To help keep my modeling time fresh and not get overly bored with current projects that take the better part of 6 months or so to finish, I have put aside one day a week to model something else. I call it "Modeling Whatever I Want Wednesday". For the next few Wednesdays I will be building a Union Pacific SD40X #3046. This is the one with the straight radiator grills. I am not a UP modeler, but it looked like a fun kit bash and a unique looking locomotive. it will be built and painted to represent its original UP scheme. I have some really good looking photo etched foot boards and step sets that I want to try out.
So last Wednesday I started the project. I am using an Atlas SD35 for the base model. I took the radiator fan hatch from an Atlas GP40 and transplanted it onto the SD35. At this point, I am cutting out the radiator intake grills on the SD35 and patching them up. I will then cut the grills off an Atlas GP40-2, sand the backs down to the grill frame and glue them onto the SD40X shell. The fans will come from the SD35 fan hatch as well as a spare shell since the SD35 only comes with two 48" rad fans. I will cut them out and sand the bottoms down to the fan base.
Back to the rad grills. I need to represent FARR intake grills. Something that is not easy in N-Scale. I have been doing some research on N-Scale radiator grills and have come to the conclusion that all but one type is grossly oversized. The corrugated type are the only ones that look like they are supposed to. All the other ones are just not to scale. Not complaining about it in any way. They do represent what is supposed to be there and in modeling, sometimes that is all that is needed. Something to "REPRESENT" what is supposed to be there. So this brings me to how I am going to "REPRESENT" FARR intake grills. I am going to use the Cannon & Co FARR grill. I know, I hear the groans. Way oversized. But wait till you hear how it is going to be done. Then groan.
I am going to have to use at least two packages of grills to create what I need. I will use the Cannon parts as a reference and scale it all down to N-Scale. There are two horizontal braces running from one end to the other. In N-Scale I will represent these with 0.005" styrene sheet. I will cut the frames off the Cannon parts. Then cut the parts in half top to bottom between the two horizontal braces. I will trim the parts so all that is left is the vertical lines. Then rebuild the grills using the 0.005" styrene to separate the three sections. Then I will cut out the corrugated grills from inside the frame portion on the GP40-2 rad grills and transplant the new FARR grills into the frame.
That is the best way I can think of to simulate the FARR type grill in N-Scale. The Cannon part has very fine lines and will give the grill feature needed. Adding the 0.005" grill supports will help to scale it down a little. In reality to scale down a FARR grill to N-Scale, this type of grill would be represented by a blank sheet of styrene. The grill is so small, but that would just look like a blanked out radiator. Somewhat like you were making a road slug. Something needs to be there to represent it.
My goal this Wednesday is to get both sides of the hood setup and ready for the new grills and also to start sanding the backs down of the GP40-2 rad grills. I am creating a video of this all as I work on it. When I am done, I will post it.
