What's On My Workbench

I don't know about you, but I enjoy hearing about what others are doing in the hobby, what progress they're making on their layouts, what they're building, etc.  I suspect that may be true for you too and may be why you check in here from time to time. Problem is, blogging about modeling can sometimes be a zero-sum game: if you're modeling, you probably don't have much time to blog about it. If you're blogging, you're not modeling. And, of course, if you're not modeling, you'll eventually run out of blog fodder and chaos will ensue.

So, I decided to inaugurate a new - though occasional - feature, "What's On My Workbench" - where I'll just take a quick snapshot of, um, what's on my workbench, and give you a little description of what you're seeing & what I'm up to. For me, it'll provide a quick & easy way not only to document my efforts, but to share them with you. For you, I hope it inspires you to share your own progress photos - or get started so you actually have something on your workbench.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get a little fancier in the future with my arrows and such - but these posts are all about a quick snapshot, and "quick" is all you get when working with MS Paint. So, without any further ado...

1. C&BT Shops carbodies for New Haven 33000 series steel boxcars. These are the cars I started while on vacation. Yeah, I'm still not done - but getting close. One of the kits was missing a ladder and a truck sideframe, the other was missing weights, the included wheels are godawful and must be replaced, etc. I'll go into the build in more detail in a later post, but suffice it to say that these will just be to fill out my roster a bit for now.
2. C&BT Shops underbodies. The one on the left has weights I pilfered from my scrap box, affixed with silicone. Old silicone. Perhaps too old. Over 24 hrs and the silicone is still tacky...
3. IMWX (Innovative Model Works) carbody of a New Haven 30000 series steel boxcar. The IMWX is a much nicer, more detailed kit - and the parts are as delicate as they are beautiful. I'm looking forward to this build, but first step is to remove the warp from the car sides. Strangely, they were bowed out rather than in, as usually happens. A pair of rubber bands will (hopefully) straighten things out.
4. Another IMWX carbody, with the same warp but much less severe. Rubber bands would have been overkill, so I'm just pressing the sides in with some weight.
5. IMWX car roof. Guess what? Warped. But, again, only slightly. I'm hoping a little weight - with the ends supported by matchsticks to allow a deeper counter-bend - will do the trick. Would you do anything different about the warping? I've heard about heating in an oven, but wasn't sure of the right temperature.

Those are the major items, though I still am working on modifying a New Haven I-4 tender into a clear vision version for my J-1 2-8-2. And I have to add some sideview mirrors to my MiniMetals Richfield tank truck I just got. Oh - and of course I still have to finish my (now not so) quick & dirty Middletown Tower. But otherwise, the rest of the photo just shows the usual flotsam & jetsam of the typical modeler's workbench.

So, to paraphrase a famous slogan: "What's on your workbench?"