Building. Labelle Passenger Car

Having built a couple of Labelle cars in my time, all I can say is -

EXCELLENT!

- Mike

Pete, that came out Great. A paint question. Did you use any kind of sanding sealer on the wood ?

beautiful car

@Dave_C posted:

Pete, that came out Great. A paint question. Did you use any kind of sanding sealer on the wood ?

Thanks guys. Dave I used a SEM sanding primer. Only the roof was sanded, the rest just a light coat and then color. A few coats, sand, a few more, sand, repeat. SEM satin black didn’t do so well, maybe my fault from some red overspray so ended up using a Rustoleum high temp black.

Pete

The roof on these kits are a pain to get right—I’ve often wished for a nice 3D printed resin roof to replace the kit roof, or even end pieces that could be glued up and feathered in to fit the kit roof…

Fabulous job on yours!

Jeff C

Wow Pete, that looks fantastic. I don't know if I could do that without messing something up. Great job.

Way back in my HO days I had built a number of Walthers passenger cars that also required you to shape the roof ends so I had a little idea what to expect. One thing I found odd is the three roof templates on the instruction sheet were printed over the instructions on the other side so if you cut them out you would have lost some the directions. I made them in styrene but that meant a lot of back and forth, grinding a bit a away and constantly checking when you were getting close.

Pete

Those kits were fun to build. I would build them for P&D to display. He would end up selling them, so then I got to make another.

The one Labelle kit I built was a baggage car. That seemed the least intimidating. I have a combine to do in the future. As Pete mentioned the parts do fit pretty well. The hard part is sorting out all the different sized wood pieces and what goes where. Once sorted out. The gluing process is the easy part.  The instructions aren’t the best.
I would suggest having a digital caliper to measure wood sizes to make sure you are using the right piece. As mentioned. The roof is the hard part. They do offer a roof rounding kit that you glue to the roof. Then it’s just a matter of sanding the rest down to match the glued on template. Which remains on the car. Assuming their web site is current. If you are buying the kit from them. They do offer to round the roof ends for you. It costs $20 .00 and is shown under services.

I still have a combine to build too but am in no hurry to jump right on that now. I will have a MTH combine as soon as some more decals arrive.

Pete

@Norton posted:

Rounding the roof ends is the most tedious step. I went out and bought a 1” handheld belt sander which greatly speeded the process.

I use a 4" upright belt sander; trick is to sneak up on the end shape very, very slowly and gently.  Still end up doing hand finishing for the lower sections of the clerestory.

Yes, the instructions leave much to be desired and if you get hold of an older version of one of these kits you may find that the instructions are for more than 1 car intermingled so you have to be careful to deconvolute the steps as you read through them.

I have a couple of stationary belt sanders and considered them but realized you can’t see what you are doing and it would be easy to take too much off. I ended up with a 33 dollar Harbor Freight tool so I didn’t break the bank and will likely find other uses for it in the future.

Pete

Pete, that's beautiful.  Good job!

Thanks for sharing this! I was just yesterday looking at these kits to do nearly the same build, except to pull behind my Strasburg #1 Plymouth when I'm done with the TMCC conversion.

This is why West Albany remains the famed shop where all the good techs want to be!…great work old buddy!!….sure is a looker!!…

Pat