Model Railroad News 08 2009

The first thing you notice about the Husky Stack is that this is not your grandfather's N-scale model freight car. For one, the detailing is very intricate and accurate. Many separately built detail parts adorn the car. For two, the car has body-mounted McHenry couplers. Finally, the model rides very low and close to the rails, noticeably closer than previous N-scale double-stack cars. The car measures out incredibly close to published measured drawings. In fact, I found every published measurement to be within inches of spot-on. There was no published value for overall coupled length, although it's safe to assume that the over-scale coupler shank common to all N-scale couplers would skew this measurement. Still, it was a joy to run down my scale converter and input value after value from the caliper... and smile as each one lined up. Kudos to Athearn and their predecessors for the attention to detail. Speaking of detail, the car is nicely done. Both freestanding and molded-on brake equipment and air lines follow the published drawings and available photographs. The walkways look very nice, but they are not as accurate. The drawing published in DeBoer's Piggyback and Containers shows the car having full walkways on both sides of each end. This means the Athearn car would be lacking a step on each side (when looking at the car from the end, each side is lacking a step on the left). This may have been omitted to leave room for the brake rigging on the B end of the car. I won't miss this specific detail, although it bears printing here, considering the high praise I give these cars on scale accuracy.

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Model Railroad News 03 2009

BACK in the late 1860s, the concept of shippers owning freight cars was established with petroleum tank cars, but the concept spread. Mileage allowances were granted by the railroads in return for them not having to own the cars. As the ICC and other regulatory groups stepped in to specify what they expected in a freight car's design, a triangular relationship was established. Carmakers learned to build cars that both met the needs of the shipper and follow the dictates of safe car design. Shippers learned how to load and unload cars at each end using specially designed facilities, and railroads learned how to handle privately owned cars. The covered hopper is a case in point. First, the hopper stepped away from the flat car design by creating permanent unloading hatches of varying designs in the bottom of the car. This allowed the car to be loaded rapidly on the top and unloaded just as quickly out the bottom. To help expedite this process, special facilities were constructed at each end, and railroads learned how to handle long strings of nearly identical cars tor even greater efficiency.

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Battlecolours No.01

A Diorama (with a capital "D") is one of the most enjoyable, yet challenging forms of modelling. It combines the disciplines of the figurine and vehicle modelling and joins these together with scenic elements. There are also the considerations of additional accessories and the care required to achieve an attractive and suitable base with frame. Like a long journey, it sometimes seems difficult to imagine the end, but looking back we are rewarded by the memories. I thought rhat as opposed to the traditional diorama presentation, that this time I'd "gloss over" the actual construction phases and focus more on some hints, tips and ideas, as far as diorama construction is concerned. The first "mistake" most people make when starting out on the trail of diorama building, is to think too BIG (myself included)! It's much easier to start small and build up, as well as being able to learn from your mistakes as you progress. Like the disciplines of figure and vehicle building, good tools are also required. Trying to get by with cheap tools just won't do. Cheap tools = cheap results. Use the best you can afford. There are good references for those who wish to build dioramas, the real "bible" being; "How to Build Dioramas", by Shep Paine. There are also the "Super Diorama" book by Verlinden and the Tamiya diorama book in Japanese. In addition, the "Steel Masters" magazine and the "Military Modelling Manual", from Japan, are all very interesting for the itinerant diorama builder.

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Steel Masters No.56

Pour faire face au renforcement de la résistance viet-minh et à l'augmentation de sa puissance de feu, le commandement français doit se procurer du matériel plus lourd, blindé et plus puissant. Celui-ci existe : il s'agit des LVT, ou Alligators, qui sont blindés et disposent d'excellentes qualités nautiques. Des exemplaires sont achetés aux Américains et testés à Arzew, en Algérie. L'arrivée des LVT va transformer complètement l'emploi des crabes et des groupements amphibies, car « il ne s'agit pas d'utiliser le LVT, en plus des Crabes et de l'infanterie comme un complément plus ou moins embarrassant mais de reformer, pour le combat amphibie, le trinôme : reconnaissance, char, infanterie, qui a fait ses preuves dans les groupements tactiques de la Guerre 1944-1945. Il s'agit de transformer les Crabes en véhicules de reconnaissance et d'utiliser les LVT comme porte-canons et transports d'infanterie ». Les escadrons de Crabes, en tant que tels, ont donc vécu, et pour mieux correspondre aux transformations opérées par l'apparition du LVT. chaque escadron devient le noyau d'un « Sous-Groupement Amphibie » qui, outre ses pelotons de crabes antérieurs, comprend 8 LVT et une compagnie portée.

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