Well, it’s only taken me six plus years to get back to working on the slab cars. I’m using the following photo to guide the next steps of construction:
There is also a good reference webpage by Chris Bird on his build of the ACME Engineering slate wagons which uses the same construction methods.
I started by epoxying the buffers to the end sills and trimming the brass pins to length. Then, using a round needle file, I enlarged the laser-cut holes for the brass bearing cups to get them to fit well. You can see from the photo below that I have been experimenting with Trade Secret stain markers to color the popsicle stick decking. I’ve found that the lightest colors of grey and brown are sufficiently dark to match the look of untreated wood.
Next up is paint which will be some variant of boxcar red.