Large Scale Central

Metal Earth Freight Train

I bought a Metal Earth Train model kit that includes a GP 38 locomotive , a coal hopper, a boxcar a gondola and a caboose, all made from etched stainless steel flat panels. This has been a hard one for me , mainly because I do not have a couple of things that would make this much easier, namely a magnifying,lighted bench top helper, and maybe another set of hands would be helpful too. Sometime today I am going to the hobby store to get one so the last 2 cars to be built will be easier.

Didn’t notice it said 14 and up, since I am 12 there is one problem I’m having!

there is the whole kit as of right now, Loco , boxcar and hopper done, the mess is the rest of the gondola, the trucks for it are done, and the nice panel is the caboose awaiting my cutting and bending and cussing!

The loco is just about 4.5" long over the couplers. Everything looks pretty to scale except the handrail, where the had to make them a bit thicker I should have started with something a little easier, like the boxcar, and would have better firgured out some of the parts assembly before trying the wildly hard loco.

some of the underside details are really really small

one of the hardest things to do was the axles, as they start out as a flat panel with 2 tabs on each end, you have to roll them into an axle shape so that the tabs will fit thru the truck assembly, I put some pics on facebook and someone said they uses a small screwdriver to toll them around, better late than never to learn something. If you look at the first boxcar picture the instructions show how to bend and add the underbelly brake parts to the bottom of the boxcar, then look at this picture to see how small they are

Coal hopper, it lives up to its name as it is hopping around on 7 wheels as I goofed up bending one and it broke off , so that will go on the back side where its not as noticable. this is fun and I am learning as I go, and I think it will help my skills as I try new things on the 1/29 size stuff

Cool.

I have a Metal Earth battleship Yamato, I need to do a couple of simpler kits first to build up my skills.

They also have a narrow gauge steam loco kit I’m curious about.

Pretty cool, Pete. I’m sure you know where all the hiccups are but from the pics they are awesome.

Too cool! I have that same train. Man, are my eyes ever going crazy! Really hard to see since the parts are so tiny AND shiny. Fun little project.

Looks like they have a couple of steam engine kits as well. too small for this modeler to deal with.

Al P.

Yeah, did THIS one last year.

Bruce, that’s awesome!! What is it representing? I do not recognize the building, at least until you tell me then I well probably go DUH!!!

Pete Lassen said:

Bruce, that’s awesome!! What is it representing? I do not recognize the building, at least until you tell me then I well probably go DUH!!!

Pete, that’s NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE, it’s listed as Challenging - and they are NOT kidding! But, all of them are fun.

Wow, and it even comes with an oversized quarter too…(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Yeah Bruce I think it makes my train look like kids play!!! its awesome!!

well after getting a stand alone magnifying glass I finished the train, BNSF GP, 38, CN Gondola, BN boxcar, Wisconsin Central coal hopper and BNSF caboose

I had my intermodal out for size reference

there were some real challenges with this kit, from finding the part on the sheet, to getting a cutter into the area to cut the part loose, then paying attention to the side that is etched and which way to bend the tabs. Bending the tabs on some pieces was a real 5-7 curse word operation , dont remember how many time that about the time you think you have the second tab in the slot, the first one comes loose or pops out. Now to wipe all the finger prints off and put the train someplace safe. I hope they do more of these kits… i think!

Beautiful looking train…

Looks great

Here is my Metal Earth 2-6-0 Steam Locomotive that I recently started.

(http://largescalecentral.com/FileSharing/user_6229/Metal%20Earth%202-6-0/Metal%202-6-0%20A.jpg)

Tommy

Rio Gracie

Saw that set for sale at Mid-Continent this weekend.