Radiator fan and other hood details
Big Train James
Western Thunderer
The last several areas to address at the moment are the radiator fan/front hood, the hood sides from the first door forward, and the sloped roof transition directly in front of the cab.
I've decided that I will simply cut off the entire front of the hood, and replace it with a 3d printed part, or resin casting based on a printed master. This will address both the fan opening and also the SP light details, as well as allow for thinning the edge of the overhang over the lights. Pictures also indicate the sides of the hood as well, including sand filler hatches. I originally was going to print these parts as well as the front. The reasoning was that I could avoid mismatches in adjacent surfaces between existing and new if I cut back to a logical seam like the edge of the first door. I've since decided against printing the hood sides, as the print is somewhat prone to warping, and frankly it's expensive without much value. I also acknowledge that I need to do more regular modeling (as opposed to 3d cad) instead of falling into the trap of always thinking 3d cad is the solution. To that end, I will print out improved sand filler hatches. I will laminate some .005" styrene sheet to the existing shell to adjust the sheet metal. I will replace the whole front end as before.
The radiator fan has been discussed here before. The design has been revised a bit to account for attaching an etched metal grille. As it currently stands, there is a .005" gap between the circular fan shroud and the outer walls of the fan hood opening. It's not readily apparent in these photos. But I've tested the arrangement with .005" styrene and it appears to function as intended.
The hood transition in front of the cab is a simple affair compared to everything else. I needed to shorten the sloped section as the prototype sw1500 is shorter in this area than the comparable mp15dc that I started with. Not much to this part - cut out the old, print the new, including some flanges to position the new part in the shell.
Here are a couple of shots of the whole contraption cobbled together. These parts will replace most of the front end of the Atlas shell, except as noted above. The nice thing is that the radiator core section will fit in an unmodified Atlas shell, if one doesn't want to go for the whole nose replacement. Missing at the moment are the shutters. I've decided along the way that they aren't robust enough to survive printing, and will be better suited to some other fabrication method. Also missing are the grilles. As usual the completion of development of etch artwork eludes me, at least this first time. I've got some work on the grilles done, but radiator core grille will need to be revised before moving forward.
All for now. I'm hoping to get back onto this model in earnest, so I can move onto some other distracting project without violating any self-imposed rules about finishing Project A before starting Project B.
I've decided that I will simply cut off the entire front of the hood, and replace it with a 3d printed part, or resin casting based on a printed master. This will address both the fan opening and also the SP light details, as well as allow for thinning the edge of the overhang over the lights. Pictures also indicate the sides of the hood as well, including sand filler hatches. I originally was going to print these parts as well as the front. The reasoning was that I could avoid mismatches in adjacent surfaces between existing and new if I cut back to a logical seam like the edge of the first door. I've since decided against printing the hood sides, as the print is somewhat prone to warping, and frankly it's expensive without much value. I also acknowledge that I need to do more regular modeling (as opposed to 3d cad) instead of falling into the trap of always thinking 3d cad is the solution. To that end, I will print out improved sand filler hatches. I will laminate some .005" styrene sheet to the existing shell to adjust the sheet metal. I will replace the whole front end as before.
The radiator fan has been discussed here before. The design has been revised a bit to account for attaching an etched metal grille. As it currently stands, there is a .005" gap between the circular fan shroud and the outer walls of the fan hood opening. It's not readily apparent in these photos. But I've tested the arrangement with .005" styrene and it appears to function as intended.
The hood transition in front of the cab is a simple affair compared to everything else. I needed to shorten the sloped section as the prototype sw1500 is shorter in this area than the comparable mp15dc that I started with. Not much to this part - cut out the old, print the new, including some flanges to position the new part in the shell.
Here are a couple of shots of the whole contraption cobbled together. These parts will replace most of the front end of the Atlas shell, except as noted above. The nice thing is that the radiator core section will fit in an unmodified Atlas shell, if one doesn't want to go for the whole nose replacement. Missing at the moment are the shutters. I've decided along the way that they aren't robust enough to survive printing, and will be better suited to some other fabrication method. Also missing are the grilles. As usual the completion of development of etch artwork eludes me, at least this first time. I've got some work on the grilles done, but radiator core grille will need to be revised before moving forward.
All for now. I'm hoping to get back onto this model in earnest, so I can move onto some other distracting project without violating any self-imposed rules about finishing Project A before starting Project B.
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