Back in December I posted about an idea I had for a modified caboose, and about the first cuts to the body (here).

After that I pondered things a while. I finally found photos of a similar caboose on the Lehigh Valley that had two windows on one end and one on the other. That gave me the plan how to go forward.

Centering the “seam” under the cupola

The donor sides have a seam in the middle. Visually, that pretty much has to be centered under the cupola. Which dictated the cuts pretty much, as seen below.

I glued this with a solvent type plastic cement, using a square to be sure it was square. Test fitting the first side on the car, this caboose now has a distinctive and plausible look.

Then I had to ponder what glue to use to connect the plastic sides to the metal body. Normally, I would have used epoxy for this type of connection. However, I’ve been using canopy cement lately in other applications, would it work?

I put a thin seam of it on the edges and then a thicker fillet on the inside. I looks like white glue! But worked very well.

Which brings us to now, the body is pretty much done, ready for paint. I like to paint things in groups, so I’m now pushing to complete that SW-8 project that is long overdue to finish. More on that soon.

Continue to Part III