Kit Bash Debut!

[CoggesRailway]

Hello,

Well I fancied having ago at modifiying something, but never done it before so started off nice and low risk. I got a Bachamann Circus Loco from ebay and the (powered) tender of my kids broken Playmobil western loco. Decided to make one big black loco. It is only ever going to look so good as the quality (particularly of the bachmann) is pretty poor to be honest.

Mid way through the process, but if nothing else it pulls and runs very slow with a long train! I have used some LGB graphite paste on the axle pick ups in the loco and soldered power cables so all pick ups in the loco and the tender all pick up for each other. The running speeds are close between the loco and the tender and I don't care if they break anyway! So far has cost me the loco for 70 brand new and i had everything else in the garage.

Still needs: a final coat, copper trim back on, remove stars from wheel centres and weather wheels somehow, disgusie lead weighting I have strapped on front bogie to keep it on my narrow guage style track, shorten connecting chain, some decals for the cogges railway and maybe a bit of weathering alround and some coal or wood in the tender of course.

Quite pleased, a very cheap addition to a new railway short on locos.

Comments and ideas wanted pleased

Ian

PS paint is matt, but flash makes it look gloss!

 

[Gizzy]

Looks really good and for £70?

I'd be tempted to loose the white on the wheels but it's your train set....

 

[Rhinochugger]

Putting the hadnrails back on the loco will lift it a bit, this sort of detail, simple though itmay be, always seems to do something.

With regard to the tender coupling, can you fashion some sort of fixed loop so that you can use the standard bachmann loco hook? They're plenty strong enough for most purposes.

Dependant on your personal tase, you can tone down the wheels and the cowcatcher - all black is not too bad.

This was a very early, battery powered big hauler, that I scratch built a chassis for - the trouble when you start doing that sort of thing is that the cost shoots up - wheels alone for loco and tender cost £120

But in reality it's just another take on the Bug Mauler

 

[CoggesRailway]

Yeh i think i will get rid of the white along with the cheesy stars, and i think i will try and get some more metal like paint for the con rods.

 

[Rhinochugger]

Spookily enough, I was looking at some pictures of the 750mm gauge Patagonian railways in steam days, and they had white starts on a red background on the smokeboxes :thinking:

You can either weather the conrods, or go for a darker grey. I thought I'd bought a darker metallic grey - as you can see it's actually the same colour as the smokebox nphone:

The big advantage that I had was that, in making the new chassis, I was able to take the hacksaw to the underside of the body and achieve daylight under the boiler.

But it's suprisingly little details that can change the look of a model - As you can see, there's not much superdetailing on mine.

A piece of brass wire to the whistle lever (whistle is from Brandbright), and an operating headlight (Accucraft, from the States) which cost more than the original Big Hauler cost me

Whistle and operating wire (should be a chain I think) is a bit ET&WNC, from photos I've seen.

Neil Robinson drew me a circuit for a constant 5v voltage for the headlight, and here's to show that it works

 

[Spule 4]

CoggesRailway - 17/11/2009 12:58 PM

Yeh i think i will get rid of the white along with the cheesy stars, and i think i will try and get some more metal like paint for the con rods.

I liked the red with white rims and stars, a bit of a Polish/Silesian vibe....

 

[trammayo]

It looks good - the black transforms it! I run big haulers and have most variations - from the plastic wheeled R/Cs which wont stay on the track to metal conrods. Spectrum models won't pull the skin off a rice pudding and are a bit delicate too. You have made a good choice for a low-cost bash.
Mick

 

[3Valve]

That's a great first kitbash Ian and cheap as chips too

 

[CoggesRailway]

Thanks chaps I'll post another piccie when it's finished... yep would never have occured me think of it without this site!