Manufacturer: Hartford Products, Inc., 6523 Old Farm Lane, Rockville, MD 20852. Price: HP-K3 Lenora & Mount Sicker 19-Foot Ore Car with trucks, $59.95 suggested list.

Also a caveat, even to experienced model builders: Learn from my foolishness. Set aside plenty of time to build your kit so you may enjoy every minute. After all, you'll essentially be constructing the model board-by-board. I had a deadline. I'm a dope.

Let's divide this review into two sections. One about the car, the other about the instructions.

First the car: It is lovely, beautiful, gorgeous, and exquisite. The quality of the wood parts is excellent. All are exactly the right size, almost free of fuzz, crisp with sharp, square edges, and free of warp. The metal parts are also excellent with crisp detail and virtually no flash or evidence of parting lines. The trucks are beautifully cast and fully sprung but the four foot wheelbase seems slightly long for the car; photos in my archives suggest a wheelbase of closer to 3 feet 9 inches. The car also should have outside brake hangers but, unfortunately, they are available.

When you open the box, you will see a bunch of sticks, three pieces of brass rod, a pair of white metal trucks, and a bag of metal parts. When you have finished building the kit, the car should look like the photograph at the beginning of the review a virtual dead-ringer (in miniature) for the actual car. With the exception of the trucks, the photo of my model and the photo of the real car are nearly indistinguishable.

Our sample scales 19 feet 2 inches long over the end buffers, 6 feet 1 inch in width, and 6 feet 3 inches from the top of the rails. LGB's sharpest (1100) curves create no problem for the car, and that is what you would expect. Tiny Shays pulled the prototypes for the model up switchbacks with steep grades and tight curves.

Hartford suggests giving the model a weathered, unpainted appearance since all our photographs indicate bare wood. I used a dilute mixture of India ink and rubbing alcohol to simulate graying, untreated wood. I dipped the metal parts in Hobby Black Number One to color them a weathered dark gray without resorting to paint. It is almost imperative to pre-stain every part of the kit before assembly.

Even though the traditional glues for wood and metal kits are aliphatic resin (yellow carpenter's glue) for the wood-to-wood joints and CA ("superglue") for the wood-to-metal joints, I used Walther's Goo for everything. Two reasons: First, the other glues leave stains and glossy areas where they inevitably seep out. Goo picks up with a toothpick and leaves no trace. Second, the other glues become brittle when they dry. Goo stays slightly flexible leaving a more resiliant bond. Of course you have to get used to Goo; it can be a little stringy. A word of caution: If you do use Goo, avoid applying acetone, lacquer thinner, or Floquil Diosol near the joints or you'll end up with a miniature wood pile. They dissolve Goo.

Even though Hartford accurately cuts the wood, you'll have to spend a fair amount of time cutting, filing, sanding, and beveling parts of the frame and hopper floor to the correct shape. Count on spending an hour or two on that part of the project.

One last comment about finishing the wood. Bob and I discussed whether to distress the timbers with a razor saw to accentuate the grain. Bob said to do it. I was doubtful because on the photos of the real cars the wood seemed to have a close-grained, clean appearance. Bob was right. Dragging the teeth of the saw along the wood, then rubing it with 600 grit sandpaper, gave it more character yet was still subtle. The moral? When it comes to building and finishing his kits, listen to Bob.

Now for the part of the review about the instructions. On a couple of occasions they have you do things in what seemed to me to be an inefficient sequence or simply in the wrong order.

An example of an inefficient sequence: You may position the body bolsters much more precisely if you apply the metal angle plates first. They sit on the sub-bolster in such a way as exactly to center the body bolster. Yet the instructions tell you to apply them several steps after they tell you to glue on the body bolsters.

Bob tells me the reason for that sequence was to make it easier for the builder to drill vertical holes for mounting the trucks. That is critical for good tracking. But he agrees the metal angle plates make it easier to position the bolster and plans to change the instructions to let you make use of that feature.

An example of a step in the wrong order: After you build the sides and ends and plank the interior of the hopper the instructions say to assemble some inner framing. You are supposed to insert that subassembly into a cramped space through the end framing. It would be much easier to insert the assembly before you add the end framing. Fortunately I was able to dissolve a little Goo and pry up a couple of the interior planks. Then I managed to insert a tweezers through that space to position the subassembly from the top, dabbed on some glue, and reinstalled the interior planks.

Bob already has changed the instructions to correct that.

The instructions assume you know some turn-of-the-century carbuilder's terminology, but they do identify all parts by number. And Hartford Products gives you the dimensions of each part for a reason; they want you to measure each piece of wood to identify it. I eventually figured that out. One more thing. They assume you are familiar with blueprints.

Now the bottom line: The finished model is a masterpiece. It is accurate enough and looks good enough to sit in a museum. So, if you have some craftsman kit building experience, I would strongly recommend this Hartford Products kit. If you have little or no experience, start with the log car, the flatcar, or the low side gondola. You're unlikely to find a kit offering substantially more accuracy or quality in our hobby. RR