resin freight car kits – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Resin kit builds – Missouri Pacific cars

I’ve built several HO scale resin freight car kits since the summer of 2023. For some reason, I’ve forgotten to share the overall progress. Some details have appeared on the blog, but overall summaries have been lacking. Let’s start with a couple Missouri Pacific cars that were enjoyable builds.

Repetition

Many aspects of model building are repetitive. These might be details or processes used across several similar models, or many of the same details applied to one model. Sometimes I will procrastinate completing a model because of all the same small details that need to be installed. Like installing 36 small brackets on a gondola. Those are the brackets in the lead image.

Brake rods

I’ve been building several HO scale resin freight car kits over the last several months. I’ve always had a problem determining the length of the center rod on the brake gear. I figured out a simple way to make these the correct length. I know if I’ve had a problem with a modeling detail, others have also experienced a similar issue.

Photo gallery

A few years ago, I posted about snapping roster shots of the freight car fleet. This is a great way to practice photo skills and to document your fleet. With online photo galleries, it also eases sharing your models with the community.

I set up a Flickr photo gallery a few years ago and have been slowly adding images of completed and in-process HO scale freight cars. The gallery makes it easy to share photos to encourage others building the same kit. There are currently 89 images posted. I try to add a few new ones every month or two. It has become a personal model display.

I hope you enjoy the site and it inspires you to open a kit box and build something new.

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Online model displays

*Malcolm Houck displays his HO scale scratchbuilt NYO&W steam locos at the 2023 Northeast RPM.*

One of my favorite parts of a Railroad Prototype Modeler meet (RPM) is the model display room. I find great inspiration among the tables of models and always bring home new ideas that move projects on my workbench.