Niles Project ~ Strategic Seating

Arranging seats around the motor so its not so conspicuous.

Additional seats are fabricated using the original seats as reference:

From Right to Left (above), the narrow brass bar stock is used for the seats and the wide bar stock for the base. The bar stock is measured, marked and cut. The wide bar stock is notched so that the tabs can be folded up as the seats legs. The wide center tab is ground off with a moto-tool. The narrow stock is bent matching the angle of the original seat backs. Then the seats and base are soldered together. Take care with soldering the seat assemblies to the floor. My seats are a tad too close to the sides and scrape when the body and floor come together.

Installed and painted. Some seats are right over the motor mounts. So seats were fabricated and then soldered to flat bar stock thick enough to get the seats to their proper height. Holes are drilled to accommodate the mounting screws for the motor. So what you see here is a sandwich of floor, mounting plate, insulation, motor tab, and then seats, all screwed together.

See? The motor is already disappearing into the background. If you look closely, the front seats of the center section (behind the figure) are seat backs only. You can see holes on the floor in front of them where the tabs on the bulkheads attach to the floor when the body and floor come together. Right where the seats are.

Alright, the seats are in and ready for paying passengers. Yes sir! Paying passengers!

Dandy
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Niles Project ~ Gates

Passenger gates make for a nifty little detail to add to these models.

 

 These gates in the doorways are included on all the San Diego Niles cars, so my models shall be so equipped. And why not? They are easy enough to add because...

 

...Cal Scale offers "Tailgates" for passenger cars that should fit the bill here just fine. They are available in brass (left) of plastic (right). I bought both to see which I preferred but forgot to add the brass gates during the soldering of brass details stage of construction. Soldering after the fact will ruin the paint on the cars. So #105, #107, and #109 will get the plastic gates. #110 will get the brass gates since it hasn't been painted yet.

Even though the plastic gates are black, I painted them with Floquil Engine Black paint anyway. Black plastic always looks like black plastic. Floquil paints are dead flat and kill the shine beautifully. A little bit of weathering chalks will help bring out the detail again.

A tad bit over sized, the Cal Scale gates achieve the desired effect anyway. The gates are glued in with good 'ol Micro Kristal Kleer.
The Passengers have found there seats and Conductor Carl has closed the gates. Were ready to roll. Yes Sir! Were ready to roll!

Dandy