Not much progress to show; I've gotten caught up in some other stuff totally unrelated that has me back on my heels a bit. I did, however, make a few design-alterations and start assembly on Carstens' suburban station:
Carstens' plan included no sort of platform; riders would just stand around in the dirt. We're not having that on my line, so a platform of some sort needed to be developed. I found an ancient paint-stirring stick in the shop that was 1-5/8 inches wide and a 1/4-inch deep. Felt about right, so I cut off a six-inch length and made that the platform. Printed off a bit of brick-paper, cut some strips, then wrapped the perimeter after painting the top "concrete" using some
Howard Hues acrylic paint.
Pasted the edited windows/doors into the sides of the ticket office, then assembled it using some 1/4-inch square basswood strips. I glued a three-inch square piece of matt board to the masonite base to serve as a slab for the office to sit on. Sorting out the roof is next; I hated Carstens' attempt at wood-shingle graphics, so I used
Model Builder to print some gray slate roofing. It was weird...when I printed it at 1/48-scale, the slates looked too big, so I made it a bit smaller at 1/64. Looks a bit more reasonable, at least to my eye. Anyway, I'll need to apply that to the roof panels.
Roof supports could be fun...
Meanwhile, the shell of the 253 is just sitting waiting for me to clean off the last bits of original paint and other gunk, than a thorough soap-and-water bath to make sure all of the stripper is removed. I haven't done much yet, as I've been trying to figure out paint. I found a can of
Plasti-Kote in the shop that I've used in the past to replicate stuff painted dark green. Unfortunately, the can is shot, so the search continues. Worst case, I'll wait until York in October and pick up a can of Train Enamel from one of the parts dealers I frequent. I could order it, but it would cost as much or more to ship it as it does for the can of paint. Too crazy, and I'm cheap.
