Hello all. I have a few Athearn -9s in Norfolk Southers schemes and the headlights are mounted in the nose, not on the cab like the real ones. Has anyone ever relocated them in one of these? Athearn’s engines also have 6 steps rather than 5, but im not sure how worried about that i am. If this has been discussed in another thread i apologize, but the search function missed it.
Thanks, Tim
I did this to the model of #8909 that I built, and it’s not that hard. However, plan on doing a full repaint if you do it, I don’t think you could patch this very easily. First, I removed the factory headlight cast on the shell, filled the nose light “notch” with styrene, let it dry, and smoothed it out. Had to add a little putty, but very little. Next I shaped a piece of styrene to act as a backer behind where the new headlight was going in. Sorry, I don’t have the model near, and don’t recall how big a piece I used, but it’s much better to be generous on the size. The new notch will go deeper than the shell is thick. After this had set, I started using a file and carefully made a flat notch to match the prototype photos I have. It was challenging keeping it all straight and square, but not that hard. Finished with sanding sticks, although you can hardly see any of that area after the headlight casting is installed. When I was all done smoothing and primping, I glued on a new casting, and that part was ready for the paint shop.
The worst part of the whole project was actually the sideframes. This model was built from a used loco I picked up at my LHS, and I had to buy another complete set of sideframes to get them right. Then I had to cut up the old set and apply journals to the new set. At least the old frames had broken mounting pins, so it wasn’t a total loss. As for the steps, I hadn’t noticed the difference. I know that the A-Line see-through steps are well worth the effort if you are doing a full detail and paint job. The effect is really awesome, and I plan to use these on all of my future locos.