I recently started a rant about the lack of accurate road specific cabooses available, for that matter the lack of cabooses, road specific or not. The general concessus was that, unless you model a few specific roads, you needed to make your own caboose to get something even remotely close.
This has led to a caboose buying binge in the past few months to come up with parts to create the various B&O, C&O, and WM cabooses I wanted. I had come quite a selection of cabooses. Then I got lucky on an auction and got a resin kit of a B&O I-17 bay window caboose. The kit hasn't been offered in quite a while, at least 15 year or more from what I can find.
I know why the company that offered the kit is not around any more. It was definitely a "craftsman" kit. The kit required removing one side, shaping, and re-gluing just to get it square. Everything had flashing on it and on most of the parts, the top and bottom half of the mold didn't line up. After much filling and sanding to get the basic shape right, a lot of the original detail was lost. I started reapplying the details but the caboose started to look more and more like a Wagontop instead of an I-17. I sanded the details back off and rounded the roof edges to replicate the Wagontops. I cut the thinnest styrene I had into strips to recreate the ribs on the car. The windows took a little adjusting and I needed to make a new roof walk. It now looked much more like a wagontop than it ever did an I-17.
The next step was end rails which had to be scratch built. I had originally planned on using MT caboose rails but B&O had to be different and their ladders are on the opposite side of most cabooses, yet the brake wheel is still on the same side. There are no cabooses out there that replicate this properly.
I am down to the final step, decals, and it looks like I have to create that myself also. There are no B&O caboose decal sets available that I can find and the various decals that I have acquired don't come close to what I need. Fortunately, my business is vinyl cut graphics and I have a buddy in the business with an Alps printer that can print the decals on waterslide for me. They should be done in a week or so. I am sending decal paper to him in the morning.
This has led to a caboose buying binge in the past few months to come up with parts to create the various B&O, C&O, and WM cabooses I wanted. I had come quite a selection of cabooses. Then I got lucky on an auction and got a resin kit of a B&O I-17 bay window caboose. The kit hasn't been offered in quite a while, at least 15 year or more from what I can find.
I know why the company that offered the kit is not around any more. It was definitely a "craftsman" kit. The kit required removing one side, shaping, and re-gluing just to get it square. Everything had flashing on it and on most of the parts, the top and bottom half of the mold didn't line up. After much filling and sanding to get the basic shape right, a lot of the original detail was lost. I started reapplying the details but the caboose started to look more and more like a Wagontop instead of an I-17. I sanded the details back off and rounded the roof edges to replicate the Wagontops. I cut the thinnest styrene I had into strips to recreate the ribs on the car. The windows took a little adjusting and I needed to make a new roof walk. It now looked much more like a wagontop than it ever did an I-17.
The next step was end rails which had to be scratch built. I had originally planned on using MT caboose rails but B&O had to be different and their ladders are on the opposite side of most cabooses, yet the brake wheel is still on the same side. There are no cabooses out there that replicate this properly.
I am down to the final step, decals, and it looks like I have to create that myself also. There are no B&O caboose decal sets available that I can find and the various decals that I have acquired don't come close to what I need. Fortunately, my business is vinyl cut graphics and I have a buddy in the business with an Alps printer that can print the decals on waterslide for me. They should be done in a week or so. I am sending decal paper to him in the morning.