1:48 Caboose

[finescalerr]

Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I am only abandoning further work on the current attempt, in the photos above. I have to engineer a better "kit" with some detail changes and a traditional painted finish. Someday i hope to complete a more satisfactory and maybe more durable version of the model. -- Russ

[peterh]

Russ, what are we seeing in your photo of the walls on a cutting board? Are the vertical planks printed and the windows and doors stripwood? Did you scribe the vertical planks?

[Lawton Maner]

Russ:
     Just keep reminding all of us that sometimes a trash can is a useful modeling tool.

[TRAINS1941]

Someday your day will come!! 

Jerry

[finescalerr]

Peter, the caboose walls are inkjet printed cardstock. I scribed then board joints to make them three dimensional, then laminated the walls onto a more durable card and cut out the door and window openings. I reinforced the built-up car body with 1/4-inch square styrene strips. The doors and windows are laser cut Strathmore Bristol cardstock (about 0.013-inch thick). Last month I posted something about finding a local laser guy who can use my AutoCAD drawings to cut the parts I need. -- Russ

[peterh]

Thanks Russ. I've experimented with your method of combining printout with painted wood parts and found it was too hard to get the textures to match. Let alone the colour. Besides, brush painting  with acrylics is easy and gives great results, as Troels Kirk shows.

A suggestion about proportions: the lookout on top seems to big - big enough to hold a party - and I think that contributes to the cute look. Here's a French wagon with a lookout that has better proportions in general.

[finescalerr]

I think you may be right about the cupola. I checked some other small cabooses and the cupolas are slightly shorter. You also are correct about the difficulty of matching painted parts to printed parts. It's nearly impossible and that creates some real problems when you build a freight car or caboose from printed paper. It is much less a problem with structures. -- Russ