I'd thought about maybe casting the parts of this car as I originally intended to make multiple copies, or even possibly some sort of kit, but have since decided just to make the one. The time involved in making molds for all of the parts required for this car would be substantial. Additionally, if I considered making it a kit with the anticipation of offsetting some of the costs, I don't consider what I've built kit-worthy. There are some small dimensional discrepancies on the bottle section, and I don't have enough detail photos and working drawings of all perspectives to produce a perfect representation of the prototype. Maybe I'll do a Pollack, or my personal favorite, a Pugh, car next time, in a manner that would make me consider casting pieces. For now, this is to get my feet wet in bottle car modeling.
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| Banding added |
Taking my turned wood bottle section, I first sealed it with a clear sealer and then glued bands of .015x.100 plastic per the drawings and photos. Everything looked pretty good, but the bands around the rounded casting that connected the bottle to the trunnions was slightly wider so I added a .015x.040 strip besides the .100 on those two parts. This worked for the best as the part represented there is curved so a single strip wouldn't have conformed to it. It was necessary to do this as I need to fit three rows of rivets there - two on all the other bands. I also filled the open grain and surface defects with a filler. I would have preferred to use basswood, not cherry, to turn the bottle, but didn't have an available long enough. Also you will note that I added 1/8" tubing to the trunnion ends. These ends were just too small to properly turn on the lathe.
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| Spout attached, note the wider bands on the trunnion-bottle castings |
Next was the pouring spout. I was going to wait on this, but I was in a decent modeling mood and well rested. To be sure, it took a few hours, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I didn't have much to go on with the spout - in the photos I have the spouts are badly rusted and partially missing. The plans don't seem to show the same spouts either, and from what I read online, these were replaced and fabricated by the individual steel companies, so their design varied. Good for me as I don't have to try to match a prototype exactly. I did conform to the general dimensions shown on my plans. I formed the basic shape by cutting a piece of a 3/4" Plastruct tube and then splitting this. Taking the split halves, I glued some .060x.500 strip between them and I had the basic elongated oval shape. I reinforced this assembly by curling a .020 strip and glueing it to the inside of the assembly. When dry I took the assembly and sanded it to shape using a piece of sandpaper draped over the bottle. Once done I took a piece of .020 sheet and forced it between the spout assembly and the bottle, drawing an offset around the perimeter of the spout assembly and then cutting and sanding the piece to match. I glued this piece to the spout and then attached those two pieces to the bottle using ACC. Tomorrow I will drill out some of the wood using a forstner bit to give the impression of depth.
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| Trunnion mounts, platform, and mount caps. |
I finished up the evening by starting work on the cradle/trunnion mounts. The platforms are .060 sheet and the mounts are a collection of scrap tubing, strip, rod, and sheet.
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