Pick out a few strips of styrene. Find a saw blade with fine teeth. A hacksaw blade with fine teeth works out well. I have a mini-hacksaw used to cut small pieces of wood and brass. Holding the blade at a slight angle to piece of styrene pull or push the blade over one side of a styrene strip. Continue to do this over the entire length of the piece.
Make as many passes over the piece of styrene, until the surface of the styrene starts to look like rough cut lumber - scale size. The scoring of the styrene does not have to look even. The odder it looks the better. If there are small pieces of styrene hanging off the strip, use a finger nail emery board to "cut" off the hanging styrene.
Modeling Note - Emery boards come in handy to file down small pieces of styrene and wood. I keep my own supply just so my wife will not complain about my using her's and "ruining" them!
Start cutting the long styrene strips into shorter ones. I like to let the boards on a deck over hang the frame of the deck about 2-3" on each side.Cut all the strips into the desired length.
The reason for preparing and cutting all the decking before starting to glue the decking in place is to get a random pattern to the decking. Place the individual pieces of "decking" in a large paper bag or box, shake the bag or box, and pick out pieces
What ever you do do not score the decking after it has been glued in place. It will look like exactly what it is - a plastic deck!
Position and glue the 1st 3-4 pieces of decking at each end of the deck. Try to keep you fingers off the glue. The glue softens the styrene. If you touch the scribing, your finger prints will be left and the scribing altered. Get the pieces of decking close to one another.
At this point in the construction, the brass internal framing is encased in styrene on 3 sides at both ends of the model. The brass frame can no longer fall out of the model.
Note how random my decking looks. The individual boards are up and down, with grain going back and forth. Some boards have more grain than others. The more of less-pattern to what the boards look like the better!
There's a piece of thin styrene to be added to the end of the deck at both ends to complete the coupler pocket. Check the photos of the prototype. Here you can see this piece with holes already drilled for the nut, bolt, and washer castings. The castings are commonly called N-B-W castings.
Continue to add the decking up to where the cab fits in. After a few of the pieces of decking are added, use a small square to be sure the pieces are square with the side frame members of the deck. A gentle push with the square on the edge of the decking may be required to get the pieces back in square. However, use caution, do not push too hard which will cause the pieces of decking to be too close to one another.
Next start to make the underbody details as seen in the photos of the prototype. Remember, I was working with only the photos of one side of the locomotive. A photo of the opposite side was found after the locomotive was completed. I mention what I did wrong as it comes up.
From the west photos, the 4 resistors can be seen. There are no pre-made castings which are exactly the correct length of each resistor. I did find Q-Car had casings of a resistor which came close but had to be cut in half to give the correct length. Cutting the resistors with a hacksaw blade, the amount of the hacksaw was the amount to shorten the resistor. Glue 2 halfs together and at the same time glue them onto a suitable size of styrene to provide stability. Allow the assembly to set-up over night before going further.
Next glue 2 small angles to the bottom of the styrene to provide additional support to the assembly. Modeling hint - I started out with a longer piece of styrene before gluing the resistors halfs together, The same is true with the small pieces of angle "iron". It's easier to cut to size the styrene and angle "iron" afterwards. Allow the assembly to cure over night again before going further.
Since I didn't know what was on the other side of the underbody, I choose to use the PSC Underbody Detail Kit set which includes a brake cylinder and associated pieces.
However, now for my goof, in the photo of the east side of the loco can be seen an air tank. Check the east side photo.
I assembled the air brake cylinder and prepared to attach the resistors and air cylinder to the under side of the frame.
The clevises were left off to be added later.
To support the resistors and the air brake cylinder, small pieces of styrene were added to the frame.
Note the 2 small pieces of styrene added to the needle-beams at the top of the photo. The 2 thin pieces of styrene located towards the left bottom of the photo are for the air brake cylinder. The pieces of styrene need to be cut next to the brass frame piece.
This is a photo of the assembled but unfinished model. It is being shown so you can see the resistors and air brake cylinder in place. Also note the brass washer and nut in the center of the cab bottom. The brass washer and nut hold the cab roof on plus will provide electrical pick-up from the trolley poles. The brake cylinder is where the air tank should be located with the brake cylinder located almost in the center of the model where the brass washer and nut are.
If you install an air tank like it should be, the brake cylinder will be located next to the air tank. The brake cylinder will have to have shorter levers. The brass washer and nut cannot be covered over
Next will be the cab, my cab problem, how I fixed my cab problem, and more assembly.
Cheers,
Ed
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