Atlas Refer Conversion to Proto:48

Nice detailing and additions; looking forward to the P48 part.....

Thanks....

That's fantastic modelling, simply great work!!

Great looking reefer, you do very fine work.

Malcolm

Thanks to all for your compliments.....

And now a sort update......after viewing the photos of the ice hatches I decided to replace them.....  they just looked so out of place......   This will set back the painting a bit .....  See the photos.....you can see by the before and after photos that there really is a huge difference......   paint and weathering will help as well.....

Regards

Bill

Just a quick update on progress with the Atlas refer conversion.

I completed the under-carriage, adding weights and couplers and securing the frame to the wood deck.  This is accomplished by using two small self tap screws (Kadee) that are virtually hidden between the channel that forms the frame.  The screws that hold the couplers also aid in securing the two pieces together.

The couplers are the top pin style provided by Protocraft and they are really nice!  I had to remove the lift bars and shorten the lift bar to coupler extension a bit.  This looked like a big deal but was pretty easy.

The photos show the frame affixed to the wood deck.  I used a .005 marking pen to highlight the spaces between deck boards.  Even though I beveled the edges the space all but disappears when the floor is assembled....  the marking seemed to help.

The trucks are P:48 items again from Protocraft.  I used a soft wire wheel in my Dremel tool to polish the treads a bit and denote some wear.

I use Bada brand tape weights that I got from my Napa Auto parts store for weights.  This may look like overkill but it provides and wonderfully solid and smooth tracking car.  I won't have much if anything in the way of grades on my layout so this is not an issue.

I am just in a hold pattern now until the paint arrives.  

I have decals for a Western Pacific car and I would really like to use them.  The one challenge here is that they were provided by Tichy.  They tend to be very thick but  I think I have a solution for this problem and I will relay that in a subsequent post.

The photos show the progress so far......

I particularly like your work on the underframe.

Here is an update on my decal issue for the Atlas Refer conversion.

I found a really nice set of Western Pacific decals that I would like to use.  However, they are provided by Tichy and despite being very nice in appearance they have a problem.  The problem is that they are very thick.  Especially the logos.  Tichy suggests removing the decal from the backing paper and using some thinned white glue to affix the decals to the car.  This is simply not going to work on a wood side car with individual boards and wood-grain detail.

I am presently looking at a solution.  Here is what I have done so far.  Still some testing but this is looking fairly good at this point.

I placed the logo sheet face down on my printer and scanned the page into my Mac.  From there I generated a PowerPoint slide and placed the scanned image on one slide.....  Once in place I measured the original decal-logo and then resized the scanned image in PowerPoint to match that size.  I then copied the logo images several times on the slide so I have some extras with which I can experiment.

Once correctly sized I printed the slide on 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 decal paper from Micromark.  This is the "WHITE" decal paper. This is necessary as few if any printers actually print white.  The old Alps printers did but that is a story for another day.  The white lettering on the logo is actually transparent when printed so the white decal paper solves that problem nicely.

After printing the images on the white decal paper I let the ink dry completely.  Once dry I coated the decal sheet with a very light coat of Testers Dull-coat.  I let the sheet dry over-night.  The dull-coat is an absolute requirement if you are going to try this.....  The ink from ink-jet printers is water soluble .... the dull-coat "fixes" the ink on the decal sheet.

I painted a small piece of Evergreen styrene car siding with bright red paint. (I still don't have the orange I will use on the actual car.)

I then decaled the red test pice with one of the reprinted logos.  I used Micro-Sol to settle the logo and then once completely dry I used a "NEW" Xacto knife to lightly cut the logo along the board spaces.  More Micro-Sol and then a light coat of Testers Dull-Coat......

Still testing this off an on but it looks good so far......

Regards

Bill

@PRR Man posted:

I particularly like your work on the underframe.

Thanks!!! ...I enjoy that part quite a bit.....  I always treat the under frame as a model in and of itself....