taki 5450 Z gauge Taki 5450 tank car

[kevsmiththai]

Although the situation is improving there is still little variety in available Z gauge freight stock. I've amassed a decent collection of  Tenshodo, Rokuhan and PRM Loco wagons but some obvious ones are still not available. The distinctive Taki 5450 tank cars in their yellow colour scheme are one such.

 

So the thought was to try and scratchbuild some. However I recently picked up a load of MTL Z including a starter set. In amongst the box was a very sad looking MTL tank wagon with an end missing and damaged couplers which looked like it could be a suitable donor vehicle.

 

First thing to do was to eliminate the moulded seam along the length of the barrel and make new recessed ends for the tank. . Then add hand rails at either end, these came off some Marklin 4 wheel tank wagons that had donated their chassis to British 20 Ton brake vans

 

Painted in Ford Signal yellow with the chassis painted black it was now time for the homemade decals to finish it off. This was going to involve some work with Adobe Photoshop.

 

I had found a good broadside photo of one on Wiki Commons which I cropped around the lettering. The image size was then shrunk to the length of the tank

 

 

It need rotating about 1 degree clockwise to line it up

 

I then converted it to grey scale and tuned the contrast right up

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2019 by kevsmiththai
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[kevsmiththai]

 

The areas that were shadowed on the original were filled with blocks of white and then the image converted back to colour. This allowed me to use the magic wand tool to grab the logo and fill it in with red.

 

 

I then increased the canvas size in the vertical plane and copied the artwork and pasted it in seven more time to get eight pairs on the sheet. The clear waterslide decal sheet was A4 sized so I guillotined it down to 10 x 15 to save waste and printed the artwork. You need to set your printer to Premium Glossy paper and set the quality to highest and the print speed to lowest. It was left to dry overnight and then the decals were given two Thin coats of aerosol acrylic laquer designed for Ink jet ink. Its important not to be two heavy handed with the laquer as it may start curling up the decals off the model in the future

 

 

Application was standard decal technique with just a little bit of Microscale Micro set solution. I finished off with a light spray of matt clear acrylic to tone it down.

 

[kevsmiththai]

It was only after I took the picture that I noticed that I hadn't added the black tanks on the side which is easily done and that the bogies are tilting up. This is because the truck mounted coupler boxes are touching the underside of the frame so I'll add a 5 thou shim at either end to level them up.

 

 

With using the MTL trucks it does mean I have buckeye couplings rather than the Rapido ones but once I make a few more they will run as a fixed set behind the buckeye equipped DE 10 probably.

 

 

Need to find some more battered MTL tank cars now!

 

Kev

Edited April 28, 2019 by kevsmiththai
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[MichiK]

Well done, Kevin!

 

15 hours ago, kevsmiththai said:

With using the MTL trucks it does mean I have buckeye couplings rather than the Rapido ones but once I make a few more they will run as a fixed set behind the buckeye equipped DE 10 probably.

 

Additionally/alternatively you could try to put the bogies of a (Z-Shorty) KoKi under the car. It's not exactly of the TR211B type that the TaKi5450 was also equipped with, but it looks sufficiently similar, I'd say. There were even TaKis, which had grey bogies instead of black ones! You could, e.g., keep the Arnold couplings at one end and replace it with a buckeye at the other end, and get an interface for "normal" locos.

[kevsmiththai]

Thanks Michik. I'd not considered the Shorty KoKi as a donor car but at the price they are it is a no-brainer.

 

Here is the artwork for one of the next projects. TAMU 3754

 

 

Printed off and waiting for the clear coat to cure

 

Pics to follow-

 

Kev