Detailed Bachmann Warship
Entry posted by pete_mcfarlane
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Another detailed Southern Region locomotive on my workbench- this time a Bachmann Class 42 Warship. This has been lurking on my bench for a which, but the purchase of some fan etchings from Shawplan last weekend will hopefully speed things on.
I'm doing 816 in blue (using the Bachmann D812 as a base). There are a limited number of Warships that can be produced from the Bachmann model without major work. It's suitable for the D814-832/866-870 range (except for D830 which had a different engine). Class 43s didn't work on the Southern, and I've not yet figured out a way of modifying the side grilles for D800 - 813.
The first thing I did was to replace the rather crude wheels with Gibson EM gauge ones, mounted on the original Bachmann OO axles. These look much better - I've lost the photo so you'll have to take my word for it until I take another.....
Moving on to the body, apart from the roof grilles and catwalks (which will be replaced), the biggest problem seems to be with the front end. The moulded glazing is a poor fit with areas of unpainted plastic showing. On mine it was also very well glued in, so I resorted to masking it off with Copydex to protect it from damage and paint rather than attempting to remove it and risking damage.
I then carefully filled around the window frames with filler. This will be sanded down and painted yellow to match the rest of the front.
Other work I've done on the front end includes:
- Removing the plastic buffers. These are a bit flimsy and will be replaced with some sprung oval headed buffers from A1.
- Removing the tension lock couplers and glueing the front cowling in place. This has been blended in with filler and painted
- Removing the front headcode panels. These don't fit very well and look crude. These also look too small, which I think might be down to the surround (which is part of the body moulding) being painted yellow rather than black.
- Removing the handrails, which are attached too close to the body.The ones under the window lacked the distinctive centre support.
I've also drilled out and removed the roof fans, ready to take the etched replacements.
These do look very nice. In the past I never understood the fetish for replacing perfectly good moulded grilles and fans with crude etched replacements, but these are a million miles away from the horrors of the past!
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