Ed, There are two aspects to your question.
First, do you know what the correct contour is? If not, you need some plans (should I say elevations) of the original cars. Given the varied builders of the cars, you may have slight variations in the contour from one builder to the next. That may complicate things unless you are willing to compromise on a single average contour. Second, you need some roof stock made up to the above contour. This may not be cheap, or if you do it cheap it may not be easy. The easy/expensive way is to take your desired roof-stock specifications to a custom wood mill shop. They can - for a price - have custom planer blades made to your specifications which will give you the desired contour. If you go this route, you will likely consider having 20 times the stock you need made up so you can sell it to other S scalers on e-bay over the next 30 years. The other (cheap) option is to have at it on the table saw, roughing out the stock as close as you reasonably can, then using a hand plane to smooth the stock to as close to the correct contour as you can manage. Use of a template is mandatory. I might suggest making only one length of wood stock to your specifications, taking all the time you need to get it right, then making a mold of this. You could make a mold of plaster somewhat longer than your finished roofs, simply a trough of the correct contour. Fill the trough mold with automotive body putty, longer than a finished roof, with the "bottom" leveled off. Remove the molding, cut the ends square to length, and on the table saw you can cut in your recesses on the sides for the car panels. A lot of work, but then that is what scratch building is. Hope this helps. Maybe it will give you some other (better?) ideas. Darrell S --- In [email protected], "somothrguy2003" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > One of the reasons I switched to S scale was I knew that it would be a good place to test > my skills as a modeler. HO was getting to be too easy to excel in! > > I've decided to take on a formidable modeling task: I'd like to scratchbuild some of the > smoothside passenger cars that the Lackawanna ordered from Pullman, ACF, and Budd for > the brand new Phoebe Snow which debuted in 1949. My biggest obstacle right now is > getting the cars' roofs correct. I would use the AM smooth side car kits as a starting point, > but the roof's contour on those kits is not quite correct. Thus, I need to start from the very > beginning with these cars. Might there be anyone out there with suggestions as to how to > get the roof contour correct? > > Ed Kenny > Modeling the DL&W in S scale circa 9/29/54 > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
