Building the Sharknose

M

MAYBACH

Hydraulics, Motorhead, biscuits, cake, VW's
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Hi all.
After all that time designing and producing the Sharknose http://www.gscalecentral.net/m155599 the time has come to build the end product!
I have my kit on the bench but I am still waiting for the lost wax casting parts which are the steps and the two air horns.
I have decided to do a build thread on this kit so folks might get some idea's or inspiration, plus it can help all the people that have bought the kits.

So I started by cleaning up the tiny bits of flash on the body and then drilling all the holes for the several handrails, I use 0.7mm wire for these.
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I faced the two joints between the bottom of the nose and the front skirt, put a layer of quality superglue on them and held them together. Be careful here as resin LOVES superglue and if it is a big join then there will be a lot of grab, so get it right! After it had set I then drilled holes inside from the skirt into the body to put in 1mm brass rod sections to help peg and strengthen the joint, then gave it a smear of filler to smooth the joint.
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I then drilled out the headlamp and number boards, opening out the number boards with the Dremel. A tip when dealing with resin stuff like this is to have the hoover and thin nozzel set up so that you hold teh drill in one hand and the hoover in the other, this cuts down on the mess and dust that gets everywhere!!!
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I cut out the exhaust and opened it out with the Dremel too.
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After all that I made a card template for teh chassis to check the fit then chopped it out of some thin steel plate I had to hand, it was 1mm which is about the thinest you can get away with!
I cut that out and then marked up where the lugs inside the body go, drilled through the chassis and put some pilot holes in the lugs. When that was done I checked the centers and marked out the bogie pivots, drilling them out to 7mm and also drilling out some holes for the wires to come through.
I bought a pair of new Aristo-Craft bogies for it and decided to carve up to tops as you see in the pictures, the grey one is an original, one has most of the top cut away and this serves to give it plenty of movement, the rear bogie has just had the two lugs removed so it can rock back and forth, this all gives a 3 point suspension. Before any cutting I took the motor blocks out of the bogie frames which is easy, just two small screws either side underneath. This meant that I could keep any plastic swarf from getting into the mechanisms. You could just put some masking tape over the holes instead but I took them apart as I wanted to paint them anyway.

Jonathan at G-bits.co.uk has kindly come up with a deal for those building a Shark and wanting a pair of bogies.
He is offering these at £60 each and with free postage (UK ONLY) if you have 2 of them, but you must be a Shark owner to qualify for this offer, I will be able to confirm that to him. He has a very limited number of these so be quick if you want a pair.
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More to follow.........
Cheers
Rob
 
More on the Shark.......
Here you can see the chassis plate and also the two bits of ally angle I used to mount the fuel tank underneath, this tank sits so that its top is flush with the base of the body, this needs packing as I have allowed room for people to use a thicker chassis, perspex or thin Plywood for example!
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You can also see I packed the pivots with washers that are a loose fit so as not to bind, then capped with a disc of brass and a self tapper.
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I also cut some holes at the base of the bulkheads inside the loco, this allows the internal wires to go from one end to the other.
I am making a Pennsy 5 stripe loco and so I needed to make the two Antenna that run along the roof, I got some nice brass stanchions from a model boat shop and ran a 0.7mm brass wire along them, soldering it all together when test placed on the loco. These are fragile so I won't be fitting them until later. I have tried to make the ends where the cable comes down of the stanchions and into the loco look like flexi wire like the real ones
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Next was the rear door area, due to an error this etch needs a tiny mod to make it fit to the body. After folding it up, soldering the joints and then soldering on the plate that goes above the buckeye I trimmed the little corners off it where it touches the base of the loco. I then marked up and drilled 4 holes in the frame to mount some 0.7mm wire for handrails, these stick out behind and locate into teh body to add extra strength to the join. This will be painted seperately and added afterwards like the grills and other bits.
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After all this I have gone over the loco with a very fine scotchbrite pad to help clean and key the surface, after that I have scrubbed and rinsed the whole thing a couple of times and now it is sat here drying and waiting for a coat of primer. I use Halford plastic primer, warming the can in a jug of hot water (just hot enough to keep your hand in) I warm the loco but then turn the blower off so as to not circulate dust!
I will post some more shots and info as the job advances.......................
Hope you enjoyed it so far
Cheers
Rob
 
Wow this is looking great so far :) I'll be reading with interest, not because I want one, but because it looks such a well thought out product :)
 
Thanks for the nice comment James. I did this thread for the same reason that I did the last two, not to plug stuff but because I know how much I like looking at other peoples work and it is nice to think others like yourself enjoy my stuff too. I hope some folks get some inspiartion to do things from this.

Anyway, update........
This morning I got everything coated in either Halfords plastic primer or a nice quality etch primer depending on whether it was resin or metal.
Pictures to follow when it is all dry and safe to handle.
Cheers
Rob
 
U need acryilla primer paint for resin kit.......it help....nice and smooth...ready for final paint......it up to u.....
btw...awesome work.....never seen this body work ere....wow....bet the firm will go wow....will get touches with u..
they shud make dummy locos in case same in n and ho scale....
 
The more I look at the development of this brilliant concept the more I realise I did the right thing by steering clear of it, I mean I can cock up the plug together £12 HLW small wagon kits, so imagine what I'd do with the Sharknose. But by jings, I do admire it, right from the word go, I mean, what an admirable diesel-electric loco to select for such a project
 
:DDone some more fettling around the joint line between the front skirt and the body with filler primer and 2000 grade wet and dry used wet, all is now ok to carry on.
You can see some of the handrails added to the nose and cab including the long ones above the windows, these are all 0.7mm brass rod.
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On the rear of the loco you can see the two handrails at the bottom and also the holes for the handrails that are soldered to the etched door surround and locate there to help give a strong bond when gluing the etch to the body.
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All the grills have had a dusting of etch primer, you don't need to give a solid coat like you would with normal primer! just enough to cover the metal and then let it do it's job, don't paint over the top for at least 24 hours!!
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I have bought 2 types of Kadee coupler for this loco, one is a G scale coupler number 835 which mounts under the chassis plate at the rear and is bigger to help stay coupled, should be here tomorrow. The other one you can see in the picture is a Gauge 1 coupler number 820 which is smaller and more to scale, I will fit this to the front by just putting a peice of metal across inside the skirt and screwing it in place with self tappers, there is plenty of meat in those sides to screw into safely.
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I hope to start getting some colour on over the next few days with the airbrush, I will use Railmatch paints as I like them and have used them for years. I think I will use EWS gold perhaps lightened a little for the stripes, then mask it up to add the green, this will be normal BR loco green but darkened a great deal with normal black. Seems there has been a great deal of research on this by groups in the States, but no real match has been produced. It seems that you should just go as dark as you can without ruining it :D
Cheers
Rob
 
I've really enjoyed reading your thread on building the prototype for the kit, absolutely stunning. The level of skill in getting all the shapes and detail correct is very impressive. Unfortunately the locomotive isn't suitable for my Irish 3ft line but I'll watch with interest on how this progresses

Tim
 
Another update......
Glad some of you are finding this interesting.
The larger G scale rear buckeye arrived today and I mounted that to the chassis with a bit of scrap nickel sheet and some brass tube and BA bolts.
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I also fitted the smaller buckeye to the inside of the front skirt (temp until after painting), again using a bit of scrap nickel and some small self tappers.
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You can also see the difference between the two sizes of buckeye and how you can still get them to couple easily.
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I also painted the Chassis and fuel tank satin black with Halfords cans and painted the cab desk in Dove grey.
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I had planned to get some of the yellow/gold airbrushed onto the body ready for the stripes but I have found that Microscale used to make PRR decals for the FA1/FB1 but it is for the single stripe version, although it still has all the Pennsy lettering, numbers and numberboards! Now the original plan was to paint the stripes and get some decals made to match that shade of yellow/gold, but luckily I managed to get a set of these decals and now I must wait for them to come from the States so I can mix the paint to match the decals instead! It might seem a bit of a pain but it is FAR cheaper, quicker and easier than getting them made specialy.
More to come...............

Cheers
Rob
 
Out standing work as usual Rob :thumbup: Looks fantastic :bigsmile:
 
This is really a very great help. Not one for doing much scratch building, I was waiting to see the kits before trying to decide how to proceed. All of your pictures and directions will make construction much easier. I'm trying to decide if I should download all this when you finish. I have a four unit set of Aristo Alco FA/Bs. I should be able to adopt them rather easily (I hope.)

From flyover country in North Central Wisconsin,:thumbup: Jay
 
Ron, Looking good. Can you supply a paper or card stock tracing of your cut chassis with the model when you ship it. Like the pin and glue on the front section. Where did you get and what size rail stanchions are you using. The color you are looking for is Brunswick Green http://www.testors.com/products/133611 . I sprayed some spare styrene and took it to the PRR museum in Strasberg Pennsylvaina and its a perfect match to the 1 to 1 engines. Thanks Jack
 
Hi Jack
The Chassis is just a long flat plate cut to fit inside the body, then just take out a couple of tiny bits to clear bumps inside the body where the steps go. It is ultra simple really.

The Stanchions were from a UK model boat place called Cornwall model boats, they are 16mm standard turned brass items and I expect you can get them anywhere?

Interetsing about the paint, is it enamel or acrylic?? Gloss, matt or satin?? I am always sceptical about paint as it is rarely correct, even on the real loco's! Plus I ask about enamel or acrylic as I don't like working in acrylic.

Cheers
Rob
 
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Just playing around with some ideas for a free-lanced paint job for my club's roadname.

Keith Heck
Newark, DE USA
 
Ron, its enamel and its gloss same that the PRR used on all their engines fresh out of the shop. After many hears and allot of road miles and washinlngs it would dull out. Only the tuscan passenger engines where keep up with a glossy paint job. The Brunswick green was named because it was produced for the PRR in a paint shop in Brunswick New Jersey that read a color mix order wrong. They used 4 parts green plus 2 black instead of 6 parts green plus one black. PRR painted two engines thinking they would dry lighter but didn't. PRR management saw it and liked it and said to the shop to order more of that Brunswick paint, hence the name. This is what is on the sign on one of the engines on display which was one of the first ones painted in the early 1930's they used it to the end of the PRR in 1968 for freight engines only. Jack
 
This beast is a strange looking thing indeed but it is certainly growing on me.
Very comprehensive and enjoyable build thread too; certainly awaiting the finished loco with anticipation :thumbup:
 
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