Detailing Parts for N-scale locos (including handrails)

[tappertrainman]

I love seeing the silver and red.  Your grabs are incredibly delicate and really add to the whole look in my opinion.

James

[ednadolski]

Luckily after a few 20-minute soaks in the 91% IPA, it looks like pretty much all of the TCP paint has come off without fuss (both the red and the gray primer).   The original Kato paint wasn't much affected by the alcohol, other than the red being stained lighter by the whole process.   I'm glad that the Kato silver areas are intact, because I sure don't feel like having to re-paint those too.   BTW the air conditioner will be painted BNSF orange to match the proto pics (and that will include the top and the side panel, but those are not on the cab piece).


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Here are some shots of the pilots and grilles.   These were painted with PollyScale BNSF Silver, which turns out is not the greatest match to the Kato silver, but I think once it is flat coated and weathered the difference will not be very noticeable.  Fortunately for me, the proto can get pretty grimy in these areas.  But if I had it to do over, I would use the Badger BNSF Silver.


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Ed

[ednadolski]

I love seeing the silver and red.  Your grabs are incredibly delicate and really add to the whole look in my opinion.

James

Thanks James.   There is something about scale-sized wire parts that I think really adds to the look of an N-scale diesel, that it helps such a small model to capture some of the look and feel of the size and mass of the prototype.   Just my subjective opinion of course 

Ed, for my .007" bits, I'm using steel bits I bought over a decade and a half ago.  Had to buy 'em a dozen at a time at my local machinist's supply for nearly ten bucks each, but they're flexible and I've never broken a single one.  I use my "zero" chuck with a 1/8" shaft on it, chuck that into my Foredom tool and then use the foot pedal so it's ticking over at about 200 RPM or so.  Drills through plastic like it's red-hot and with cutting lube, though brass almost as quick and easy.

Interesting.  At one point I was looking for HSS bits in those sizes and found some on line.   I'll try to dig those up and give them a try.

Been there, done that.

Aha, yes, every project is a learning experience 


Ed

[ednadolski]

Repaint for the cab is completed, this has come out much better than before.   I always like the mismatched color of the air conditioner on many of these prototypes.


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I've decided that I was not happy with the match of the silver paint, so I decided to just go ahead and strip and repaint the rest of the shell.  This gave me the opportunity to remove some of the roof panels that are not on the prototype.  I also fixed up some of the areas around the steps and the attachment holes for the oversized factory handrails.


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Here you can see how much of the original plastic pilots was removed.  There is still a sizable chunk of plastic to install the coupler pocket.


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So it's back to the paint shop for some primer and color coats 


Ed

[tappertrainman]

I always like the mismatched color of the air conditioner on many of these prototypes.

Just like this one I found near Denver this weekend! 



James

[ednadolski]

Nice pic James... that fade-to-pink cab would make a great weathering project 

Ed

[ednadolski]

Looks like this project is undergoing a bit of "feature creep":  I've decided to upgrade the factory fuel tank and air reservoirs.  Since Kato makes these all as a single plastic casting, they have always had an undesirable "flattened' look as compared to the prototype.  While Kato's current models are a significant improvement over the original production units, they still leave a lot to be desired in this area.   So my approach is to cut away the molded-in factory parts, build out the recessed area with styrene, and then add a pair of scratch-built air reservoirs.  I've also replaced the fuel fillers with some scratchbuilt parts that are a closer approximation of the proto.   Here are a few pics:



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One challenge was, how to cement the styrene parts to the main tank, which is made of a different ABS plastic that is fairly resistant to most styrene solvents.  The usual liquid cements (e.g, Testors, which contains MEK, and Micro Mark's "Same Stuff" which is equivalent to the Tenax and Plastruct cements) barely touched the Kato plastic and made for a very weak joint.   I tried softening the ABS with acetone, which was somewhat better but still ended up breaking when I tried to file the parts to an even fit.  I ended up re-gluing the parts with CA,  which is OK but still possible to break the joints without a lot of effort.   One thing I may try in future efforts like this is the "Plastic Weld" by Plastruct, which supposedly works with dis-similar plastics, but I did not have any on hand for this project.

You can see in the pics that the increase in the recessed area means that the factory frame has to be milled down so that the tank can fit.  I've removed some of the material with a Dremel milling bit, but it was slow work.  I'll do the rest of the removal on the belt grinder.

Scratchbuilding the air tanks from styrene started with some 1/8" diameter solid rod.   This is slightly undersized but not too bad.   To form the rounded ends I used my "poor man's lathe" of a Dremel held in a bench vice.  The rod had to be chucked in very gently to avoid damaging the rod.  With the rod spinning I formed the rounded ends by cutting with the edge of a hand-held router bit.  The results are not perfect, but you have to look under magnification for it to be bothersome.

The straps around the air tanks are 0.006" brass wire, wrapped around and tightened gently by twisting together on the back side.  I notched the tanks on the back side, to create a recess for the twisted portion of the wire.  The tank supports were made from .015" styrene sheet by drilling a 1/8" hole and then trimming the styrene down to the needed shape.  It's hard to see in the pics, but one of the supports is a bit shorter than the others, because the air tanks when installed will have a slight pitch toward the center, rather than being parallel with the lines of the fuel tank.

I expect that painting the ABS plastic will be a challenge.  I'm planning to use an adhesion promoter for plastics to help the paint to stick.   I've done this on some other models, and it has held up fairly well so far.

Thanks for looking!

Ed

[robert3985]

Cool!....

[peteski]

Ed,  try wiping the polystyrene and ABS parts with Naphtha before gluing. That seems to work for me (I know it degreases the surface, but it might also be doing more than that).  I buy it in quart containers in a hardware store (VM&P Naphtha).

[sizemore]

Couldn't add a whole shelf, instead of just half and eliminate the need to smooth a surface? You would only need to clean the edges of the shelf even with the sides of the fuel tank, using a light file and some wet dry paper. You'd probably have more surface area for CA too.

Humbly Submitted,
The S.

[James Costello]

How about the new-ish Micro-Scale products?

[ednadolski]

Ed,  try wiping the polystyrene and ABS parts with Naphtha before gluing. That seems to work for me (I know it degreases the surface, but it might also be doing more than that).  I buy it in quart containers in a hardware store (VM&P Naphtha).

Interesting, I've never used Naptha.   I guess as long as it doesn't melt the parts....

Couldn't add a whole shelf, instead of just half and eliminate the need to smooth a surface? You would only need to clean the edges of the shelf even with the sides of the fuel tank, using a light file and some wet dry paper.

The plastic is pretty solid there.  Seems to me like a joint is inevitable, it's just a matter of where.  Mostly it will be hidden by the air tanks  (I hope )

How about the new-ish Micro-Scale products?

Not sure which ones you mean....?


Thanks,
Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

You might also try Plastruct's Bondene.  These new tanks will make a big difference.

Oh, and don't forget the handrails! 

[Smike]

Holy smokes Ed, you need to be committed  I draw the line at custom handrails 

Did you make those pilot ends? They are gorgeous! (along with just about every other detail part for this I see)

[James Costello]

Not sure which ones you mean....?
Thanks,
Ed

Micro Bond with Micro Prep

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Microscale-MB-50-Micro-Bond-Thick-p/msi-mb-50.htm

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MB-SP2&Category_Code=FINPROD&Product_Count=14

I've never used them before, but I'm curious. The Micro-Scale site isn't much help...but there is a bit of a blurb on pages 4-6 of their new e-catalogue.