But out of all bad things something good results (though a good thing can never justify a bad). Here is an inside view of the hopper car, where you can see a little of how I constructed it. From the finished far left of the image, you can see the grey brick slopes just inside the curved edges, which hide most of the gap that is otherwise visible. The 4x4 wing panels on each side between the quarter round panels are held together by 1x3 plates, and these in turn are attached to the floor of the car by 2x2/2x2 L brackets. The blue pillars hold up the roof. The whole thing is quite strong, but as you can see it doesn't fully survive the ultimate crash test. :) You can't get a good view of it from here, but the panels at the left end (front) of the car are slightly father apart at their studded end than the rest of the panels are. But it isn't enough to generally notice. Feel free to send me an email if you have more questions about this model!
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