First thing I did was work on the ring that pivots the whole works. I sanded and filed till it moved with very little effort. Then added some grease left over from a Tamiya gear kit.

Next I removed the two cast on ladders. These will be replaced with one or two scratch built brass ladders.

I removed the stack form the boiler and sanded it smooth.

I took a piece of post it and used it to get a square line across the roof line. Also a patch was glued to were the boiler stack was.

Then I used another post it length wise. This gave me a template for cutting a section out of the roof and made sure it was square with the end and side.

After cutting out the hole I filed the void with .02" thick styrene.

I cut, file and sanded the styrene to shape and added a muffler.

A couple of more pictures of the muffler from different angles.

I forgot to mention that I'm making this crane into a diesel powered version.

Next on the mod list is to make a section for the radiator in-take. I'm thinking of using the upper panels and lower panels on the back of the crane, I'm also thinking of maybe getting some Cannon doors for some new side doors to make it look like you access the engine from the sides. I'm also thinking of using a set of brass trucks from Precision Scale, #32346.

That's it for now.

Bernd

Dear Bernd,

Hats-off to you for getting inspired by Geoff's article, and "having a go"...
(and for posting the results!)

and hats-off to Geoff for writing such an inspirational article in a manner which actually prompted fellow modellers to overcome inertia and "have a go"...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Hello Bernd,

That crane is looking real good. Keep up the good work and keep the updates with photos coming. Thanks for sharing.

John R

John. I'll be posting as I progress. Like I told the Prof, I hope I can keep the enthusiasm going.

Bernd

Nice work, so far....

Hey Bernd, have you thought what you might do with the tacky molded on ladders on the crane chassis? I have thought about going as far as sanding everything down and just using Archer rivets to replace rivet detail... My similar project stopped when I could not figure this part out.... Not sure what to do and just thought I would see what you are thinking?

Thanks,

Kirk

Thanks for the comment, appreciate it.

I used a reshaped #11 Exacto blade to carefully cut off the ladders. Then I sanded any lumps down after shaving off the ladder. I'll take a pci of the procedure that I used and post it here later tonight.

As far as rivets go. I decided that mine was all welded. Much easier I think. I do see it has rivets on only the boom. I have another crane with a broken boom that I'm thinking of making a brass one. Don't know about that yet.

I plan on taking this up to a couple of more posts. Right now I don't know how far I'll go with the detailing. I need to order the motors and the model railroad finance officer says that it'll have to wait, the coffers are a little low.

Keep checking in to see if I've made any progress.

Bernd

Here's what I use to remove small plastic details. It's an #11 Exacto blade ground to the shape shown.

(Picture need to be retaken)

Carefully push at a slight angle.

(Picture need to be retaken)

And this is what you should end up with.

(Picture need to be retaken)

I'm working on adding more detail. Hopefully I'll have something by the end of the weekend. Stay tuned.

Bernd

Exacto also makes other blades such as the #17 chisel blade so you don't have to make your own..

Peter,

That's the blade I meant, the #17. The #11 is the knife style.

Anyway, I took the #17 and ground it down to a finer chisel point. Thanks for catching that error.

Bernd

Bernd,

Thanks for sharing this!  I really like what you did with the muffler, I think that looks great.

The tips for shaving the ladders off are much appreciated too.

I hope you follow the project through to completion and do share it all with us.

Anyone have an extra Athearn crane they would sell?

Regards,