Large Scale Central

Gondola challenge

General Discussion
#13
Travis Dague said:
Tom, What did you come up with to use for the cannon balls... I was thinking about some type of craft beads or something... The soldiers you used in the diorama look like the ones that I paint, They are imex plastic 1/32 or something like that. I am not aware of any commercial available 1/24 scale soldiers unless they are custom made... Travis
Hi Travis

The cannon balls came as castings in the Verlinden Productions model kits that I used for the build ups. I agree that large craft beads would work fine.

Yes the Confederate artillery crews are Imex 1:32 figures that I painted.

Looking forward to more of your build for the “challenge.”

Tom

#14

Thanks for the Links Korm and Thanks Tom for the info

#15

New progress today, Armor is cut and painted/stained…

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7292.jpg)

Next tested for fit of opening for cannon.

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7295.jpg)

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7294.jpg)

and some of the hardware painted and ready to install…

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7293.jpg)

#16

Hopefully will get this all done in time…
Travis

#17

Neat. That frontal armor looks ready to deflect just about anything black powder could hurl at it. Good job.

Tom

#18

Over the weekend I made some further progress… wheel sets cut out from old bachman archbar trucks… http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7302.jpgs Used a small c-clamp to press in the dowel for the screw. tried this to avoid mashing dowel, worked pretty good.

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7300.jpg)

Next up was the gluing of the truck mounts to the underbody of car…

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7303.jpg)

Then onto the “iron flat bars” made of strips of oak to hold down the “armor”

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7304.jpg)

iron strips glued, touched up with black, and bolts from Ozark Miniatures that I had for another project… Looks like I missed some black on the iron slats…

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7311.jpg)

So now I have my trucks mounted it seems to me that it looks to high from the rails. Opinions needed on this. I could lower it about 1/8 I think…

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7313.jpg)

Stay tuned…

#19

Well I am getting close to completing my 1st time entry for Mik & Dave’s Gondola challenge. I hand brake together and mounted

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7315.jpg)

Along with the stave pockets and stirrup steps.

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7341.jpg)

#20

Link and pins in place. I have pics of the boxes I made for the Links will add them later today.

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7344.jpg)

Next I will be adding the truss rods and some other minor stuff…

#21

I lowered the car body on the trucks this week. It looks much better than what I had previously. I had cracked one of the blocks from Dave’s fine kit and had to make two new ones… well I didn’t measure it right and you would have needed a tall step ladder to get aboard…lol. By the way… Dave this has been alot of fun building this Gondola challenge kit… I need to do something about those shiny Bachman wheels tho…

#22

That’s an interesting model, Travis, of something we don’t see much of up here in the colonies. I’m fascinated.

I like the light colors you got on the wood with the homemade stain, and the metal look on the shield. Something about your model says “Military Museum” to me. Neat workmanship, too!

Kalamazoo made two civil war sets in 1/24 back in the 'eighties. One Union and one Confederacy, of course. Shawn and I, both on this forum, we really like Kalamazoo stuff for its smaller scale, its solid qualities and other reasons as well. One of my own other reasons is just plain and simple old nostalgia - but the running characteristics of their stuff are great. I have close to 30 locos and my old Kalamazoo 4-4-0’s are still my favourites - go figure!

Maybe you could use peas or garbonzo beans for cannonballs. Except that bugs would run off with them! You could roll little insect-proof cannon balls from plasticene, clay, polymer clay, or plumber’s putty. or from Milliput, but that’s pretty expensive stuff. To get your ammo all the same size, first roll out a really smooth even snake, then cut off a standard length, then form that into a ball. Paint with your iron-look paint. Finally, stack 'em up like oranges; would that be authentic?

Cheers!

#23

This is looking very good and very authentic for the Civil War period you are modeling. Do you have plans for an artillery unit on board?? Or would this piece primarily be in transit?

#24

Hi Tom, Yes, I do have plans for a gun crew. I have the Imex confederate 5 man crew that I have had painted a few years back. The only problem is that they are 1/32 scale a little small for the car…So I am still looking at finding some other options…

#25

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7354.jpg)Cutting and fitting truss rods. (http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7355.jpg)Turnbuckles drilled, installed and ready to paint… (http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7356.jpg)I also blackened the wheel rims as they were to shiny

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7358.jpg)

#26

I wrapped up my Challenge Project today after work… For those who don’t know this project started from a Gondola kit supplied by Dave Taylor so we could either build the gondola or let our imaginations run… I ran lol…anyways. To start with I decided to build a confederate artillery rail car from the Civil War. All of the car is made of wood except for the trucks, cannon barrel and small details, bolts, steps, brake wheel, link and pins, staves and truss rods. Except for basic car kit, I cut out the other wood pieces and made what i needed minus the two wood barrels You see. You can see the progress from above in the build log. The flooring and “armorplate” supports are all stained using a steelwool/vinegar mix. Next along the bottom of the car it is painted black with a acrylic thinned in water wash along with the black angle section which is to represent rail iron, it is also done the same. below are a few pics of my project and a page from the book"Civil War Railroads and Models". by: Edwin P. Alexander… Thanks for looking…Travis

Front

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7367_zps4e0b86fb.jpg)

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7365_zpsbb3e2076.jpg)

Rear

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7370_zps07fb3e79.jpg)

Side

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7369_zpsf47f0aef.jpg)

And finally the photo I used from the book referenced…

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/100_7361_zps4e8a62c6.jpg)

#27

This being my first scratchbuilt car project, It was alot of fun and I am looking forward to building more cars now that I have learned some new techniques and ideas from all of my friends here at LSC. So after we are all done with this challenge …When is the next one?. :slight_smile:

#28

Travis,

Wonderful looking ““Cannon car””… good job on the build… :slight_smile:

#29

Thank You Andy

#30

Travis your project build looks great, definitely a “Winner” in my eye’s for being your first ever scratch built project.

Chuck

#31

I forgot to add in my description that I spent 7.50 on the Link and pins from wiseman miniatures. All of the other detail metal parts I already had on hand including paints, brushes and glue. So 7.50 was pretty cheep for what I ended up building…

These three are up next…

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/Ammunitiongondola_zps516ca54c.jpg)

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/Civilwarcannoncar_zpscd56a911.jpg)

(http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa375/General1861/Mortarflatcar_zps2d961eed.jpg)

#32

OK Travis, My Ignorance, But how did they aim these guns, for left or right from the track axis?