Facing our fears…

One thing I have yet to tackle on my own American outline models is going beyond fitting basic headlights to my DCC sound installations...

These things are tiny, barely 3mm wide and incredibly fiddly. Pre-wired SMD lights plugged into a hole drilled in the rear proved to be somewhat easier than I had feared for years.

Despite having worked successfully with small LEDs for a number of years the idea of adding numerous extra tiny lights to my models (with the associated wiring) has always been enough to put me off trying to add ground lights and ditch lights. On top of the fear of fitting and making the wiring work in the constraints of the body/chassis interface, until recently I had not found a satisfactory solution for adding LEDs to ditch lights. That changed when I saw an article on the Diesel-detailer forum about the subject which showed small SMD types being fitted to the back of ditch light castings. Now this looked eminently sensible and pain free, especially with a source of pre-wired examples. I made my life harder on this model though, as these ditch lights are instead 3D printed resin which is quite a brittle material. Working instead with injection moulded styrene or soft cast resin would be much easier!

I first made a hole of 0.7mm in the centre of the light, opening this out to 1mm and then 1.4mm with a pin vice and small drill bits. Using a larger 1.8mm bit I countersunk the hole on the rear of the casting enough to inset the LED into the housing. These were simply glued in place with superglue, and a lens will be added using Deluxe Glue-n-glaze once they are painted and installed.

This set of four are destined for my latest project, modelling a Canadian Pacific GP20C-ECO. These distinctive machines are classed as rebuilds, using trucks and traction motors from traded in GP9s with a new fuel tank, frame and car body. The design uses a V8 turbocharged EMD 710 prime mover to produce 2000hp and is fitted with an improved crash worthiness comfort cab. The model is a 3D printed and etched metal kit from Brigg's Models in Canada, mated with an Atlas GP40 chassis. I have modified the fuel tank, and have parts on order to correctly replicate the journals on the GP9 trucks. Next up will be drilling all the handrail, grab iron and lift ring holes before adding these ditch lights and etched metal stanchions and handrails. Maybe not the prettiest of prototypes, there is something special about what is pretty much a new, off the shelf, GP series model. Until next time, more soon...