RMC/Dremel Kitbashing Award
Richard E. Bradley A minimum of
$100 and a Dremel Rotary Tool Kit with a variable-speed Dremel 3000 rotary tool and accessories are awarded to the monthly winner of the RMC/Dremel Kitbashing Award. Models must
consist of at least 50 percent commercial components. Entries must include
at least two high- resoluti on photos (minimum 3,000 pixels wide) and a short descripti ve text of the model and its constructi on. All entries must
be submitt ed on a CD or DVD: e-mail submissions will not be accepted.
Please mail to: Railroad Model Craft sman, ATTN: Dremel Award, 6324 N. Chatham Ave, Box 117 Kansas City, MO 64151
Unused entries
may be retained for future editorial use in Railroad Model Craft sman.
92 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
Ma & Pa caboose First No. 2003
I began this project with an undecorated Bachmann four- wheel bobber caboose (part No. 18449). This is a fairly recent production, and I have found them at train shows. For refer- ence, I had one good photo and one poor photo from which to model. I found the prototype di- mensions in Charles T, Mahan, Jr.’s book, Maryland and Penn- sylvania Equipment. The proto- type was 22-feet long and 8-feet, 9-inches wide; Bachmann’s ca- boose scaled out to 22-feet long and 8-feet, 6 inches wide. I de- cided Bachmann’s dimensions were close enough for me. I wanted this to be a useful mod- el, so I accepted construction requirements and detail lapses not appropriate for a contest- quality model.
The first task was deciding
what molded detail to remove from the body. I chose to take off most of it, leaving only the door knobs and end straps. I kept the body on the frame while trim- ming to reduce the possibility of sags. I made shallow cuts with a No. 17 blade, having first round- ed the blade’s corners to prevent gouging. I then moved to the cupola.
By cutting the cupola and the portion of the roof behind it as one piece, that piece can be re- versed to (almost) fill the hole. I used No. 11 blades and cut
around the cupola from the out- side. When I cut under the roof, I cut from the inside. I partially extended the No. 11 blade and chucked it tightly to reach the inside seam and keep the blade flat against the wall. This is dan- gerous. It takes many shallow passes to cut straight and nar- row. I needed more than an hour to fully cut through. Blades must be changed often to maintain a sharp cutting edge. I blanked the under-cupola
window and used traditional window-making techniques for the new, centered window. After test-fitting several sizes of Ev- ergreen scribed styrene sheet, I determined the No. 2040 was a good enough match for the Bach- mann siding. It’s not perfect, but since it will only be over the few boards of a window width, it is
AWARD
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