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…
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!
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?
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…
(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)
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)
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?. 
Travis,
Wonderful looking ““Cannon car””… good job on the build…
Thank You Andy
Travis your project build looks great, definitely a “Winner” in my eye’s for being your first ever scratch built project.
Chuck
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)
OK Travis, My Ignorance, But how did they aim these guns, for left or right from the track axis?
Well Dave, I have been pondering that myself. They may have used case shot or stands of grape to defend against infantry or there may have been something to adjust on the car itself not sure, but I would like to find out…
I know this one! They would fire from an “S” curve and move the car forward or backward to adjust the windage of the shot.
I think Larry’s G-Scale used to carry the mortars. I’ve seen them on eBay before too.
Ralph
That would make sense Joe…
I sure am a fan of those cannon cars and the one you built is pretty cool.
That short mortar car would be a neat companion piece.
For cannon balls have you thought about lead balls maybe 44 caliber used in black powder guns? They would look cool even real but they would be heavy is the only drawback.
I have read that in WW2 the big German guns were put on curves or curves were built so the guns could be aimed at targets. Maybe the same was done in the civil war but I kind of doubt they would have had the time to build curves since the battllines were always moving and the guns didn’t have the range to be way back and safe.