Bachmann S4 question

[mecgp7]

Those that now have one, are they glued together like previous locos and cabeese?

[mecgp7]

Bueller?  Bueller? Anyone?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Windows appear to be glued, everything else seems to have avoided it.


Oh, and the hood is too wide by an inch 

[Scott Lupia]

Windows appear to be glued, everything else seems to have avoided it.


Oh, and the hood is too wide by an inch 

How dare they!  I was on the fence about this engine but now that I know about that inch....   

I wonder if there is something that can be used to soften the glue like that CA debonder?  I never tried it because of the fear of it etching the glazing.  At least there is hope in that the Atlas cabs will be available at some point.  Still, I would like to try not to screw it up in the first place!  But since the hood is an inch too wide I guess the whole point is moot anyway!   

Scott Lupia

[sizemore]

I am going to safely assume the same glue was used on these windows as the NE Caboose windows, its hit or miss to remove. Sometimes they come out easy, sometimes you leave half the window behind. 

The S.

[PiperguyUMD]

I was wondering about this too.  I built my hammerhead RS3 on their model and it was a PITA to work on because it doesn't disassemble!  I guess I'll have to take the plunge on one of these now that I know I can take it apart and dress it in a fireball 

[Catt]

How about plopping the shell in the freezer overnight before trying to remove the windows?

[Scottl]

Sometimes they use a blob of glue rather than a continuous amount- might be worth someone looking closely at it.  the glue on the On30 windows was pretty easy to deal with, but the parts are much larger and there is more space inside the cabs.

The freezer idea is worth a try too, and prying when it is cold.

[Scott Lupia]

Now I admittedly know nothing about this but would putting the shell in the freezer make the glazing brittle and more prone to fracture? Worthy of a try though!

Scott lupia

[Catt]

Scott freezing the part does exactly that.The main thing is to work on the shell when it is fresh from the freezer.

[Scott Lupia]

Hmm, interesting.  I am looking forward to trying this.  As my beer is located in the fridge and my shell will be in the freezer, this is a no brainer for me.   

Kidding aside, I am definitely going to try the freezer method.  I damaged the cab window glass in the Railroad Model Craftsman DL&W F7 article because of the glue.  Would have loved to have had the freezer trick back then...  Of course, can't get replacement glazing from Bachmann!

scott lupia

[peteski]

Kidding aside, I am definitely going to try the freezer method. 

Don't get your hopes up to high. 

This is one of those urban myths type of methods.  IIRC, some genius modeler thought that if they would wet the model (hoping that some water gets between the glued parts), and the model is frozen, the freezing (and expanding) water would pop the glue joints.    Then, just like most things you see in the Interwebz, the method morphed into "dry freezing". No water to freeze and pop the glue joints. Now we have increase in brittleness of the plastic given as the reason for being able to unglue the parts.  Personally I don't know what is the increase of brittleness of ABS plastic going from 70 to 0 degrees F, but I don't think it is all that much.

But of course, try it and see if any of this works for you.  Of course you might also experience a false positive: the parts do pop apart easily after being frozen. But it is possible that those same parts might have also been easily separated at the room temperature.    I'll be interested in your results (assuming that you tried and couldn't separate the parts at the room temperature).

[Scottl]

Water expands 15% when frozen, so the idea has merit as some level.  Anyone who lives with freeze-thaw knows the power of ice to fracture materials.

I was actually thinking this might also work more in terms of differential contraction of the materials involved.

[skm]

How about plopping the shell in the freezer overnight before trying to remove the windows?

Maybe this would also shrink the hood width by that 1" that is the deal breaker 

[Chris333]

I popped my 44T glass out with a knife blade.