My SD9 rebuild

Kevinkrey

Member
I am converting a BN SD9 into a low hood missabe SDM. I may need help as this project goes along so I decided to make a new thread. But so far I have began to rebuild the cab. I have added one styrene strip and that is as far as I have gottten, but here is the first pic of the project.
 

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Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Kevin, do you get to model train shows? If you do, often there are vendors selling old locomotive shells cheap. If the BN used a standard EMD cab on their low nose Sd9 conversions, you could probably use a cab off an old Gp20, or even cut the front out of a cab from a later model Athearn EMD gp or sd and graft it into the Sd9 cab to make a low nose version. I have a T-6 Alco project that I started a couple of years ago. I had an Athearn Sw7 with a broken body that I got in a big box of train stuff from the neighbor across the street who had bought model railroad stuff, and then his boys were more interested in surfing than trains. I picked up a body for an Alco S1-4 (I don't remember which model it was exactly) and a body from an old Lifelike, Model Power, or Tyco Rs11. I cut the grille and end of the long hood off of the Rs11, cut the nose off the S whatever, and grafted the 2 together to mount to the Athearn Sw7 chassis to make a T-6 that will eventually be painted and decaled for the Arkansas & Misouri RR. I think I have less than $3 invested total in this model. Probably the decals will cost more than the cost of the rest of the locomotive!
 
N

nachoman

The problem is, the athearn sd9 has the wide hood - and a hood/cab from a donor loco may not fit.

Kevin
 

EsPeeMEC

New Member
Is it possible to use an early Athearn low short hood and cab for this conversion? IIRC, the early Athearn SDs had an over-scale width cab, which might work with the SD9.
 

Kevinkrey

Member
I am modeling it into a DMIR SDM, they did all the work I figure so can I. how hard is it to cut down the nose into a short nose model?
 
N

nachoman

It's easy. I did a GP-9 like this. Take a look at your prototype to see what details are on the short hood. On mine, I wound up filing all the details from the top of the short hood, and most of the doors off the sides. Then I cut the top off the short hood. I then cut a section out of the short hood. Next, I glues the top back on. It was a little tricky deciding how much to cut out of the short hood. I think I wound up doing what looked good, because each railroad probably cut to different lengths. I had to fill a few holes and sand/file off a few more details, but overall not that difficult.

Kevin
 

Kevinkrey

Member


Well I headed down to the basement to see what I could do, and I am almost ready to paint it! i cut the top of the hood off fine and then started to cut out a section of the short hood only to realize the cut was uneven, but I straightened it out. I scrapped of a few details and looked at the prototype pic, I have the wrong fan arrangement on top, but Im not worried about that. I have glued in the front parts of the cab, I just need to round the window corners and add the center divider betweeen the two windows. This will not be perfect by any standards, but for the first one I reconstruct (I will probably do a half dozen or so more) I am VERY happy with the way it is comming along. But you are probably tires of reading, so here are some pics. I also posted a pic of the model before I began.​
 

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Kevinkrey

Member
I know there is some kind of model putty to fill holes and gaps out there, but what is it called and who makes it?
 
N

nachoman

i have used 3 types of putty. First is contour putty by testors, comes in a gray tube. It will fill surface scratches okay, but is not good for larger gaps. It dries kinda soft, and shrinks when it dries. The second is squadron green putty found at hobby shops. It is used about the same as testors, but I like it better. I think it dries a little harder and is better for larger hole/gaps. The third is a surface spot filling putty made by bondo. You can buy it at auto parts stores. I think it dries the hardest of the three and like it the best, but have only used it for model applications just once.

Kevin
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
The problem is, the athearn sd9 has the wide hood - and a hood/cab from a donor loco may not fit.

Kevin

The hood is wide, but the cab isn't. You could possibly use a doner cab with a cut down Athearn hood. The other possibility is to use the cab and possibly the short hood from an Athearn gp35. I think the gp35 has an angled cab roof versus the round roof on the gp &sd 9s. I think you could take the round roof off the sd9 cab and adapt it to the gp35 cab.
 

Kevinkrey

Member
The hood is wide, but the cab isn't. You could possibly use a doner cab with a cut down Athearn hood. The other possibility is to use the cab and possibly the short hood from an Athearn gp35. I think the gp35 has an angled cab roof versus the round roof on the gp &sd 9s. I think you could take the round roof off the sd9 cab and adapt it to the gp35 cab.


I can settle this. Oh wait I already did. See the pics?sign1



 

Kevinkrey

Member
Here is a pic of my models real life brother.
sd301.jpg
 

Glen Haasdyk

Active Member
The engine rebuild is looking really good. The short hood looks like a challenging project.

I'm working on an SD-7/9 project myself buit starting with a couple basket case Proto 2000 units. I'm not shortening the hood but adding a couple detail parts and repainting it in a fantasy Canadian national Scheme(they never had any) . If you need any parts drop me a line I might be able to help you out.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Kevin, I wasn't really suggesting that you do the one you already started differently. You said you were going to need to do a whole fleet of them. I was trying to suggest what might be an easier way to kitbash a bunch of them.
 

Kevinkrey

Member
I have been looking at my work, and i do think on future projects I will try using a cab front. When I take off the as is cab on my model, the cab front has nothing because it is covered uop by the high front nose. I could probably use a cab front from almost any SD cab.
 

EsPeeMEC

New Member
Here's a couple of images of a Trains Inc SD9 that runs on ENDO Trucks - it's got a Tenshodo sibling, No 138, and a Tenshodo Gp7 painted as DMIR 89, though it's slated for a repaint as a MEC passenger unit since it's Non Dynamic-Braked, and has a steam generator.
I really MUST create some space among the Cobras, Daytonas and stationery to work on locos
 

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Kevinkrey

Member


Does anybody know how well a walthers GP-9m cab would fit with the atearn nose? Or where I could get a numberboard the match the loco in the first page of this thread?​
 
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