up this view of the Milwaukee flatcar to record my frustration:
I set up this photo to show/document my stumped progress:
The flatcar has been painted its final color Tamiya TS 62 NATO Brown on top of TS-33 Dull Red which blended together to an FCR shade that I am willing to accept. The rivet decals had been applied over the primer coat of Tamiya Gray primer. The underframe has been repaired and strengthened with Evergreen plastic shapes the bolsters are not in the picture but have been painted with my new flat standard black. Tamiya TS-82 Rubber Black. Any touch up from this point on will be done with bruhed acrylic paints.
From my remaining half full bottle of Future, I have coated the areas I expect to decal and after a 12 hour drying period started to decal from the K4 Milwaukee Flatcar set. I should have checked before about the smaller lettering but it turns out not to have any usable Capacity and Load Limit data as well as length and build date info that I can piece into a reasonable decal pieces for this car.
Other points to note are:
The 11 inch long cast steel stake pockets that were designed and printed for me by acquaintances in the hobby. These are on the flatcar and extras are in the rectangular plastic container.
Next to the container is part of the decking from dyed stripwood. The main decking is scale 10 foot long 6 x 8 inch planks. A short 9-1/4 6x8 4 plank section for the brake end of the flatcar with the round cutout for the drop shaft brake wheel.
Below the decking is the tiney Plate C 3D Printed Universal drop shaft wheel and mechanism on a piece of .015 Tichy Bronze rod.
To the left of the stripwood decking is a plastic container with my attempt to model the chocks and cleats used retain the tank in transport. This is part of an attempt to model the transportation restraining system documented in US Army M46 and M47 Field Manuals for moving tanks between the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant and docks for overseas shipment. It assumes the tanks will be unloaded by a dock crane at their US destination. I don't have a photo of the unloading and ship loading (was it a direct transfer from the flatcar?) but I do have a photo of M46's being unloaded from a ship in the harbor at Pusan, Korea.
Note that the tanks are being lifted by the disabled tank towing points built into hull of the tank. Unfortunately I didn't realize I would need the towing points included in the the M46 tank hull drilled out before assembling the 3D printed parts. This is making it difficult to model the 4 carbon steel bars that were used with each tank being shipped from the Detroit instead of chains. They were specially designed to fit in the steel stake pockets. I may revisit this issue in the future but it might require a new set of Miniature Tank Company HO M46's.
Below the spare stake pockets are the Moloco 50 Ton Trucks I am using. They have depressed springs molded showing the weight of the 47 ton tank being carried.
To the right and left of the frame are Kadee 158 semi-scale couplers.
At the bottom is the original Athearn underframe for the flatcar. I am still debating whether to add AB brake gear components as the minimum effort that will be visible while on my layout.
That's all for now on the 4 flatcars and tanks for the first Tanks for the Memories shipment. I will update when the Milwaukee flatcar is finally finished (I started it in March 2026.)
I am also looking into modeling Rock Island 46 foot 50 Ton flatcars as they were used in the Army manual illustration of an M46 loaded for rail shipment from the Detroit Arsenal. They also seem to appear in the 1950 Life Magazine photo coverage of the manufacture and shipping process of the M46. The specific identity of the flatcars was carefully avoided in the photos.
I am This is the only page I have from the actual M46 Army Field Manual but the tank is actually an earlier M26 model and photos do not support shipping with all the crates over the engine compartment in the rear of the tank. The crates behind the tank (in front of tank in above illustration) contain extra treads.
