Monday "Modeling" - PanPastel display/storage

As I mentioned in my last post, one of the things I got for Christmas was this cool Pan Pastel storage rack from Motrak Models . . .

It comes in kit form as pieces of laser-cut Masonite. So while it's not a railroad kit per se, I think putting any sort of kit together qualifies as "modeling" - at least a little bit.

So follow along as I put it together - start to finish took less than 30 minutes. . .

Here are all the parts laid out. In addition to what comes in the kit, you'll want a sturdy, flat surface to work on, some wax paper, clamps, and - of course - wood glue.

I have a large piece of plate glass on-hand that I like to use as well. It's certainly not required, but is handy for creating a surface which is perfectly flat. Bonus: it also protects my nice wood table.

Might be overkill, given the glass, but I went ahead and added some wax paper on top. The paper alone would probably be sufficient protection for whatever surface you're using.

First thing I did was lay out the parts. The instructions claim everything goes together only one way, and they're right. You really can't mess up. But one thing to note - especially if, like me, you plan to glue both back parts together along their common edge - is to make sure the bottom piece is oriented correctly. Note the alignment of the bottom slots/tabs in the pic above. Not right.

This is more like it. The orientation of all the other parts is dictated by the slots/tabs. Just be careful to be sure the separators (the triangle-y parts) are attached with the tall edge toward the top/away from you (assuming you're assembling the rack with the top away from you as I did).

I tend to be a bit OCD when it comes to glue application, so I squeezed some wood glue into a bottle cap and used a large/micro (?!) brush to apply the glue sparingly where ever the parts would come into contact with each other.

The instructions suggest putting everything together at once - and given how quickly such small amounts of glue start to set up, you'll want to be sure and move right along briskly. In the photo above, I've glued in all of the small separator parts and am preparing the front parts for assembly.

  

As with the small separators, I worked from back (top/away) to front. Here I'm adding the front parts. 

Once all the front parts are added, it's time to add the sides. For the left side, I applied the glue to where I knew it'd contact the other parts.

Once the left side was attached, I rested the whole assembly on that side and applied glue this time to the edges of all the parts rather than to the side part (as you can see, I'd started to apply the glue to the side as before, but decided to try this alternate method)

Once the two sides are attached, you turn the whole thing over onto its front and add glue first for the back splice part . . .

attach the splice and then add glue for the hangar reinforcement at the top . . .

Once those last two parts are attached, clamp it all together as shown and add some weight to the splice (which you can't really clamp).

And that's it! Once the glue cures, you'll have a very nice way to store and display your Pan Pastels for ready reference and access.

Just need to use those included anchors & screws to hang it up nice and sturdy… And yes, that is in fact an extra part. Truly - just in case you lose one.

Thanks to Jeff Adam at Motrak Models for coming up with such a neat idea and designing such an easy-to-build kit. Even though it's not a freight car or structure, the act of building anything is a fun and relaxing way to spend some time.