40' 50-Ton Flat Car ACF Kit

This is a nice kit BUT it is not for anyone looking for a quick and easy build! The are MANY parts and assembly is challenging. It does NOT come with couplers or decals. Fine pointed tweezers are a MUST! Handling some of these tiny detail parts is a real pain. Read and re-read the instructions so you get a feel for how to assemble BEFORE you start! You may need to deviate from the recommended directions a little as I did. I found it best to paint everything before assembly because masking the kit would be hard to do without breaking the fine details. Adding the trainline is the most challenging. It must be threaded through the frame in quite a few spots on both sides and it is very difficult to do once the frame is installed. I have two more kits and next time I WILL NOT follow the instructions and will add the trainline in two pieces.

This was my very first attempt at building a car from a kit. The parts were pretty clean, with only a little filing and shaping required. The instructions were very good, giving me no head-scratching moments. I know some people will be triggered when I say I don't really see why so much effort is put into exactly modeling the underside of the car when no one will ever see it, but there you go. The main problem with this car is that it is super light, and there is very little room to apply decals. Other than that I really like it, and it seems to be the only available plain old flat car with nothing on it.

my son is excited to get this together and on his train layout