Starting the process ...
I have the beginnings of a small L-shaped HO layout in a spare room in the basement. Although my layout is small, I'm a sucker for big, modern(-ish) six-axle road engines. I recently picked up a new, unassembled Blue Box Dash 9 kit on eBay. During the last few months, I began studying prototype photos and gathering a collection of detail parts in order to improve its stock appearance.
(Disclaimer: I don't have convenient access to a well-stocked hobby shop, so I end up getting most of my supplies online. For some items, I either scratchbuild or make do with whatever I have on hand. I'll explain as necessary as I go along.)
My overall plan is to detail this engine while maintaining the facotry paint and lettering. Once I was satisfied I had all the parts I needed to get started, as well as a decent collection of photos from the internet, books, and magazines, I had to decide where to start. I figured I might as well start with the radiator housing because it was going to be one of the biggest challenges, and had the greatest potential for really screwing up the model.
Early in the process, I was doing some online research about upgrading the stock Athearn radiator grilles. Detail Associates makes etched replacement grilles, but someone on one website I visited recommended using the part from a Kato model instead. As it turns out, I had to order a new motor and some other stuff from Kato, so I added the Dash 9 radiator part to the list.
Here is a "before" photo of the shell with the Kato and Athearn radiator parts side-by-side.
Unfortunately, it's not a drop-in replacement. For one thing, the Athearn part is only the radiator insert, and the Kato part is the entire radiator "wing" structure. Also, the dimensions of the radiator screens and walkways on the two parts did not exactly match. Additionally, the Kato part is slightly longer than the Athearn radiator section, as shown below.
I wanted to keep the sides of the Athearn radiator "wing box" intact. I also wanted to keep the Kato walkways intact because they had much better detail, so I had to figure out a way to modify the Kato part to fit the space. After several days of studying the parts, I decided the best approach was to trim the top of the Kato part off and modify it to fit the opening.
I trimmed off the sides of the Kato piece, then beveled the edges of the walkways 45-degrees, as well as the matching edges on the the body shell. I had to shorten the Kato piece to fit the Athearn shell, so in order to keep the holes on the backside for the grab iron, I trimmed off the "leading edge" just a bit. I then filed the sides of the Kato radiator section flush against the sides of the screens. Fortunately this made the center section a perfect fit inside the Athearn "wing box" without any further modification to the body shell. A little fine tuning and it was a perfect fit! The photo below shows the finished Kato part next to the original Athearn part.
And here it is in place on the shell (not glued, though)
I was very nervous and skeptical at first, but I couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out. I still need to fix the leading edge of the front walkway by replacing the line of rivet (bolt?) heads that got trimmed off, but I'll take care of that later. Eventually this part will be glued in place, masked, and airbrushed. I plan to glue it with latex caulk from the inside because I filed the edges pretty thin and regular model glue might melt the thin plastic around the edges.
That's enough for the first blog post, I think. I'll try to post some more in the next few days to get you caught up to where I am right now. I have a busy personal schedule, with two small kids at home, so this project might take me a while to finish. If I can get it done before the end of the year, I'll be very happy!
