I love the cloth idea can’t wait to see it. I didn’t even know they did such a thing so you taught me something.
Getting so close to the end of this project now! Thanks again for the comments and tips. I just finished painting the interior and seats. I used a mixture of acrylics for the color of the seats and then got a sharpie and colored the little bar on each one black. I think I got pretty close to the color of the real thing. Maybe a little on the red side. You can also see 4 massive holes. I drilled them nicely, but had to make them bigger and a couple were off-center. I needed the coach to sit with the longer side of the roof facing the bulkhead. I wish I could do the same with the seats except with the seats facing the opposite of the bulk-head.
This pic on the left is of course the coach, and right is of one of the seats used at the OR&L.
Here’s what the coach looked like with the roof facing the way I couldn’t stand.
Here’s the way Bird Buddie and I like the roof. -Apologies for the bird poop on the roof I don’t know if you can see, but that was all Kiwi.
Kiwi when he knows he’s gonna star in my pictures with the coach.
Anyways… I had to make the holes from the drill bigger because the little spokes on the underside of the roof had to fit there. All that is left to do is some dry brushing around the coach, painting the bars on the side, the trim, and… The exterior design and logo. I really don’t know what project I’ll be working on after this, but I’m really looking forward to the next coach for the Triple O, but I think I’ll work with my fish after this.
Here’s the pics after the latest effort.
Will post again soon. Aloha!
-OD
p.s. I also took this funny pic of Kiwi starring as “Bird-Zillah”(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif) lol he’s a funny bird
The attack of the giant bird!
Hey that’s coming out to be a right fine coach. I think you did great on the seat color. Not bad at all.
And isnt bird poop natural weathering?
Nice work, reminds me to add seats to my Lil Big Haulers
Nice work, reminds me to add seats to my Lil Big Haulers
WOW! nice job! Birdzilla should star in a video of trains running on your layout! But you probably cannot let him outside. Just thought of that. Looking forward to your next project. keep posting here too!
Thanks! I’m not done yet! I have to make the cloth roof cover, paint the windowsills, paint and install the railings, design and put on a logo, lightly weather it, and put on a secret finishing touch!
OD
wasn’t this Eldest Daughter’s project?
Tim said:
wasn’t this Eldest Daughter’s project?
Tim she signs; Oldest Daughter … OD, still is.
Tim,
Eric here. This is still OD’s project. For now, she is using my account, and, yes, I do proofread her posts. I am still just providing oversight, the occasional idea, and the rarer demonstration on the project.
Sorry for the confusion!
Eric
Okay…spotted the ‘OD.’ I gotta pay closer attention.
Eric Mueller said:
Oldest Son sort of grew out of it when he discovered all his friends had game consoles, a discovery which followed quickly on the heels of his B’mann railtruck failing two weeks otu of the box, and, to some degree, seems to resent the fact he has bow to realism of cost, time, and practicality of his proposed projects. I’ve offered him all the bits, tools, and space I can safely offer, of course, and I have given him free reign to take a crack at some of schemes, but I am struggling, to hold him in the hobby or even any of the derivative hobbies that spin from the garden railway. I won’t force him to participate, and all I can do is enjoy it when he does get busy and dirty at our sides.
Give him 20 yrs Eric! Mine has about 10 to go…
Hey! This was definitely the difficult and frustrating part of the project… The roof. After finishing off the coach’s railings with a gold sharpie, we started to glue down parts of an old shirt with Titebond III to the roof.
Before we get to that, though, here is a pic of some of the other work:
In the pic above if you can see that the hand railing to the right of the door has kind of a ring near the corner of it, it’s because we had to make that that one. It was missing that railing, so we took a thin metal pole, made it gold, and the ring-like thing is a bobby pin holding the corner in place. My dad thought of that one. We also used a sheet of plastic for the doors’ windows on each side of the car.
The problem with making the roof was that I put one piece of cloth on the whole roof, then cut, but what I should have done was cut the pieces as precise as possible so that I wouldn’t have to worry about so much cutting and ripped cloth, or peeled paint in the process. Getting it to look decent was that one part of the project that you may never get right and it’s just really difficult.
Here’s the roof:
You can see where the fabric didn’t agree with me and it looks all ripped. 
You can also see in this pic that the window frames are painted and touched up. We didn’t put things together just yet because I’m worried we’ll get glue or paint on it. Anyway, my next step is to finish up the roof by cutting the fabric as smooth as can and then painting it probably a matte black. Then I can paint the logo and design on the coach and put everything together. I will try get Kiwi to be the first passenger on the coach and have him star in a video. He can actually come outside, but with his wings growing back, he has to wear the leash he dreads. It’s for his own good though, once he fluttered up to the roof! At least he’s starting to get the idea that birdie + leash = birdie gets to go outside.
Again thank you for the tips and yes, Mr. Devon, I can see the coach it’s becoming too. There’s not much left on the to-do list. And I guess bird poop is natural weathering! Just remember, even if my dad helps me out, I’m not letting him do anything with the design! That’s gonna be all me.
-OD
Just one step away from the finished train car. Recently I’ve finished the roof, made some touch-ups, put the coach together, and my dad helped me put a light strip on. Here’s what it looks like now, hauled by my favorite locomotive Fiery Elias (which has been my favorite since the first time my dad ran the trains):
As you can see in the pic, there is a new addition to the family; my sister’s guinea pig, Nutella.
I finally finished the roof by painting it with a flat clear lacquer because the black acrylic was too glossy. After that I had some areas to touch up when black paint got on the green, but of course, I don’t have the same color green in my dad’s acrylic set. So I masked everything off and gave the roof a new coat of spray paint. And now I realized although it was worth the time and effort to make it look perfect (I admit I was being a little OCD about it) I’m pretty sure I had the right color paint in my acrylics, or at least the colors to mix.
Anyway, once I was done with the roof, I put the coach together and glued on the windows with contact cement. Then my dad helped me put the light strip on the ceiling. And I know some people like my dad have that problem with the LED lights being too bright white. He had a coach with a light strip he put on and highlighter didn’t work for him, so when I put on my lights, and he told me this, I thought that highlighter would be too neon and light for the light bulb to produce a nice color. Well, on my first try, I found the perfect match of color and media that I had on hand and it worked perfectly so far. My favorite marker of all time: Copic alcoholic markers!
This is what the marker looks like and I’m sorry if the pic is blurry. As you can see this isn’t Copic, but I think both Copic and Caliart will work fine. They have a broad and fine tip, and the color that I used is: Y314 if anyone wants to look for it at their local craft store.
And above is the light strip, and I know in the pics and videos of the lights at night make it look greenish, but don’t be hoaxed! Trust me they’re a good yellowish color. Below is my video:
Video: Night Run of the Ka’a piki
So all that’s left to do is the decals, logo, design, and a bit of weathering.
Spread aloha, not germs.
~OD
Nice update OD(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Nice work!!! And look at you teaching all of us old guys a thing in the process. I foresee a problem this coming January when you beat a lot of us at the Mik Challenge!
well done!
Nice work! Loved the video.
Came out great
Boy, bird buddy and Nutella. You’ve got all hands on deck.
The night video looks great.