Six lift rings were added to the model (top left). Their locations were eyeballed using another model as reference. The lift rings immediately behind the horn are offset. The Bachmann horns were removed and the holes were filled with styrene and covered with Squadron Putty. The old horn mounting location was used to determine where to mount the new Detail Asso- ciates Leslie A200 horns (above). The shell has received its paint job. The gray was applied first. After drying, the gray was masked off to spray the black. The grilles are painted black since etched grilles will be placed over the Bachmann molded grilles. The rear of the F-unit (left) is pretty austere. Very little detail has to be added here. The back-up light is actually a modified ditch light. The m.u. hoses are Details West parts. The inside of the ditch light was painted with flat aluminum. The lens was created with a drop of five minute epoxy.
plastic, causing it to fog up or become hazy. Once the parts are all removed I stripped the shell of its paint. I like to use Scalecoat II paint stripper. It takes a few hours and a little bit of scrubbing with an old toothbrush, but the paint eventually comes off and leaves you with a clean shell. I then washed the shell with soap and warm water to re- move any residual paint stripper. After looking the shell over I decided that I didn’t really care for the exhaust stacks. They looked a little small and wide to me. Detail Associates makes F- unit exhaust stacks, so this was a no brainer. I removed the stacks using a hobby knife and lots of caution. Opera-
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
tions like this usually send me to the medicine cabinet and the Band-Aid® box. I am careful, but it always seems like that last little bit of material left to remove leaves me with a No. 11 blade sticking into my finger or hand. I took it slow and steady and my fingers remained intact. The removal of the stacks left a bit of a hole in the roof, so I made small rectangular patch panels that the exhaust stacks would be at- tached to. Once painted it is difficult to tell that any modifications were made. While I was fiddling around with the exhaust stacks I realized that the lift rings were not present. I used Detail Associates eyebolts for this. With a No.
80 drill bit in my pin vise, I drilled six holes in the correct locations. I eye- balled the location of the lift rings. You just have to be in the ballpark here, not 100 percent perfect. Since I didn’t want excess metal hanging down on the in- side of the shell. I did shorten the eye bolts with a pair of wire nippers. The potential for them to contact the sound decoder board was just too great. A lit- tle dab of cyanoacrylate on the inside of the shell is enough to hold the lift rings
in place. I also changed the
horns. The DL&W F7’s used Leslie A200 horns. The ones on the Bach- mann shell just didn’t look quite right to me. I used the Detail Associates
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