Kitbashed High Hood GP30

[Herc Driver]

Hi Guys -

I have been waiting patiently for some manufacturer to make a NS high hood GP30 in Nscale. Last night my patience ran out.

Armed with a hobby saw, file and Xacto knife, I cut the front hood off a Bachmann GP50 (and after much filing and cutting) glued it onto an Atlas GP30. All in all, it doesn't look too bad. My question is now...what should I use to fill the tiny gaps between the two shell pieces? A long time ago when I built model planes, I remember there was a putty that was used to hide the joints that you could sand smooth after it hardened. I'm sure there's still products like that out there...which one is good to use? The gaps I need to fill are very tiny, as I tried very hard to match the two shell pieces as well as possible...but there's still a very small gap around the newly added on shell.

After I get the gaps filled...I'll try the air brush for the first time and paint the whole thing black using a picture of the NS GP30 as my guide. And on that note, is it better to strip the old paint off or just air brush over the existing paint? (The Atlas GP30 that I used is in the BNSF "pumpkin" scheme with dark green and dark orange btw. The trucks and handrails are dark green as well.) Any special tricks of the kitbashing trade I should know about to paint them?

If this first attempt at building my own high hood GP30 goes reasonably well, I'm going to try it again, only this time use the Atlas GP30 in the all-black Penn Central color scheme. (That should be easier to repaint since it's basically in the right color to start with.)

The most glaring error to using the GP50 nose on the GP30 body is where the cab windows begin. On the prototype, the cab starts just before the angled roof line begins. There was no way I could see to replicate that design feature using my Atlas shell since the cab is modeled where it begins at the same point as the angled roof line. I just couldn't figure out a way to bring the windows forward. If I attempt this kitbash again, I think I'll gently cut the forward window area off the front cab from one shell and try and attach it to the other to make it closer to the prototype. (Actually, I have another Bachmann GP50 that I could use right now to try this idea out...might just grab the hobby saw again and give it a go.)

I did make a tactical error though...I used an Atlas "Classic" GP30 to build on. It isn't "DCC Ready" and from what I've read, not dcc possible. I placed this engine on the rails and it shorted out the Zephyr DCC unit. (There must be a number of places the frame touches the motor clips or both sides of the frame are touching.) So if I'm successful at kitbashing this engine to something that looks good, I might have to either find a replacement frame from another engine that fits the shell well enough, or gut the engine, remove the metal that could conduct electricity, and isolate the frame halves from each other to make it a dummy engine, or just remove the metal strips that carry power from the trucks to the engine...which I really wouldn't mind doing. ( Next time, I'll be a bit wiser and pick a "DCC Ready" frame to start with. )

Oh...I'll gladly post a picture of my progress once I figure out how to do that. I'm not adept at resizing pictures on my MacBook yet...I can make them smaller but not change the file size to get it within the prescribed attachment upload limits.