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"HONGZ" stands for HO scale, N scale, G scale, and Z scale.

Post your non-O scale stuff here!

So.... I started a project. I had pieces already cut and they seem like they're for a different engine? So I started fresh again.

Got the first couple pieces cut. First piece is 30.25 X 3.8+ X .25 roughly cut. Cut (taper) both ends in around 10 degrees from center width.

Setting the ride height. I cut relief holes in the frame for swing and to lower the frame to the right height. They should be filed at the sides on an angle for the truck's swing. I forgot so I'll file them a little more later with my roto tool as needed. Just a minor bit more in the corners.

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I have to commit to the exact cuts for the pilots and stairs. I'll rough cut them and fine tune them as I build. I like to move forward with different things so I'm not stuck doing the exact same thing over and over. I'll do some plastic. Then some mechanicals. Then add wiring. Then back to plastic, etc., etc..

 I got nervous even committing to the truck's final mounting position. I'm getting old?

I must have left my spare thicker plastic sheets out back in the shed? So that's probably it 'til dinner. That's my excuse for now anyways.

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Last edited by Engineer-Joe
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I planned on working on this much more today. First off, a package came and had me occupied on my other hobby, music.

So I started late on this project. Made a few cuts in and I'm hurting. So not much progress to show yet.

I got spoiled on my first 2 projects using white plastic. I had to use masking tape to help me see my layout marks better on this stuff. I made some scribe marks to show the body separations. I started cutting the sections for proper height variations. Once it goes right, I'll rip to the final height. 

I'm not going thru the trouble of a top miter as I've done in the past. There's so many top panels that will hide the box joints anyways. The ends and the rest gets mitered. I hope I got the dimensions correct.

Does it look like anything yet?

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So I glued on 3/8" I beams. I also had H beams but it appears the real ones are the I beam shape. I have used 1/2" versions. I used what I had here. I fear the longer engine might need more travel space. I only glued them where I think they'll remain after the fuel tank gets mounted. I cut them roughly to length leaving extra in case the tank dimensions aren't perfect when I make it. I also leave them long where they'll touch the pilots that aren't even designed yet.

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It's tuff to get things perfect without designing everything in advance. Because I wing it on the fly, I went ahead and mounted the trucks so I can see where stuff needs clearances. I only make one of each type of engine so there's extra work as models change.

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It looks ugly to some? For me, I can see the finish line even when I start. As the engine develops, you'll see what model it is.

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I was going to work on the fuel tank. I worked on the cab instead. Each piece is slightly oversized, and allows for fitment. I file the angles roughly and do several dry fits. I then file more exactly and check for tight fits. Even still, I get a joint or two that needs more work.

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The cab was about 1mm too wide. I had flexed it a bit trying to get the back to fit tightly while glued up but not dry. One of the joints failed this morning and I had to refile it clean and remove enough material to get the measurement exact. I like that it failed easily this morning to show me what was wrong. Better now than in paint!

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So then, I had to refile the back to get a tight fit.

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Until the cab or any pieces get built as a cube, they are relatively fragile. Because I have to file and work on them in their incomplete state, I back up the joints with a good quality hot melt glue. Every piece added, adds to the overall strength until the final assembly gets quite strong. Once the cab gets it's nose, it will be pretty tough.

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This particular model has a cab with many angles that makes it more difficult. It will be an experience to get all the angles right. I usually cut angles on nearly  every joint. I held off on some, as it is very complicated and hard to design perfectly. I will custom file the nose piece's angles each, one at a time.

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Last edited by Engineer-Joe

This stinking cab has more angles that are driving me nuts! I could have machined a cab out of wood and cast a mold faster and easier than this is going. I started getting sloppy with my cuts. I will have to fill the gaps later. A little extra time and material would have made the difference. I start hurting and rush to get things done. Sometimes, it's better to walk away and do something else. I just feel like venting off some steam!

Ah well....

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very nice Job Joe, so what system are you going to put inside mth or lionel ,and are you going to use a light of markers and lights etc. Smoke or no smoke diesel quillable whistle? can wait to see it completed. I read that the diesel board can use quillable diesel whistle sound like it would be cool !

Alan

I have a couple of PS3 diesel engines already. None of them have the playable horn in them yet. So it will be fun to see what that's like. Yes, this will get a MTH PS3 board inside. Almost all my builds get a MTH smoke unit. All get LEDs and this one should get walkway and ground lights. We'll see I guess. Sometimes I run out of patience routing all the extra wires and LEDs. My GEVO never got walkway lights like it deserves now that I think of it. Running the charging lights taxed my brain!

I get all the parts to fit dry, and then when I glue them up, things are off slightly. I think the angles have enough play to mess with me? Or I don't allow for the thickness of the glue! 

I had the nose together and didn't like one of the joints so I broke it off and filed it down. I glued it together again and noticed the other side wasn't perfect. Good enough. I filed the fit against the cab all over again and things must have moved a bit. Here's where I'm at. I did a quick file to show how the face gets rounded. It will get another fine sanding before paint.

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Paul, ??

On my computer speakers the bass in the second one is about twice as loud. In the first one, it's turned down. I should say the engine's turbo sounds.

I bet when I load it, they'll be the same!

BTW, this isn't a SD70ACe! Think a little bigger.

Some people won't know the difference anyways.

I do like some sound sets horns better than others. If I was more adventurous, I'd use the computer program from Mark S to swap out the horns.

Last edited by Engineer-Joe

You've done some impressive work with your locomotive builds, Joe. Where are you getting the power trucks?

Matt Jackson

Hmmm. I can't tell you. Then you and others would get the few out there! 

Some come from basket case engines that met an early end. They are well built. They don't survive being dropped too well. I think some clubs run on benchwork that doesn't allow for accidental bumping or unwanted hands on children. I got a set several years back (10 or 12?) where a guy tried to lower the engine and then abandoned the concept. He hacked up the trucks pretty bad, but I made them work. 

 I recently found 2 sets of the 4 axle trucks for sale and I grabbed them. I re-trucked both my F40PH and my LGB Genesis. Now they pull as they should. I wish all the manufacturers would use flywheels inside their trucks (and HD metal gearing) like MTH does.

 I have bought several engines for the purpose of tooling my scratch builds. All have never got cut up. I ended up enjoying each model as is. 2 VO1000s are still together and running well. They were supposed to become more MP15ACs. A F3 SF was also bought for that purpose and still resides as is here.

 I just couldn't do it!

Last edited by Engineer-Joe

Here's some more work done on the cab

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For any new people here, I've done 4 other hack jobs. The 2 recent ones, are on this forum.

My SD70ACe before MTH decided to make one

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...cratch-built-sd70ace

and another that Mike Wolf waffled over making. It sits right here next to me, for inspiration.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/g-scale-es44

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Last edited by Engineer-Joe

I need to cut off the top light shields on the rear lamp housings to make them flat. The front has these shields on the top of the lamp housing.

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One thing that I keep running across, is when copying existing models when building. There are shortcuts builders make that can mess you up. Some are obvious. I think that some are from the way the product is built to make it easier?

 I'm working on the rear of the long hood. Lucky for me, I decided to get an exact measurement of the thickness of the rear top panel.

I can see on the prototype, that it's 2 (x 1.5mm thick roughly) panels sandwiched together. The top is bigger, and overhangs the middle piece. 

On my MTH O scale model, it's just one piece (3mm thick roughly) the exact same size.

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So a problem for me here, is that I have forgotten how I did some things. It's good in some ways in that I can improve a design without even knowing it. I have a vague feeling I did something a certain way and I attack it as if it was the first time.

 So I need to build the MAC's cooling fan assembly. I did something like it before

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I think I overbuilt the whole section using 1/8" hard plastic. It is built like a tank! When I first started, I used a suggested glue and found some things were breaking off from handling. So I overbuilt the rest so that it could take a pounding. I switched glues and found that this section never even got a scratch after years of handling. When you have a shallow angle, the joint of the pieces is weak. If I re-enforce those joints properly, the box becomes very strong. Trouble here is something has to be cut to fit around each other and that weakens it again. If it's not removeable the glue takes care of that.

 So on this next build, I tried a sort of half cut box where the box is cut half way, and the long hood is cut half way thru. I forgot that the assembly does not need to be removeable like the O scale version is. I made my Gevo's fan cover removeable because it houses the speaker. This build has the speakers in the fuel tank.

My joints at the body are a little off so I will glue and clamp them tight to fix it. At least I got it started. I wasted some extra effort here.

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Not a lot more done today. I plugged away at the cooling section and glued the panels together. I hesitated on the intake grill section until I remember how I achieved it on the ACe. The metal grills need to be backed up from rough handling pressing them inwards.

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 Some parts of the builds are more fun than others. It all needs to be done. I love looking at tiny details. I just hate making them. I wish 3D printing had moved forward more to allow for ready made details for engines in one gauge. There are some. Just not a lot. Hand made details only go so far. The flaws are too big to get away with.

 There's more parts available in 1/29. Even more in other scales. There's so much available in HO scale. It doesn't make sense. The current RTR releases are pretty top notch.

 I looked into a laser cutter years back to make some finer detailing. It arrived broken and just sits here. I got it for free! I'm too lazy to discard it and it's too far damaged for fixing. I considered trying to make it into something better but it never started. Over my limits and over my pay grade.

If I had the money I'd get a resin printer. It's way down on the list of priorities. I still need to do my O scale scenery.

 

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I'm actually getting slower at these wiring harnesses. I spent the morning working on routing wires. Most of the lights are just laying loose where they need to go.

I think I'll skip the marker lights on this.

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I spent the afternoon installing the smoke unit and funnel system that probably won't get used anyways. 

I come up stairs to see it's the nicest day of the month! I missed it.

 

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 I cut the frame ends to get ready for the pilots and steps. I cut them a hair bigger and leave material for filing down at the end. I have forgotten to finish them off on a recent build.

(You can see the tiny 405 SMD LEDs on the nose of the cab hanging loosely discussed more later.)

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I decided to add the marker lights rather than letting the wiring got to waste. I also wanted porch and step/ground lights. There's some great pics on the web of the engine all lit up at night.

 I ordered some tiny SMD LEDs a long time ago and never used them. I underestimated just how tiny they are. 405 ? I believe

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The wires and LEDs are so tiny they might be too small to work with? They give off a good amount of light.

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I drilled the holes too big and will have to cover them up. The lights are laying loose in the holes, at the bottom of the cab where it would be next to the porch. Top of the pic here (upside down for testing).

I'll use the same tiny LEDs to light the steps if I can handle them. The wires in the pic are hanging loose next to the frame for the step lights.

 

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Last edited by Engineer-Joe

Joe,

Beautiful work!

Remember to cut out a section of the rear sandbox on the 80MAC for the class lights

Yes Sir! I have been staring at pictures and comparing to the MTH O scale 2 rail model I have sitting here.

 This engine has some interesting things about it. That big ole box on the back is one for sure! The brakeman's side of the engine behind the cab has something interesting too.

Last edited by Engineer-Joe

It appears that the NS rebuilds filled in the section that was cut out of the original SD80MAC rear area? I was modeling the early version so I cut it out.

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I was looking ahead to what I can get in decals. I already have some G scale NS decals so now I'm thinking this may end up as a NS engine. I have CSX too but our grandsons say I have too many CSX engines.

Maybe I could paint it Conrail blue and white and use the NS decals? Trouble is I have the NS nose decal with "the Horse". I don't have the Conrail "wave" nose decal.

This just may end up a special commemorative loco? 

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Sorry! and thanks for the correction. I'm just trying to describe the nose scheme with the shape of the bottom of the white face area.

I thought that the can opener described the side decaling Q shape?

The Conrail SD80MAC nose paint design looks similar to the executive scheme on the BNSF SD70MACs to me. I didn't know what to call it!

Can opener. I like it. The old school days when I used to open the metal Hawaiian punch or Welch's grape juice cans as a kid.

I'm wondering if I could shape the NS white horse nose decal I have into that pointed shape? Maybe I could create my own heritage design?

Last edited by Engineer-Joe

 So I say to myself, I can build an engine. I have the trucks and the plastics. I just need to get a board set and a few things. I even have some spare smoke units. The problem is every time I forget just how much I hate making some of the details. I get into it, and I have to finish.

 Here goes some of those things. The cooling grills seem easy enough. Until I start having to cut small pieces that have to be perfect. If some are bigger than others or not aligned, or perfectly square, your eyes will see the sloppy work. Urrgggg! I walk away several times until I get it right.

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wait until I have to do the smaller ones!

A little yelling helps relieve the tension...

I finished the piece with more plastic and guess what? it's about a 1/8" too fat! maybe 3mm?

I measured to the body at the angle forgetting that there needs to be a trim piece and the screen doesn't go to the body. So now  about 4 hours wasted. I keep filing and trying but I have to start over.

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Last edited by Engineer-Joe

It is frustrating when my hands and even my eyes won't do what I think they should. I'll keep trying but it is frustrating! I think I can do something straight and even and then things go south fast!

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after some light filing and angle drilling...

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and finally, glued to top step and laid into place for looks....

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Last edited by Engineer-Joe

Always there for me Matt? !! 

Of course, you are right. 

It ends up that I'm glad I built my own. It ain't perfect, but it fits the part. It has been a few years now that I've got to run the couple of engines that I wanted. I should have built more. It is expensive and very time consuming. So I just dabble in it. If I had the money, I would have built many more I think?

 Now, all these years later, the prices have caught up to near what it cost me to build one back then. Of course, I got the enjoyment for those years too. I should have finished each one. My attention always goes to the one I don't have!

Last edited by Engineer-Joe

I have been trying different things on each build. I wanted the detailing to look better. I've tried to just scratch in the door panel divides (SD70ACe), add thin door panel blanks (ES44ACH), and now cast thin door panels. Many casts have failed for various reasons. Some had air bubbles or holes. Some weren't the correct mix and were too soft, etc.

 So I'm getting there and only working on this when I have extra time.

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Joe your doing great! You are your own worst critic. We all strive for perfection and when we don't achieve it, we get frustrated. Its human nature. Getting up and walking away is the best thing you can do. I too, have failing eyes, and the motor function isn't what it used to be either. Slow and steady will win the race. No need to rush anything. Keep up the great work.

Hmmm, looks better from a distance! 

I slapped a few decals on before I went nuts. I always rip the thin ones.

 I made a mistake and bent the rear decal to help me get the measurement correct for cutting it. When I went to apply it, it tore easily and lost some material. I'll have to touch it up with paint?

I walked away before attempting the nose decals and all the rest.

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Last edited by Engineer-Joe

Hmmm, looks better from a distance!

I slapped a few decals on before I went nuts. I always rip the thin ones.

I made a mistake and bent the rear decal to help me get the measurement correct for cutting it. When I went to apply it, it tore easily and lost some material. I'll have to touch it up with paint?

I walked away before attempting the nose decals and all the rest.

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You know you may not want to touch it up with paint. On the real thing the paint is always missing in the same places. But it does look fantastic! !

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