Satan's Containers and Stuff

[Satan's Goldfish]

I've been meaning to start a thread on my growing collection of containers and associated equipment for a while now. So as an opener, I made this earlier which I'm quite happy with:

 

 

which is based on this:

 

http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part1/images/js/msku5244788_view1.jpg

 

it's a standard Bachmann Maersk container which I've blanked the sides of then added the transfer over the top.

 

I'll add more as life lets me, I'm hoping my next post here can be 'how Satan makes soft-top boxes' as I've nearly finished my second and I've been taking pictures as I go.

[Jim Martin]

Cute! Did you make the transfer yourself, or is it something you can buy?

 

The ship is pretty striking too. How big is that thing?

 

Jim

[Satan's Goldfish]

I don't think anyone's described a container as 'cute' before...

 

I make up my own transfers for the more unusual boxes, these ones aren't quite as tall as they should be when you compare it to the picture of the original and the extra 1mm of height on the Bachmann box doesn't help.

 

The ship is part of my RMweb 2014 challenge build, there's a link in my sig below, I'm currently procrastinating adding the handrails which are still in packets all over the main deck. There is future plans for it after the challenge, it's about 45inches long by 8inches wide and can hold hc containers stacked 3 high on the main deck. Including unmodelled containers below deck it has a capacity of about 200 20ft boxes.

 

I'm by no stretch of the imagination a good modeller but I'm enjoying the intermodal side of it all. Probably means I need to get out more.

[Satan's Goldfish]

The ship as it's now a little more finished. Construction details can be found here:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/83100-the-hairy-viking/

 

unloaded:

 

 

 

 

and loaded:

 

 

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

Next up; How Satan Bodges Soft-tops.

 

A while ago from a battered Dapol container i made this:

 

 

The container was in a very shabby condition following a failed transfer job so it didn't really matter if i completely ruined it carrying out the conversion work to make it a soft-top. The end result though was good enough that Alan used to like having it posed on Warren Lane at shows.

 

So i've decided to make another one and this time i've taken progress photo's as it's progressed so others with more modelling talent than me can make a decent one!

 

First up is the doner box, this time it's a Wild Boar Models 3d print 20ft flat data panel. The machine decided to throw in a couple of errors when printing this one so it's ripe for converting:

 

 

Of course, taking photos of a white object is never going to come out to well.

 

 

 

First job is with a nice coarse file to smooth down the roof ribs to flush with the top, taking care not to file down the corner mounts:

 

 

 

 

Next pick an imaginary line on the side of the box that soft top comes down to. Looking at lots of pictures this can vary greatly between different boxes. On this box, the bottom edge of the small raised panel at the top of the recessed data panel was chosen. With a combination of the coarse and a small smooth file start rounding the top edge of the container down to this imaginary line, again being careful not to accidently file down the corner mounts. The 2 long sides and the back need this treatment, doors on soft-tops still go to the full height of the box:

 

 

 

 

Once roughly rounded off, using a different colour to the box spray directly down on the top. This will highlight any ribs that still need smoothing down on the top and how much more rounded the edges still need to be:

 

 

 

 

 

Go around again with just the fine file to round the edges off a little more:

 

 

 

 

 

The side ribs will still be very prominent at this stage above your imaginary line, but when you're happy with the curve it's time to add some plastic strip to make the imaginary line real!

 

I use some very fine Plastruct length of a size i don't know as it was lost when removing a different label. This is stuck on with a lot of superglue directed from the top of the container to fill in-between the curved filed down ribs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, this receives a lot of spray paint aimed directly from above to help highlight any issues:

 

 

 

 

As can be seen from the last shot, despite lots of filing some of the roof ribs were still showing through. In this respect i did find the 3d printed WSF plastic a little more difficult to work with than the injection mould plastic used by Dapol.

 

To help fill these remaining ribs i decided to try a method i'd read on a different thread about using thick poster paint as filler:

 

 

When that was dry it was smoothed down, received another coat of blue, and looked much better.

 

Once happy with the roof colour, carefully mask off the whole of the 'tarp' area on the roof down to the lines stuck on the side, remember to leave the top of the door end exposed and the corner mounts.

 

The camera was out of reach while i was spraying the main body, however it received a base of white, followed by 'dark rust', then 'warning panel yellow' on top (colours i happened to have to hand)

 

 

 

The mis-printed bottom corner received a streak of grime to help it look as if it's whacked something and bent it out of shape. Also a little noticeable is where i've removed the masking tape around the top and it's left some little rips of white, but that shouldn't be an issue for those with better masking abilities than me!

 

Once all the layers of paint were on it received a few passes with the Dulcoat and was left to dry.

 

Next up, around the edges of the tarps there are little brass rings for tying the soft-top down. These are added by using dots from a fine-point gold paint-pen...

 

 

 

...which is really tough to get close up shots of with a pocket digital camera.

 

Home-brew transfers are next, and this is where it went a little wrong. It was supposed to look like this box:

 

http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part2/images/opentops/opdu2600398.jpg

 

but i accidently printed the most obvious transfers out on white transfer paper rather than clear. My bad.

 

 

 

After applying transfers, remember to add another dose of Dulcoat.

 

Overall i don't think it's come out to bad for me, even the excessive amount of white on the transfers starts not to notice when it's mixed in with all the other boxes.

 

I hope someone finds this guide useful, this principle should work with any 4mm container available, a 40ft soft-top box may be in my future. Until then, here it is back with the 'Florens' box for a comparison:

 

 

 

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

As mentioned in a different thread, the fictional Stark Industries containers.

 

 

All the transfers are home made. The blue 20ft boxes are 2 different types from Wild Boar Models. Flat Data panel ribbed box on the left with a large central logo, and on the right is a raised corrugation data panel ribbed box with small logos.

 

The box above is a more modern style corrugated Bachmann 45 with modern logos.

 

I have many more of the modern logos to do some more different sized modern containers plus a special 40ft hc sized 'Stark Expo' transfer to do at some point.

 

Being an arms dealer, some of these may migrate onto MoD services to add some variation to the red side openers.

[Satan's Goldfish]

A couple of container 'collections'.

 

Many many years ago when I was young, before an unhealthy interest in itermodal things, my parents took us on holiday to Antigua. At the side of the road from the Airport to the hotel were a couple of big white containers with 'Tropical' wrriten on the side. At the time I can remember thinking that a train of tropical containers on my old Hornby flats would look good. Fast forward a couple of decades and my first attempt at a home made transfer was the tropical logo on a hand painted c-rail 40ft standard height box. It sucked. The amazing mr Alan Bevan then stepped in, brought his airbrush over to mine for the weekend and taught me how to do it properly.

 

Turns out Tropical don't have standard height 40s anyway, so a 40ft hc received his expert treatment, followed shortly by my attempt at a 20, then finally in this collection is a 45 which I did a couple of months ago for the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Next some more of Alan's paint work in the ###### fang collection.....sorry, the d o n g fang collection!

 

these are a little out of era for me, but they are a liked brand by mrs satan so I knocked up some decals for them. Alan mixed up the colour at his and did a fantastic job on the 20, the 40s were done later with the same mixed colour.

 

[ess1uk]

Looking great.

Like the Stark idea

[trisonic]

Nice MSC!

 

Best, Pete.

[Satan's Goldfish]

Nice MSC!

 

Best, Pete.

can't take credit for that one, that's either one of Phil Dean's or Alan Bevans that they kindly donated to me to help fill the ship.

[Satan's Goldfish]

Been doing up some more. Big shout to Phil for the 40s. Another couple of Tropical boxes, a couple of Maersk 40ft standard heights, fictitious 'stark' 20, nedlloyd, and a macs box which uses 1:87 transfers but looks ok. Plus the reappearance of an old favourite.......

 

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

A couple more 'collection' photos.

 

Bell first off, the 20s and 40s are as delivered from c-rail with various degrees of weathering added. The 30 was an Alan respray with homebrew transfers. The paint pot labelled 'Bell end purple' never gets unfunny.

 

 

 

 

as mentioned above, Tropical have had a quantity boost.

 

 

 

 

and the ever expanding Maersk collection. There's a small Saifmarie element hiding at the back, 2x 45s and a 40 hc. On Maersk itself, 6x 20ft, 2x 40ft standard height, 2x 40ft hc all a mix of Maersk/Maersk Sealand.

 

Finally the NorfolkLine 40hc which is my favorite box. Respray by Alan with our first attempt of a complete side homebrew transfer. This box managed to get itself into the main crane working picture in the Warren Lane article in the BRM RMweb take-over edition extra bonus points for the first here to find the prototype it's based on.......

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

Another soft top container made using the same method as above. This time based on a c-rail container:

 

 

 

I'll be honest, the original conversion using a Dapol container was still the nicest to work.

 

Next soft top conversion should be a 40ft I think.....

[Satan's Goldfish]

A repeat picture from elsewhere, but another couple of new old boxes before they get the weathering treatment.

 

 

the 40ft Kien Hung is based on one of these:

 

http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part1/images/khlu5410963_4310.jpg

 

The linked picture may be in yankland but I have been sent a picture of one of these passing through the Coatbridge terminal a while ago so it's got a lot more 'right' to be on a UK train than some of my other creations above!

 

Edit: the box itself is a Hornby 40ft ribbed box with one of the ribs at each end 'carefully' removed with a scalpel and then smoothed down to create the Data Panels. Thanks to Alan Bevan for that tip!

 

The ACT soft-top is based on one of these:

 

http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part2/images/opentops/bsly4201557.jpg

 

It's been modified using the same description as for the OPDR soft-top but is based on one of the new C-Rail rib sided (no data panel) containers, which has been the easiest container to work into a soft-top yet

 

A nice trick with it and the Kien Hung container is the colour of the white. It may look like bright white in the pictures but is actually a beige from a very high quality spray can, it's only when you put something white beside them that the real colour becomes clear. This means that when viewed from a distance they look more natural than the 'beacon' white effect of the Tropical boxes.

Edited June 4, 2015 by Satan's Goldfish

[Glorious NSE]

Several pics of Kein Hung in the UK on my site, including a couple on the move by rail. ☺

 

Nice tip with the beige, will give that a go.

[Satan's Goldfish]

Cheers Glorious NSE, it's just not a box I've ever seen in the flesh so it's nice to know they are/were regulars.

 

Next up, today I've moved on from soft-tops to curtain sides. A discussion about something completely unrelated with Alan lead to him giving me some unwanted model curtain sided lorry trailers and me saying 'yes I've got pictures of curtain sided 20ft containers in a book at home.' By no means a common type of box, they did see some use in the late 80s.

 

The 2 I've built are based on the Wild Boar Models MoD containers, as I happened to have a couple spare. This is quick guide on how to bodge the red box below into the blue box.

 

 

 

 

The lorry trailer was from Oxford Diecast and has already been stripped and then the sides cut to provide the 2 curtain side portions.

 

 

 

 

Next the doner box is very carefully cut up. The door end and the ribbed end are sawn off to a depth of 2 to 3mm. Because these boxes are made from quite thick wsf printed plastic, this literally involved sawing through a tough block of plastic the entire size of the container, at each end.

 

 

 

 

the next victim is the roof. Again, starting 2 to 3mm down this was cut off at an angle from each side because of the thickness of the material and the requirement to retain the metal bolts for Heljan crane use.

 

 

 

 

And here's the resultant pile of parts. The remaining sides of the doner container are not required. All rough edges filed smooth etc, and the top edge of the curtain sides are filed to an angle to match the roof block.

 

 

 

 

Sides and ends are then glued to the roof block.

 

 

 

 

 

Now we hide the very rough join lines. Suitable width plastic strip is added along the top of the curtain to the roof line.

 

 

 

 

And smaller bits of strip hide the other gaps. A vigorous filing session follows to help blend them down a little.

 

 

 

 

The curtain sides stop a couple of millimetres short of the bottom of the container to create the standard strong container base. Strips of plastic are stuck on the inside of the box to create this base, then a plasticard sheet is added to the bottom to complete it.

 

 

 

 

 

The complete unpainted box next to it's already painted companion.

 

 

 

 

Painting carried out in my usuals method of spray cans, trial and error, masking tape, and matt varnish. Decals still need adding to the ends and the doors need bars. The ratchet straps along the bottom still need picking out in black too and then suitably weathered. I decided I quite liked the dark red of the curtains when they were on the lorry so this box has received dark red curtains, but the metal parts of the box are a similar shade of blue to the first one.

 

 

 

 

THAT IS ALL.

[Satan's Goldfish]

Continuing with the curtain siders, today has seen the details applied. The ratchet straps have been picked out with a fine black permanent pen, decals are odds and ends from C-Rail sheets that were never going to see their intended use, and door bars have been added.

 

 

 

 

Edit: the camera is very cruel!

Edited June 7, 2015 by Satan's Goldfish

[Satan's Goldfish]

Further up I mention the Norfolk Line container with the Maersk boxes, and a prize for finding the prototype, I put that because I created it from a 45 and didn't think there was 40ft hc NL boxes..... until now:

 

http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part4/nflu4960667-4960271.jpg

 

Found a lot more hiding in this little sub-section of that site, not good when I've just received a fresh batch of transfer paper!

Edited June 9, 2015 by Satan's Goldfish

[Shed]

As mentioned in a different thread, the fictional Stark Industries containers.

 

20140723_125351.jpg

 

All the transfers are home made. The blue 20ft boxes are 2 different types from Wild Boar Models. Flat Data panel ribbed box on the left with a large central logo, and on the right is a raised corrugation data panel ribbed box with small logos.

 

The box above is a more modern style corrugated Bachmann 45 with modern logos.

 

I have many more of the modern logos to do some more different sized modern containers plus a special 40ft hc sized 'Stark Expo' transfer to do at some point.

 

Being an arms dealer, some of these may migrate onto MoD services to add some variation to the red side openers.

you could do some USR containers from the film I Robot

[Jongudmund]

Or a Wayne Enterprises one if you don't mind mixing comic universes.

 

Tyrell Corporation? Weyland-Yutani? The list goes one.

 

Seriously though, these are great pics. Thanks for sharing them.

[ess1uk]

Any more containers recently?

[Satan's Goldfish]

None recently, been busy moving house, DIY, and now building my massive man-cave to house the layout formally known as Warren Lane. There are still more transfers I've made in the big envelope ready though.