Sn3.5
NZ120 Otaki to Cass
NZ120 in USA
Back to NZ Models
Home

Bob Allen of Christchurch produced a limited run of 9mm DG loco kitsets in 2006, so before you know it, Brent Hopley and Evan Batchelor talked me into getting one, even though I can barely solder a wire to a rail. This is an incredibly well thought-out and produced kit, with the quality of the castings and instructions (with photos!) being quite superb, so assembly so far has been an extremely smooth and enjoyable experience. 

Needless to say, being the heretic that I am, I'm recabbing it as 2007 and plan to build another one as standard cab 2376/783 later on. Mr Hopley has a couple under construction as well.

DG bogies1.JPG

DG bogie 3.JPG

DG bogies 2.JPG

Bogies in primer - June 2006. The first time I saw a 9mm loco with chain drive I thought that was a little odd. but it works!


F51T6272 plate.JPG
Some August pictures: The fuel tank assembly and brass base plate were modified to raise the fuel tank and air reservoirs up a little closer to the body
F51T6275 front bogie.JPG
The bogies have now had most of the extra details added. In this view the speedo, HSL recab brake cylinder and its associated piping can be seen. One more pipe to be added... in their later lives, most of the DGs had sandboxes on the outboard ends of the bogies only.
F51T6276 bogies top.JPG
View from on high. I cheated a little by cutting back the brake actuating levers so they clear the stretchers across the ends of the bogie "inners" (rather than sitting on top them after everything is screwed together for the last time) so I can take the outers off at leisure. I doubt this will be too visible when the body goes on. I'm also trying to avoid cutting the middle out of those stretchers as I have little faith in my soldering skills.... The inners (brass) were soldered. Being a man of little talent in the soldering department, the outers (whitemetal) are completely superglued with araldite slopped on for reinforcement. Same for the fuel tank assembly. Classy.
side
View of the chassis pieces sitting together
F51T6270 grilles.JPG
An experiment with fabricated grilles made up of a stack of angle brass of alternating sizes. I think this looks pretty good, but is hard work...! I've done the dynamic brake grille (shown) and the radiator grilles this way and will probably use plasticard for the blower inlet and the smaller square side grilles. On the real thing, the ones I'm doing in plasticard seem to have a finer pitch than the others, so although it might look like a mistake... it seems to be the way the real things are.

August 2008. Finally some progress after a 2 year hiatus. 


F51T3646 copy.JPG
Overall views. Still haven't put the rear ladder on yet

F51T3644 copy.JPG

F51T3645 copy.JPG
Never, ever take close up pics of your models... These are the three styles of grilles in use on the model. The brass ones on the rads (right) and the dynamic housing on the port side rear; plasticard ones on the blower inlet (left) and the small square intake grilles on the port side; the kit ones, used for the 4 square inlets on this side mainly out of laziness and as an excuse, I was running out of plasticard strips...
F51T3641 copy.JPG
One of the plasticard square grilles three or four times life size. These look quite tasty. This has been my first attempt at airbrushing as well which came out OK to the observing eye but not so well under extreme magnification,  so these pics are a bit of a shock! Model Master Italian Red, or should that be Rosso, Insignia Yellow and Gunboat Grey for those taking notes. The red could be a smidge more yellowy/orangy but its as close as I've come in a commercial paint
F51T3640 copy.JPG 
Recab nose. In a masochistic kind of way I rather enjoyed making those little door latches. And before you all go making nasty comments, this is three times real size on a 'normal' sized monitor. The cab front in need of straightening and sides are very thin plasticard in the hope of getting near flush glazing were made using the toner transfer method - laser printing the plan onto glossyish photo paper and ironing onto brass, or in this case plasticard while trying not to melt it...
F51T3634 cab sides.JPG
Recipe for cab parts in superthin styrene: 1) Autocad up a plan 2) laser print on glossyish not to fancy photo paper 3) Iron the back of the paper to transfer the toner to the styrene. 4) Cut out, layer and embellish with detail. Requires some patience and practice. Here's one I prepared earlier. 
F51T3649 cab.JPG
Test fitting the cab with a temp cab roof
 

Sn3.5
NZ120 Otaki to Cass
NZ120 in USA
Back to NZ Models
Home