Super Detailing

[Yampa Bob]

I  searched every recommended source, but couldn't find a particular  item I needed:  Tiny brass stanchions in various lengths.

During a recent trip to Grand Junction I stopped at the LHS and asked for stanchions, expecting the usual "Don't have any"...Surprise...they had 6 different lengths from 1.5 mm to 4.0 mm for all scales.     

The hole in the 1.5mm  is a precision fit for .020 PB wire.  I use .015 for grabs and stirrups but like the looks of .020 for handrails. 

The manufacturer should come to no surprise: Precision Scale.  You won't find them in the Walther's catalog but are listed on their website.  Part #585-370 for the smallest, they are  a bit short for  Bachmann boiler stanchions, other sizes may work.   I didn't check the hole size of other lengths, I was just excited to get the smaller for the cut levers and handrails on my Bachmann "Green Goat" project. 

I also like the caption on the package:  Made in Montana, USA

Bob

[r.cprmier]

Bob;
The good folk at precision Scale do indeed have a website, and it is pretty informative.  I like their product line; I also like Greenway and Bowser on the same level of quality, as well as general availability.  I do a lot of rebuilding, scratchbuilding, and scratchbashing, so I have assembled a pretty extensive list of who makes what; and I am surely glad they are where they are, and hope they stay there for a long while.

Being as I am stepping up my interest in Fn3 (per the K-27s I bought), I will be interested in building Fn3 cars on that same level of quality; using wood, metal, plastic, real bolts, nuts, etc, etc.  No, it isn't going to be easier.  You can't "fudge" detail like you can in smaller scales-it will stand out like a sore thumb, and YOU will know it-even if no one else does (or at least doesn't mention it...)

Rich

PS: no, I am not dumping HO...

[Yampa Bob]

Rich
Manufacturer's web sites don't have details on their products.  Maybe they assume that everyone has used every single item they make. so why bother with details. I'm not referring to OEM replacements for locos or cars, just universal detail parts.  I'm sure they have shop drawings for the production, they should post a small version with specifications, or offer a downloadable PDF.

I hate buying anything sight unseen.  I don't expect the LHS to carry everything, but the factories should supply them with specification sheets.  Am I wrong?

Anyway, thanks to Don Tichy and Precision Scale, I now have most items I need. As for the stanchions, score a big 10 for the LHS.  Without them I'd still be looking. 

As you said, I can get away with a little "selective compression or expansion" of scale on HO, it usually looks better than the original thick styrene parts.  I have a digital caliper that keeps me within reasonable scale limits.  I sometimes use .020 instead of .015, it works for me.

I wouldn't call my work super detailing in the sense of making everything exactly proto, I just like dressing up or customizing my locos and cars a little. 

I had Precision bookmarked once, but now I can't seem to find them by Google.  Do you have a link for them?

Thanks
Bob


   

[andrechapelon]

I had Precision bookmarked once, but now I can't seem to find them by Google.  Do you have a link for them?

Thanks
Bob

This help? http://psc1.virtualfocus.com/

Andre

[Yampa Bob]

Thanks Andre
That must be the one, it's in Montana.  They show a different address than on one of my part packages, I assume the one on the site is the latest. 

I remember now they are the company with the brass models, wow,  they are something else.  A little too rich for my blood, but something for everyone.

Thanks once again
Bob

[r.cprmier]

Bob, Andre;

www.precisionscaleco.com/

This is the address I have, and it works.
Yes, they have some beautiful stuff; unfortunately, Wall St., although having been more benign than not, hasn't been all THAT benign.  I should have gone into the resturant business like the Greek side of my family did...
I am only driving a Jeep, not a BMW...

Rich

[Yampa Bob]

Thanks Rich
Both links work, one redirects to the other. 

It's not the market that bothers me, everytime the feds lower prime rates, my bond income goes down.  I also keep working funds in money market, it dropped from 4.6% to 3.2% the last 1/2% cut.  That cost me $5,000 a year in income. 

If people would quit buying homes they can't afford there wouldn't be so many foreclosures.  I drive a Ford, wifey wants a Jaguar. 

There must be a market for these locos.  I know a guy that spent $30,000 building a 1/2 scale RC Airplane, crashed the maiden flight.  Of course I laughed LOL.

Bob

[r.cprmier]

Bob;
A quick fact of life:

Recessions and other bumps in the economy do not bother the "upper class" appreciably.  The guy who goes out to buy a Rolls, or a Beachcraft isn't worried about losing his home.

As far as your portfolio goes-mine too, for that matter, there are a lot of pitfalls and shortcomings to each and every approach.  I have been a bit lucky; that is all.  Grand Scheme?  The market doesn't care a tinkerer's hoot about you, me, or anyone else.  It is, after all, a jungle out there.

The buying echelon  to which you infer does exist, for all the reasons posted above, and probably more too.  Old money, great jobs requiring a ton of brains (not mine), Mafia Dons, etc.

Overland models just posted an ad for a Korean-built Mike that is one of the handsomest engines I have ever laid eyes on, but I won't buy it.  Reason?  I am not inclined to spend that kind of money in this hobby on an HO engine, whether I can or not.  To me, four figures portside of the decimal point is just a little too much.

Rich

[Yampa Bob]

I've been frugal (make that stingy) all my life to survive. Now that I can afford things doesn't mean I'm throwing it away.

I thought $3.75 for 12 tiny stanchions was a bit high, but then again I still remember 18 cent gasoline. At the LHS I saw a molded plastic tunnel at $39, it probably cost nothing to make.

My Connies are the most expensive locos I have, at $119 each.  My detailing is not proto, I want natural brass, polished rails, possibly even paint the drivers white. The tender ladders and rails have been replaced with brass or PB. The Bachmann 70 I'm building will be a real "hot rod".   

Bob

[RAM]

Bob we must be from the same time zone.  I go into a store and see a 5 cent candy bar.  It now
cost 65 or 70 cents.  I an not going to pay that much for a nickel candy bar.  FDR was the first president that I remembered.  Hoover was in office when I was born.  Steam was king, and still is.  We just don't have a king anymore.

[Yampa Bob]

Yup, we kicked the last one out in 1776.  Guess what, we now have a "King George"
(country music or politics,take your choice)

Bob

[grumpy]

Movies with a box of popcorn was  .25 and a coke was .05. I remeber buying a brand new car for $2500.00 and that was an expensive car for me.I could also fix whatever needed fixing by myself. I do long for the more simple days.
Don

[r.cprmier]

I do long for the more simple days.

I think I am as old as you are or thereabouts, and as far as the old days go, you can have 'em!  I now have rights and avenues of recourse I would have never had in the "goode olde days", as well as technical advances in medicine.  my mother died at 37 from cancer.  I am not saying miracles happen now on a regular basis, but her chances of living a good fairly old life would have been much better now.

Steam? Beautiful.  Vietnamese girls?  Beautiful.  I wouldn't want the pollutive ramifications commensurate with the first (I grew up in Boston area, Dover street), and the second would probably give me a massive coronary now.

Do I long for the old days?  No.  Good memories?  Some.  Today we have options as to the global warming thing, etc; lets get up off of our keesters, get on your politicians' cases and git 'er done!  Life can be great.  Now, let's get back to trains.

Rich

[Yampa Bob]

Yes sir, coming right up Sir Richie,

Where was I?  Oh yeah, I notice  some modelers make stirrups for a boxcar with .015 or .020 PB wire, then stick them up underneath the box.  But to be authenic, shouldn't they "bolted" to the side of the box? 

Usually the box comes off, so I drill 2 holes on the side, a tad above the bottom, poke them through and "clinch" them down on the inside. They still look a bit odd, but at least they don't fall off.

Real stirrups are wider but flat.  I've never tried this, but I'm thinking, use a piece of thin brass about 1/32" wide, long enough to bend for the  step, then twist the tops to bolt to the sides, using scale rivets. 

We used to make them that way for farm wagons, using steel strap 2" wide X 1/4" thick, heat with a torch and twist for a mounting base.   

Anyone tried this?

Bob

[r.cprmier]

Bob;
There are two places to find stirrups that are really good:  Grandt line and Tichy; both I am sure you are familiar with.  They are of an acetal plastic which do not fuse with any glue I know of, so the best thing I can think to do is what I do, and that is to drill holes in the position the inserts will insert into, and acc them in place.  I know this is by no means foolproof, but it does work, and you do have the bolt detail.
Another way is to make them out of .015 flat brass wire, turn the risers 90 degrees in relation to the footer, and then pin it to the car by your method; drilling a hole, bending the end 90 degrees, and inserting it, peining it on the other side.  Both methods are a lot of work, but doable, and the result may be well worth the effort to you.

Sir Richie, the rail snob.