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….........…..--- Pt. 4 --- N Scale DDA35 & B Build ---

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NOTE: This is not an accurate build of a DDA35. I've tried to 'get close' but at almost 80 don't want to spend a ton of time on this. I need to get back to laying track, adding scenery and finally running a train or two.

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I had a print that was good enough to use but wanted to work on a skirt around the bottom of the shell so I could still print with the shell horizontal and get a flatter bottom and better corners. The next two prints are the result of doing that along with …..

….. hollowing out the shell so that resin wasn't trapped in the top grills. If you look back to the last page ( HERE ) you can see that the grill isn't open everywhere do to excess resin that couldn't drain.

With the print hollowed out the grills are printing better but still have a couple broken rings. Of interest is that the rings and the spokes are the same width in the Fusion 360 design but the spokes print wider (both are .006”/.152mm). It amazes me that a $200 printer can print with this detail.

I worked on the skirt I had implemented some to make it break off from the shell easier and also beef up the grills a little by adding .002” to each of the round parts of the grill. To do that took me about another hour using Fusion 360. I'll put this file up on my thingiverse.com account so hopefully the changes help someone else if they follow this route.

The new skirt worked very well.

I had cured the previous set of prints for a total of about 5 minutes and they were really brittle so cut the total cure time to 3 minutes for these and that seemed to work better.

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I think I'll cut the two grills that are on the James Trains shell out and replace them with some of mine so that they all look the same. The ones on the shell aren't open either.

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I haven't painted a shell yet so this will be my first attempt . I'm going to try and mask off the grills and paint them by hand at the end as that seemed to work fine and I feel will be easier than trying to mask and paint them with a gun (open to suggestions on this approach).

So I finally got the nerve to glued the new print into the shell. Hope I don't have to remove it for any reason. I have two UP GP35's and was going to use the cab from one but since I was going to have to strip it decided why mess it up so started looking for a GP35 with any road name and strip and use it.

I did stay with the first two generations of Atlas GP35's as the cab (not the low hood also) pops off the shell and that will make the back cut on the cab not necessary and the joint there cleaner. Didn't know if the later Atlas GP35's were the same. I looked for a shell alone but the ones I found cost more than this complete loco. I'll keep my eyes open for a UP or SP shell alone and if I find one at a reasonable cost will buy it and use it with the chassis from this cab donor.

If you came into the build here you can go to the start of the build ( HERE ).

(NOTE: Keep in mind that this is N scale and these images if viewed on a computer can be larger than the real thing.)

Will continue this when I get the GP35 in my hands in a few days........

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