HOn3 RPO Kit by MRGS (Part 1)

Last year I got to see in person the Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge RPO.  RPOs are one of those cars that are unique and were short lived, but played an important role in both railroading and the nation's history.  Narrow gauge RPOs are unique and special in their own way and I won't be surprised if over the years I build up a collection of them.

The biggest problem is that they are hard to come by in HOn3.  On one hand brass models are available un-painted for an upwards of $200 or more.  They're nice but heavy and expensive.

Enter Model Railroad General Store.  MRGS sells a laser cut and resin kit of the D&RGW RPO which is right up the alley of many HOn3 railroaders.  With the purchase of my first Blackstone HOn3 coach a week or two ago, I've started eyeing a lot of HOn3 'varnish' and ordered the MRGS kit this past week.

The kit less trucks, couplers, and decals will set you back around $41.  MRGS also sells kits for a combine ($45), coach ($31), baggage ($41), and long caboose ($24).  Now $40 is a lot to pay for a kit, especially one that comes without trucks or couplers, however two things convinced me to jump in on this one:

1. It was laser cut wood + resin.  If you've ever tried a LaBelle kit you know the upward hill climb that those are.  I've had good experiences with laser cut kits in the past; the parts are typically crisp, fit well, and don't require a ton of shaping work.
    
2. It had good review.  From what I could tell others had actually finished the kit and had good remarks about the experience.

Opening the box, the kit includes a hefty 20 page instruction packet along with separate bags for various parts.

A nice touch was the window glass and stickers for the metal re-enforcement on the car sides.  Like most laser cut kits trimming parts from the sheet means snipping a small tab here and there.

I started right off by assembling the ends.  Right away I noticed that though the instructions were long they were also wordy and included a lot of pictures.  Sure it means I have to read more, but it also probably means I'll do things right because they're explained well.  Assembling the ends consisted of laminating together 3 pieces of wood to build up a 3D form.  I would have been lost without the pictures and labels.

The sides of the car are a laminate of two pieces which was a little more challenging to put together.  The pieces include holes which you can insert a wire to help line them up.  I didn't use those because I didn't have any wire that size and overall I came out within 1/64 of dead on.

The kit also includes some styrene pieces to supplement the joints in the wood.  Here 0.030" quarter round is added to the door frame.  In my opinion it adds a much nicer touch and finished appearance to the overall side.

I have to say the window framing on the sides were a bit meticulous to assemble.  This was the first one to be built and I should address what looks like water streaming down the side.  The windows are made up of 4 parts and I thought I'd be clever and use some of that 1-3 second water thin ACC to set all the parts then dab it in insta-glue.  Well, it ran all over the place and I had to go back and scribe out the wood siding where it filled it up too much.  Bad idea.  The rest of the windows I did correct.  Live and learn.

Another bonus to the MRGS kit is that he included 2 extras of each window part along with a "practice" unit.  This was good because I broke two of the parts while assembling.  They're rather delicate.

I didn't care for this when I first saw it.  The roof is cast resin but includes a big lump of extra resin where the material entered the mold.  It turned out that the resin was soft and easy to work and with a few minutes of filing I had it shaped like I wanted.

My roof ended up having 3 casting defects in it.  Only two are visible from outside the car.  I filled these with Squadron green putty and I'm sure after painting no one will be able to tell they are there.

So after all the prep work on the sides, the time for assembling the "box" finally rolled around.  This is always one of the funnest parts.

And after a few evenings of work my RPO is actually looking like an RPO!  So far I've been pleased with the kit, and the $40 price tag seems worth it.  If this kit finished well once painted I'll likely pickup the combine and possibly baggage too.

I suspect I'm probably at about the half way point.  Still to do: Under body detail, interior details, end railings, painting, decals, trucks, couplers, and finishing work.  Hmmm... maybe that's not half done.