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Built just for the fun of making a
different car
In August 2013 Des Plaines Hobbies released their long awaited
S Scale America plastic X29 kit. At the same time I found out about a
Seaboard “almost” X29 express car with an interesting vent in both sides.
Truly just on a whim I measured the vent from a brass O Scale car that was
here and designed it in Solidworks. I had a very small number of the vents 3D
printed in O & S Scale most of which were sold but kept some for me. A
project was born. The cars that I complete from the plastic SSA X29 kits are
always going to be cars and modifications that I would not make to my
unfinished brass X29, like M O W with cutting in porthole windows, or
projects like THIS car. I sort of have a thing for head end cars where on the
PRR not many are Pullman Green so that added to the attraction of making it.
It is not likely that this car ever ran on the PRSL but that is OK too. I
found out before starting that while this Seaboard car had the looks of an
X29 there was significant differences, and the X29 kit was not the best
choice for a starting point. The advice given was starting with another
Pacific Rail Shops car and cutting out the sides and with ends from another
car in a kit bash hell etc. NO! That was not going to happen. This car was
not THAT interesting to me to do such an involved project. It was decided
right from the start it was going to be a “good enough” cobble together car -
just getting the taste of it without a long drawn out research project. It
was actually very liberating that while self-imposed I was free to just add
parts from whatever source without the “are they correct” constraints of some
of the “striving for perfection” projects I have done in the past. |
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I
was sure the end results would be a car that a visiting S Scaler would know it
was not a common kit. As it turned out from start to being ready for paint was
8 days total.
That
was a personal best that made me happy!
It was BIG fun to build – just for the sake of building a
different car.
There
are parts from at least 5 sources on this car, almost all of which I had in my
parts boxes.
Des
Plaines/ S Scale America –X29 Kit S Helper Service – trucks Pacific Rail Shops
– Ajax and brake wheel, roof walk and ladders, stirrups I had cast in brass.
Lanes Trains – Old school brass castings and the 3D printed vent. Pennsy S
Models – brass draft gear, express grab irons
Decals were made for me by Jerry Glow.
I chose car # 730 as my birthday is July 30th.
The
first thing I did once the box was built (it is a flat panel kit) was shave off
about half of the rivets that immediately changed the look of the car away from
being a PRR X29. Shaving with a flat chisel Exacto
blade was pretty easy but I also did a reasonable amount of wet sanding to
really make sure the unwanted rivets were gone.
This
is my first completed use of a 3D printed item as a final use part. All previous
3D printed items were used as master patterns for brass and urethane casting.
It worked out fine.
The underframe is built as per the
instructions.
Most of the weathering is just using various clear coats
Completed 11-13-13
This
is the first known completed car from the S Scale America X29 kit. I thought it
might be when I started the car. The fact that I am mostly a PRR Modeler and
was taking my first plastic X29 to complete it as a Seaboard car was absolutely
apart of the ironic fun of the project.
Updated
2-25-18
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