Haulin’ (p)Ass : Tranz Scenic DCP

DB says: I quite like the picture above, so with an almost finished blue DFT sitting on the workbench, I really needed a blue DC to go with it. This model is one of the superb eTch ceTera (Andrew Wells) brass etched kits that I prepared earlier. Quite a bit earlier actually, as it was assembled in 2000 (anybody still remember the millenium?) as Fruit Salad DC 4191 for reasons lost in the mists of time. I don’t think its ever even run under its own steam. Superb kit though. Superb. The DAs I've struggled to get together squarely, I think due to the curved roof, which I never mastered, but being all angles, the DCs are fairly easy to put together into a really, really nice model. Even with my neanderthal-level soldering abilities. The dynamic fan and grilles are from an N donor shell, I cut half a mm or so off the bottom of the etched side sills as I felt in stock form they extended a little lower than I'd like (same on the DA kits), and made up the back wall from brass, passing on the big cast end supplied with the kit which I expect only fits when using a LifeLike chassis. The anticlimber castings are missing the MU cutout as well, not really obvious when that strip is painted fruit salad black, but more so on these plain yellow fronted locos.
This week that red DC got a makeover into Tranz Scenic DCP 4559 with a quick repainting of the long hood and the addition of a yellow side stripe. Well that was easy. I’ve been enjoying a little Testors flat Sky Blue enamel with a very thin wash of Model Master Gull Gray acrylic over the top of late, and after some experimentation, have settled on Model Master Insignia Yellow for the bright bits.
The Tranz Scenic decals were a pain, taking me more than 30 goes and pages of decal paper to get a useable pair out (not their fault), and the top is sitting on an Atlas SD35 chassis. Strangely enough, the N scale donor top's side sills are glued inside the brass DC sills for a nice snug fit..

Borrowing a tip from Evan's 'On The Roof' post, I used a light gray stick of artists chalk on the long hood and cab roof edges as a finishing touch which doesn't look too bad. In the final picture you can also see reflective strips on the sill which were intended to be decals, but the blue patches came out green and the white as clear due to a malfunction in the thinking department. They were attached anyway and the white and blue overpainted by hand under a scanning electron microscope using the decals as a guide. I was expecting this last effort to look stinky, but the stripes came up surprisingly well.

Finished with reflective stripes, steps, bolloxed MU socket and ditch lights

Go the Blues! And I don't mean the rugby team from that unkempt and sprawly Auckland place.