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WM #62 F7A from Highliners Kit - Wheels and Sideframes 

Wheels

I used the NorthWest Short Line 40" Proto:87 wheels for this project.  You need to get the ones with the 1.5mm half-axle.  The part number is 37691-4

The first thing I did with the wheels is paint them.  Since it was late and I didn't want to clean up after an airbrush, I hand-painted the wheels.  I used brown and a little rust color to get the color for these wheels.  I also built a very simple painting jig by drilling 2mm or so diameter holes in a block of scrap wood.  Over that I placed a shop towel with holes in the same spot.

Here's a photo of the wheels prior to painting.

After I painted the wheels, I chucked each one in my Dremel tool and used a fine sanding "swizzel" stick to polish the treads and the axle.  Polishing the wheels this way gives a really nice effect.

Here are the painted and polished wheels.

Sideframes

Here are the side frames after several passes of chalks, dullcoat and a very thinned grayish-brown Polly Scale paint airbrused on.

Here are the assembled trucks with Proto:87 wheels and initially-weathered sideframes.  When reassembling the trucks, make sure the wire connection point is cleaned, and you put the trucks together so that each truck has sideframes with the wire connection point close to the worm (facing outwards from the motor).  Make sure you lube the worm and wheel gears.

Assemble the trucks to the painted frame and test.  Make sure you lube the hex head of the armature that goes inside of the flywheels before final assembly.  To get the trucks into the frame, you will need to remove the worm and armature.

Once you have the mechanism complete and tested, you'll want to install the clips on the body so you can attach it to the frame for the next set of details.  I used the platruct orange bottle solvent to install the clips. The photo is temporarily here.  I'll move it to another page once I get it set up

Let the solvent dry thoroughly and test.  If there is any play between the clips and the body, add more solvent.  You want the clips to be one with the F7 body so you can actually remove the body from the frame when the time comes.  Failure to do this will likely result in having to pry the body off the chassis in a way that damages the body.

Here's the unpainted shell with the mechanism attached.  It's starting to look nice!

Next Step White Metal Body Details

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