The Old Airfix Challenge - 1/72 Douglas Dakota - September 2022

Oldmodelkits.com is a source to obtain out of print/rare, wood, or other hard to find model kits.  I tend to gravitate back to my youth at times in search for kits.  I am enticed by the offer of moving parts and optional displays.  When I found this C-47 kit and read the description that it was inventoried as complete and in a good box I jumped.  Although my Brother Bob warned me that the old 60s Airfix are not like the current Airfix.  I quickly found out how true that is.

The fuselage halves did not fit that well and there was a noticeable mold flaw which I would have to deal with.  As I dry fit I realized I would have to go to the store for new plastic putty.

I anticipated that the 60s decals would be unusable (and lack detail).  I sure was not disappointed on that score😁.  I went online and ordered from a reliable source a set of decals for the "Drag-em-oot" of the 87th Troop Carrier Squadron.

Despite the contention of completeness, my inventory check revealed that one part was missing - number 62 - the Windscreen!!  Yikes!  More on that later.

The troop carriers were typically devoid of creature comforts and the online photos showed me the interior detail that the old kit lacked.  Note the forward bulkhead into the cockpit.

It gave me the idea to use my trusty wine bottle foil to simulate impressions on the backside....

.....to show up on the front side.  I also had to provide my own instrument panel (the backside of a panel I had in my stash from a 1/48 scale fighter that I modified with some paint to add dials etc.)

Now you can see the front of the panel.  It is very easy to see the lack of interior detail of this mold.  Just a platform for the two included pilot figures to sit.

Speaking of pilot figures - there are two and they are rather crude and identical.  I painted them as best I could (co-pilot shown) and the pilot has blue tint sunglasses I tried to paint on.  I had to give the boys a "booster seat" of folded foil so that they can see out the windscreen (opening).  Ok, now I can state very positively that I contacted Oldmodelkits and they were responsive and apologetic and found a replacement windscreen and shipped it out - Thanks Alan!👍

The archive photo of the C-47 interior shows the fuselage ribs the width of the windows.  I used the 0.02" styrene rod in my stash, bent to fit and glued in place and painted all forward of the rear bulkhead and floor supplied in the kit.  As with the cockpit area the requisite interior green is applied (although the photo shows more olive color).  I am adding this detail since the jump door will be open.

The inventoried parts did include the clear sprue with the window strips along the fuselage.  I did not like their look so I turned to the Testors Window Glue (seals small openings opaque but dries clear).   Applied from the inside, the glue does the trick.

Though not very visible I attempted to add control yokes and wheels for the pilots.  Cut and bent sprue pieces and foil are used and glued to the interior walls.

With interior work completed it is time to close the fuselage halves.  The jump door frame and cargo door are glued in place. 

Some of the moving surfaces are next each composed of two halves carefully glued together after attaching around the the hinge pins molded to the fuselage.

After attaching the bottom center wing section it is finally time to employ the new putty I purchased.

The top seam has a similar looking line of putty.

So, to the spray of Light Aircraft Gray on all bottom surfaces.  While that dries lets work on the engines and landing gear.

The cowls are molded with the motors as a single piece (common in old kits).  This shows that the motors have been painted with flat black, gun metal and silver highlights.  The props are painted and simply sitting in the motor shaft holes to dry.  The masking is not for the common yellow tips, but rather for white with white strip.  I looks cool when spinning.  Those pod looking things are the bottom halves of the nacelles!

Time for Testors Olive Drab.  Everything gets hand painted except for the underside aircraft gray.

The top half of the wings are next to be attached.....

.....and the interior given the interior green.

Time to assemble the gear.  The retractable gear is rather clever.  The rear yoke has pins that sit in receiving holes at the back of the bottom nacelle half.  The two pieces of the forward gear leg are inserted into the wheels (wheels are two pieces that I paint with a black/gray mix).

The bottom wing halves are glued to the top halves with the movable ailerons in place.

The bottom halves of the nacelles are inserted into the wing and carefully lined up before applying thin cement.  The front gear legs are squeezed slightly in order that the pins on the top of the legs can fit into the receiving slots in the nacelle.  The rear leg yoke then slides over the wheel and the pins on the end of the yoke snap into the holes in the wheel hubs - TA DA!  Now to retract the gear one simply squeezes the front gear legs (releasing the pins at the ends) and pushes them down into the nacelle.

With gear in place the props are added and cowls/motors can be attached (the props are inserted and held by a retainer ring inside the cowl).

This is the actual aircraft for which I ordered decals.

Nope - not decals - hand painted invasion stripes top.....

.....and bottom.

Just like the wings I mask for white and hand fill in the black.  Once dry I can apply decals.

First I masked and painted the lead edge bladders on wings and tail surfaces.

The decals are great and go on easily, but this photo also shows some DIY under the cockpit. A bit of sprue, a piece of wire and.....

......lengths of monofilament to complete the antenna.

I add some silver paint to the monofilament.

This also shows additional DIY with the Pitot wires added.

Oh yea, the windscreen finally arrived - and IT FIT!

Of course I had to paint framing first.

Not too bad, so I window glued it in place.

The radio wire from the dome to tail is added.  There was a convenient hole behind the dome into which I inserted the end of a monofilament thread.  I drilled the edge of the vertical stabilizer and inserted a small antenna (gauge 26 wire) then looped and glued the monofilament to the wire..

Close up showing DIY and touch up of windscreen paint.

An early operation was to paint the paratrooper figure.  I attached a simulated static line (wire) to his chute pack and cyano glued the wire inside the jump door.  I found some thin leaf stem outside at our complex pool and further thinned it out for used static lines of previous jumpers and cyano glued it to the troop static line.

The C-47 "Drag-em-oot" is done.

Lighting BachmanTrain Cars with LEDs

I thought I would memorialize my efforts to get my lighting enhancements to work again.  Years ago I had followed another modelers procedure for lighting Bachmann cars.  The cars I have were from a "Hawthorn Village" set made by Bachmann.  The cars were originally lit by a single incandescent bulb.  As you will see the light is powered by the current in the track on which the car runs and the car has a small circuit board that controls the light.  This set up is bypassed with the LED rehab.  Evans Designs LED chips come with capacitors that control the current to the chips so they will be run just as the original incandescent set up.  The Bachmann cars are easily disassembled.  The original installation was simple by wiring the LEDs to the existing wire lead.  After popping off the car roof and snipping off the existing bulb and the wire lead from the little circuit board you just twist all the LED leads to the internal lead.  There are several places within the car frame to attach the lights.  The two lights I used for overhead the outside platforms required me to drill holes to insert the lights but that was not difficult.

Here is the reason for this tutorial - yuk!  After a few Christmas seasons the lights began to flicker, followed eventually by not lighting at all.  At first I  thought that the wire lead from the wheels trucks may have broken, which was true in a couple of cases.

This shows how the cars are manufactured.  The wire lead into the car is soldered to a copper tab that is attached to the metal wheel truck by the screw then the truck face to the yoke.  This solder has broken is a couple of trucks.  To repair I discarded the copper, stripped some insulation and twisted the wire around the screw shank.  This solved my problem temporarily, but he flickering continued.  Before the Christmas season of 2020 I decided to break every thing down.  The cars can be disassembled fairly easily and the trucks removed and taken apart.

As seen above the culprit is exposed.  Dirt and lint etc. slowly wraps around the axles where they contact the truck face.

Once all the gunk is removed and everything is cleaned the trucks can be reassembled.

The power from the track is transferred to the truck face via wheel/axle.  The pointed end of the axle into the truck has to be clean and and in contact so that the power can be transferred to the truck yoke where the wire lead is attached.

With the grime removed the trucks are reassembled, lead attached and truck inserted back into the car floor.

This photo shows the original circuit board to which the lead and incandescent bulb were attached.  This is a simple single LED light I added to a more recent ELF passenger car I acquired.  The photos that follow show the various stages of rehab that I originally did back in 2017.

All wired in parallel. 

Note that the LEDs have been inserted to holes drilled through the frame.

While I had the cars opened up I painted the interiors and added "O" gauge figures.  The remaining challenge is to gather the wires together and snapping the roof(s) back on.

Speaking of roofs, I masked the windows and sprayed white so the various cars all had a white roof.  These are Christmas train cars.

Cargo pallets I found online are glued down into the cars before the roof is back in place. 

A RR worker is added .....

.....along with a jolly Conductor.  Passengers are added to some of the seats inside the cars before the wires are gathered together and the roof(s) put back on.  Now with the cars on the powered track the passengers can be seen.

Conductor pals (shows the over platform lighting too).

Ok, so what is going to haul these cars?

Stock photo of a nice ON30 - 4-4-0 I found in Canada for under $110!  Of course it needed customization for a Christmas Loco!

Catwalk, Cow Catcher and panels under the cab windows have been painted red.  A gold/brass edge added to the catwalk and some peppermint flags.

Lettering added to the tender.  Gold rub-on with paint touch up.

E & N painted over the red painted panel.  Ho, Ho, Ho!

Purists Beware: Budget Consolidation, or, making a standard gauge loco look like DRGW NG.

Many moons ago, Model Die Casting produced what remains the only real "budget" entry into HO narrow gauge. A kit, not RTR, it

was a fairly inaccurate, non-specific 2-8-0, which could, with some skill and patience, be turned into something not unlike a few of the larger C class prototypes. I bult one to resemble No. 375, but to this day still have no dedicated place to run it (despite a small collection of rolling stock to go with it).

Fast forward a decade or so. Visiting Durango,  CO, and after the always great train ride, picked up a set of D&SNG passenger cars. Yes, they're standard gauge.  Yes, they're the wrong car roof style. But hey, I bought them there, so...

Fast forward to 2022. Doing a lot of refurbishing and outright rebuilding of my vintage HO layout, and thought "why not get a standard gauge MDC kit and DRGW-ize it, so I have something to pull those cars.

***trigger warning***

Yes, I am going to build an imaginary engine to pull imaginary cars on an imaginary railroad. No apologies offered. If this bothers you, click elsewhere. 

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Still here? OK. Here's where we begin.

Scanned ebay for available kits. All vintage, prices vary, all roughly 50-100 depending on condition. Found one slightly incomplete on the low end, bought it 

Missing pilot truck wheels, stack, motor mounting screw. Main gear badly worn down by an ill-fitted pinion. V&T prototype.

1. The Plan

I am using DRGW C19 and C21 class consolidations as a basis for detailing, primarily 360 and 361. I'll probably number it as imaginary 362

Cut down the firebox and steamchest to lower the boiler.

Replace the damaged factory gears with NWSL replacements, which will lower the speed

Option, replace the motor with a NWSL flat can, and prep for future DCC

Remove all handrails and fittings on the  boiler. Replace with / add fixtures consistent with the above prototypes,  to include working lighting.

Same with the tender, which appears a few ft shorter than I'd like, but we'll make do.

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Here she is with boiler deets removed, puttied up, sanded, and primed. New K27 style stack by Wiseman added. Removed the back of the coal bunker extension and shortened the sides, removed a small air tank, backup light, and cast-on ladder.

Next, we'll dremel the frame as noted to lower the boiler. DRGW NG engines were Railroad Low Riders, and this one needs to come down closer to the weeds to capture that NG look. May require clearancing inside the upper boiler shell to clear the motor, could be tight. We'll build, test, and finish the running gear before we get into cosmetics,  I want this to run without a hitch.

Fetch the dremel...

First, lets remove the top 1/8 of the firebox, and re-notch the back to clear the backhead. File smooth.

Now for the delicate bit. The steam chest and boiler saddle are cast as one piece. Drenel the saddle off and file down the steam chest until the boiler sits level.  This will take a while unless you have a micro milling machine...

Given enough time,  sweat, and patience, you can get it lowered to match the firebox.

Now let's see how it looks.

Before

After

Now, about that gear and motor replacement...

The folks at Northwest Short Line still make re-gear and motor upgrade kits for these vintage MDC locos. A small press is needed to remove your old gears; replacement also includes a stack of thrust washers to prevent the misalignments that ate the teeth from the kit's original gearset. The motor rests on a blob of gorilla glue construction adhesive, so maje sure you have it where you want it in terms of alignment before it sets. The motor fits inside the boiler shell without modification. Then we'll reassemble and run it around the track. Mechanically and electrically it checks out. My only concern is its high starting speed. As soon as you cravk the throttle,  she sprints away.  Will need to lool for a solution to gradual starts and good slow speed operation. 

With the heart transplant out of the way,  I  csn begin to detail the boiler and tender. My goal is to add details typical to a DRGW NG steam engine of the 40s, specifically the newer and larger C classes C19 and C21, but asheringbto no specific prototype. I will rely primarily on Precision Scale brass details except as noted.

Two prototypes for reference:

I sketched the engine and tender from both sides and began choosing detail bits necessary to capture the DRG look:

 Headlamp #3085

 Headlamp base #3107

 Smokestack cap #32430

 Number board #31362

 Smokebox braces #31248

 Boiler check valves #3099

 Sand fittings #3191

Twin air pumps #32584

...and plumbing #3482

 Bell #3089

 Pop valves #3200

 Whistle # 3136

 Generator #3148

 Injector #3143

 Brake cylinders #3194

 Handrail stanchions #3303

 Valve stem arms #31534

 Tender ladder #32435

 Tender air tank #32091

 

As the kit was missing a pilot truck, I raided the parts box for some sheet brass and a inside frame pilot, the 26" wheelset coming from eBay. A bit of soldering and drilling and some plastic spacers and we have a functional pilot truck. The headlight contained clear lenses, but no room for a buld, so I drilled out the back and mounted a flat micro LED. How to get power to it? The kit was not designed with this in mind, and a few broken tool bits later I decided drilling through the mass of white metal inside the plastic boiler wrapper and smokebox was not viable, so I ran.it along the boiler and into the cab. Once the rest of the plumbing and handrails are on it should be less obtrusive.

Here we can see braces, bell, air pumps, pop valves and whistle mounted, and the "361-style" tender, coal bunker extensions scratch built and installed, and a coal load of real coal filched from Durango long ago ;-)

I cut out the inner coal bunker to make room for future dcc and speaker, and mounted the coal onto a chunk of foam to allow sound to get out.

On the opposite side you can see the injector in front of the cab, and the step and handrail on the smokebox up to the headlight (also scratch).