Awwww, chute. (DX part 2)

When we last met, the Dixie was quite off her face, so this was quickly manufactured on-site using the plan as a guide and attached with copious amounts of filler. For thirty years I’ve read about Squadron Modeling Putty in the British magazines and purchasing some a few years ago was quite a revelation. I think mine is from Testors or some other brand. It’s the one with the “this product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer” label, so don’t eat it all at once.

DX cabs to a simpleton like myself, are pretty much curvy on top with the two angled side pieces. So I filed the cab stolen from the Chosen Scale shell slightly to suit. Phase ones (the batch with lower numbers) have the black rubber headlight surrounds rather than the cast light fittings (although all the rebuilds over the past few years have been to phase 2 specs), and those that have been fitted with replacement cabs in recent years have large tinted side windows that replaced the previous three windows in the old cabside and a little lip across the top of the front (see the shadow beside the numberboards http://www.kiwibonds.com/2009FebNZ/F51T5233.jpg ). I used superthin plasticard to create a top surface with the lip. A lot more effort than the results justify! The main spotting feature between the phases used to be the dynamic brake grilles behind the cab (side and roof differences) and the front sandboxes from memory. Enough already. On with a nasty pic of a nasty cab front. Bruce Patterson's superb nose lives on, as do the headboards from the CC shell.


For something different I thought I’d have a go at a modern coal route DX, which meant fabricating the side suckboxes, starting with the forward engine intakes. Although the first chutes that were made almost 20 years ago in the blue-DX days were simpler, the newer ones are full width on the offside and a little narrower on the driver’s side except at the bottom, where there is also a small round fan grille. I made mine from Plastruct square rod and sheet, and they were a bit of a pain to get nice and tidy. Both sides also have grilles on their main faces now to allow air to come from the side (normal) or from beneath the running board in the Otira tunnel. Mine came from the Dash-8 shell and yes, I did cut one a little short…. Rear chutes were made from square rod with some slightly-too-tall side flares, filled with the magic putty.

Note the rear grilles blacked out with a marker just in case my impatience deems the mesh should be fitted early.

The roof was next. I filed it to give a slightly more rounded profile on the corners and PVA’d paper rectangles (some sophisticated techniques this week folks!) in place to represent the panels as is clear on the pics. In the pic below, you can see that I carefully used a drill bit to craftily represent the small fan grille on the lower part of the driver's side air chute.

Finally, and rather absurdly, I built an exhaust stack with superthin ribs of plastic sandwiched between thicker ones. All was going well until I over-glued one of the ends and melted some of my ribs on one end. Dammit. Still, I think it worked out quite well. Close enough for Government work. Hey, that phrase is valid again in the KiwiRail era

Next edition should cover how not to paint and handrail a DX, so tune into our next exciting episode. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.