Sn3 Boxcar Build (Part 5)

Ever just have those "off" days when building a kit?  Yeah, I had a good run of one on my boxcar build.  I debated posting about it, but this is the true-to-life photolog so I might as well.

I started off my work session good, finishing bending all the grabs and installing all the ones on the long and short sides of the car body.  There are some 40ish grabs to form, but once you get a rhythm down it goes fast.  The only ones which are slightly tricky are the "safety" grabs which require one leg to be bent up at 90 degrees from what it regularly would be.

I was feeling pretty good about things at this point, but shortly after this picture I read the part of the instructions that said, "don't install the safety grabs yet".  Doh!  (I later realized with the next step why this was the case.)

Up next was assembling the chassis, which is made up of 3 pieces: (left to right) the stringers, floor, and weight.  The weight is recessed into the stringers and sandwiched between the floor; a clever design if you ask me.

One concern with the weight however is that it can block access to the slots on the bolster that the trussrods must go into.

Here the weight is slid away from the bolster so you can see the small "tunnels" for the trussrods.  The weight needs to have material removed so the trussrods can pass through.

I chose to just use my large mill file and take slow swipes at the end, leaving triangular ramps.

After that was done I set everything up for gluing.

While the chassis was curing, I then went on to assembling the trucks.  The trucks are made of a different material to be "smooth rolling" and have to be assembled by snapping instead of gluing.

I started in my usual way by cleaning parting lines and trimming things from their sprues.  The first side frame started out ok.

I set the journal box lids in, then went on to the next side frame.  One thing about these trucks, if you've never assembled one, is you have to put the screw (which attaches the truck to the bolster) in first before you snap the side frames in.  And even then, once you do, it's difficult to access with the screwdriver's tips, as the snapping part of the side frames gets in the way.

Usually I get around this by using my xacto knife and slowly carving away a bit of material on either end so that the screwdriver can make it through to the trucks.  Well in this case I went a little too far and cut off the entire barb for the side frame, removing any "snap" that it might have effectively rendering it useless.  Well, bummer.

And if that wasn't bad enough, I then noticed that when my chassis was setup to dry, the weight inside had shifted and none of my grooves line up such that I cannot see the trussrod holes on one side anymore.  Double bummer.

I might be able to fix the chassis by taking a dremel and a small grinding "bur" type tool and seeing if I can grind out the material.  Either way, looks like I need to contact PBL for a replacement for the side frame (and potentially the chassis parts if I can't fix them either).