I've been thinking for quite some time as to how I can make a bunch of them fairly quickly and my current 'thinking' has led me to lasered-styrene hood sides, cab and headstocks; resin cast nose, ducts and possibly the roof and rear end; and styrene for the main base and other details. Oh, and perhaps some RP'd bogie sides (then cast in resin) if I can get around to pushing the button on that one.So of course, let me introduce the diesel-in-half-a-day project. The first loco is going to take longer than that, as I'll need to make some castings, but hopefully from then on, I can churn them out as fast as I can sneak funding out to my Atlas Dash-8 Chassis Dealer without my better half noticing.
The first step, which started a few months ago, was to draw up some parts and get them laser cut
My laser dudes are not the sharpest tools in the shed, but after several weeks of attempts, I received a sheet of DX sides yesterday that were not melted, not in the wrong thickness of styrene sheet, and in NZ120 scale.They look pretty decent. The hood detail isn't dissimilar to the "Dunedin etched" DXs of 20 years ago, although the metal-etched detail is a little 'smoother' than that lasered here. The plastic shows a very slightly ragged edge (up extremely close), from the laser pulses in the rastered door panels. Still, my louvres and door catches came out well. I should probably space the 'grille lines' a little wider, although they don't look too bad.
One of the nicest things is a cab front (and rear) with nice round-cornered windows. Yummy.
Maybe I'll make up a TR black one first so it will be easier to hide any messy bits....
Above is a closer look at the sides, although it's hard to see much in this picture of white styrene with white lines cut into it and scorch marks to add some excitement. See? They come pre-weathered.
7 comments:
I don't suppose there is any reason why one could not do this in heavy card, thus eliminating the ragged-edge issue, and allowing the use of many different thicknesses of material? So long as everything is sealed with a solvent-based paint inside and out when complete, it shouldn't suffer from warping. Regards, Paul.
Give it a go! The reason I wanted to use styrene is that it's so easy to stick together
must be time to set up shop? $$$$$$
you've come across one of the nice things about computer cut designs. even though my system uses a knife to cut with.
the 44ft coaches have been cut using the computer design and then snapped out with all the windows the same. on the Dsc the windows for the cab were a bit of a problem but i soon sorted out how to snap them out without breaking the thing sides. after they come out from the cutter i use a white board marker to mark the cuts so that i can see where they have cut? wipe the styrene clean and suddenly the lines appear.
Giday, I am in the hunt for an esey way to biuld a DX and your way seams to be the best, The problam is this DX I am biulding is its in HOn3.5 and rales out fratish bodys and being closer to OO thay dont work, are these DXs being maid to order and is HOn3.5 an option as the quolity of these DXs is exelant.
Sory
Regards Manaia
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