Santa Fe Sleeper Pine Grove

[Erik Zwaan]

Hi Kevin and Alzictorini, thank you for your kind words, glad to let you and other followers of this build know that the job's almost done.

Finished the trucks today and I used the opportunity of one hour extra day time, as Summer time gave way to Winter time last night, which means that the clocks had to be set back one hour.

Also the second truck had to be converted from the original brake disc arrangement to a version with brake shoes, and the pictures show the conversion process. To make the brake shoes look more realistic I didn't paste both sides back to back but glued approximately 1.5 mm thick cardboard in between. As this would make cutting out the two small white areas in each shoe-half virtually impossible, I used 0.5 and 0.9 mm thick board and glued the parts on these, then cut them out and glued both halves together. Used white glue to seal the edges and sides and used Tamiya Sky Grey (a true multi-purpose color) to paint the edges.
Quite a painstaking job (64 holes to be cut out....) and it's amazing to realize how time-consuming many of these small on-the-spot-decided changes to the model have been over the past few months.

Finally, I glued small strips of cardboard at the bottom of the "axle holders", more or less to act as spacers but also to close off the gap between the sides.

The trucks still need to be glued to the sleeper body but apart from this, the only parts left are hand railings, a few more details to the bodywork and the ventilation opening covers over the doors at the vestibule end. And not to forget, a coating of varnish. It's a test-build and sometimes I was a bit careless during handling, resulting in a few glue stains too many.

The second last picture shows the orientation of how the trucks have to be installed underneath the sleeper and the last picture shows the fully completed bottom side.

Cheers,
Erik

[Don Boose]

Superb work on the trucks! The underside looks very clean and precise.

Don

[sgoti]

"You can never take too much care over the choice of your shoes. Too many women think that they are unimportant, but the real proof of an elegant woman is what is on her feet."

-Christian Dior

Impressive work on them brake shoes, this lady is going in style!

[Erik Zwaan]

Thank you Don and Glenn! Your compliments are very much appreciated.

Well, I'm happy to announce that the model has been completed in the mean time. The final parts are in place, such as hand railings, covers for the ventilation openings over the doors, small rain gutters over the doors (see the first two pictures) and the roof strips. Some of these parts were not included in the test version but I felt that it would be a good bonus to include them, based on the various pictures of Pine Grove. Hopefully Cor will add these as well in the final model sheets.

The railings are very thin and I stiffened them up with glue, and to maintain proper shape during drying I had slid small pieces of thin cardboard behind them.

The last parts to install were the roof strips and these thin stretches of paper took quite a bit of effort to install.

Also, the trucks are glued now to the sleeper body, properly aligned on a stretch of track. Note that the final model sheets will include tracks. For "my" sleeper, that's still one thing to do in the coming weeks as it's the cherry on the cake, of course.

Herewith the last construction pictures and a few quick shots of the end result. Varnishing is still in progress and final pictures will follow in a few days time.

It's been quite a journey to reach this result and to just put it simply, it's a stunning model and should you decide to build it, make sure you include the lights!

Cheers,
Erik

[Diderick A. den Bakker]

Absolutely gorgeous. Thank you Erik, for the amazing 'test build' which developed into a work of modelling art!

For those who want to order: I will wait until Cor has made any additions to the model. Print-your-own files (and prices) will be available asap; printed version will take two or three weeks.
Please send reservations to my personal mail address: da.denbakker(at)planet.nl

[Siwi]

Amazing work. Can't wait to see the final pictures.

[romanmodels]

great work Erik

[Erik Zwaan]

Thank you Diderick, Siwi and David!

The final paint touch-ups and varnishing are done and now it's time to show you a few pictures of the finished model, some 7 months after I started this build. It's been a most enjoyable model and a very interesting subject. I learned a lot along the way and I would like to thank everyone once again for providing so much useful information and your continued interest in following this adventure.

It pays off to install lighting in the sleeper as the nicely designed interior really stands out well!

There will be more pictures in this thread in the coming weeks as I'm working on a stretch of tracks and that's the best opportunity then to combine the sleeper with its engine, the F7A, which I built last year.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Erik

[MacSongLi]

An amazing model Erik. It is truly a work of art. Congratulations to you and Cor.


Gary

[Vermin_King]

I hate to see this end. Nicely done, sir