Dolly Varden HOn3 Ore Car
Production parts are on the way. I expect to have kits ready about this time next month.
23 March, 2010
Another month has passed without any progress on this kit. We are still dealing with repairs from our flood and it is taking more time than expected.
16 February, 2010
I can hardly believe it has been over a month since the last update. We had a broken pipe & flood here over the holidays and I'm just getting back up to speed. I'll post more pics & details as I can get to it.
In the meantime, I have worked out a rough kit cost: About $42.50, including appropriate Rio Grande Models trucks.
Depending on interest, there may be only one run of this kit. If you are interested in one or more please drop me a line. If there isn't enough interest I may not go forward with this.
14 January, 2010
I received some new parts the other day and began another test assembly. There are still some changes to be made, but this build's parts fit much better.
7 December, 2009
Yesterday I was able to spend some more time testing assembly. I'm not satisfied with how I designed the slope sheet supports so I'll have to modify the drawings to make it easier to align the parts. Things seem to pop up unexpectedly lately so it will probably be another couple of weeks before I post anything more on this.
16 November, 2009
I heven't been able to get much done today. I pulled together the detail parts and began checking how they fit, with the thought of making some real progress on assembly. Unfortunately, all my CA has dried up. Well, that's Friday the 13th for you. I'll pick up more tomorrow. In the meantime, the above photo shows the grabs, some of the NBW's, and one of the stirrup steps (lower right end) placed loosely into their laser drilled holes. If you have a copy of Steel Rails & Silver Dreams you can check out how this compares to the builder's photos near the end of the book. The B end is to the right in the above photo.
13 November, 2009
Test cuts arrived today. There are some obvious minor material problems I can see, but no show stoppers for a test build... at least that are immediately apparent. I'll post a pic or two as things progress. Stay tuned.
12 November, 2009
Yay! Files were sent for test cuts this morning!
2 November, 2009
Have you ever had an "Ah Ha!" moment? I just did. I realized that the sides I had drawn up are completely wrong. Okay, maybe that was more an "Oh No!" moment but it will allow me to make a more correct looking model when I get it fixed. In the meantime, I'm spinning my wheels as fast as I can!
21 October, 2009
I finally decided to make this a wooden kit. As you might suspect, stock wood thicknesses differ from acrylic sheet sizes. So, I guess it comes as no surprise that there are lots of small changes that need to be made in the drawings to compensate. Unfortunately, I began this project way back in 2005 and it is taking me _way_ longer getting up to speed on this project than I though it would. Regardless, I expect to have new files ready for test cuts next week. I'm almost certain there will be a second round of test cuts, but I could get lucky...
15 October, 2009
Nothing new. I'll be working hard on this project once I'm back from vacation in August.
9 July, 2009
I started this project a long time ago. It was actually the first kit I wanted to produce! One part of the project is already complete: Trucks. I made masters for them and they are currently available from Rio Grande Models - see my links page for the URL.
The image above is a photo of my CRT screen I took this morning. It shows the drawing I created for the car. From additional detail drawings I had some acrylic cut for use in making masters for a flat resin kit. I'm rethinking that approach. I like working with wood much better and may go with that..
25 June, 2009
If you got here from some place other than Stevens Creek Models, click the link below to go there.
Page last updated: 23 March, 2010
