single levels(aka"flats")in the consist on a regular basis is MBTA(MBCR), the Deadhead moves don't count. Seems there's a different control setup in the Comm line between the Comets and the Multi-Levels that doesn't play well together.  |
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Post by acelaphillies on Apr 21, 2014 16:05:37 GMT -5
The only Commuter rail that runs mixed bi-levels and single levels(aka"flats")in the consist on a regular basis is MBTA(MBCR), the Deadhead moves don't count. Seems there's a different control setup in the Comm line between the Comets and the Multi-Levels that doesn't play well together. MARC runs single and multilevel cars together as well. But correct, NJT does not. |
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Post by backshophoss on Apr 21, 2014 16:25:04 GMT -5
The 1 time I was stuck at a warehouse along side the NEC near Balt MD saw only 2 MARC single level
sets pulled by GP-39's. That the CSX side allowed mixed sets is a bit of a suprise.
FYI,most of the T's single level cars have MANUAL DOORS from the get-go,only the new Rotems,and
rebuilt "K" Bi-levels have some what working door Controls(from what I gather from the MBTA forum on RR.net)
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cab4
Member
Posts: 149
Primary Railroads: Conrail, NJ DOT, Amtrak, SEPTA, NJT
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Post by cab4 on Apr 22, 2014 11:25:47 GMT -5
Looks like I'm in this boat now, I ended up with 4 coaches and a cab car recently. I've had a spare ALP46 shell for a long time, and I'm thinking about doing that one up fancy with see-thru grill and such. I gotta study the March 2003 RMC a little closer. I did do one ALP46 shell before, but its not as fantastic as I'd like. Nice! Maybe we can work through them together... A see-through grill would be really neat. If you are custom painting the ALP-46 I would highly recommend picking up some Tamiya tape. Apply it and then burnish the edges with a toothpick. That's how I have had the most success at keeping crisp paint lines. As far as the ALP46 went, it was an early paint attempt by me, so the spray can (problem #1) went on a little thick. I was able to fix that, but then I wasn't able to put the decals on totally straight. They're not obviously crooked, but they aren't perfect. That had to be 6 or 7 years ago, and I know I can do a sharper job now. |
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Post by stevef45 on Oct 7, 2014 4:31:34 GMT -5
any updates on these cars? I had planned on making the ACES set when it was first announced, had an athearn dummer p40 i did in NJT colors, well never really finished the orange and white stripes, had an undecorated alp44 but no coaches. I was going to do them with the boardwalk empire wraps they had back in 2011. But i sold the alp44 and the ace's have been discontinued, so i never bothered really doing it.
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Post by acelaphillies on Oct 7, 2014 20:56:26 GMT -5
any updates on these cars? I had planned on making the ACES set when it was first announced, had an athearn dummer p40 i did in NJT colors, well never really finished the orange and white stripes, had an undecorated alp44 but no coaches. I was going to do them with the boardwalk empire wraps they had back in 2011. But i sold the alp44 and the ace's have been discontinued, so i never bothered really doing it. I'm glad you asked! During the summer months I didn't do much modeling, but recently I have been doing some work on these cars. I spent a good amount of time adding putty to all three cars a few weeks ago, then more recently I broke out my Dremmel and shaved off some of the flash that was too thick for a knife. What I need to do now is touch up with the knife, then go back with some sandpaper and more putty. Here are progress photos:    It may not look like a lot, but it is a decent amount of work. If you look back at the first post in this thread though, it is quite a large difference from straight out of the box. My opinion is that if I put in more tedious work now, it pay off later in a better finish. My longterm goal is to have these cars completely finished by the time that my ALP-44 arrives in early 2015. That way I should be able to have my ACES set up and running when I get the electric. |
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), so I am going to need some help from some of you more experienced modelers. I would like to take my time with these so that they come out well.
)file/sand where needed,beware of the dust,clean files
