How do I chop nose an n scale engine?

I want to model the SD9s after they received a chop nose, using an atlas or life like sd9, but am afraid to do it. should I buy a low nose engine and replace part of the body with an SD9 shell? anybody chop an engine nose before?
 

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Russ Bellinis

Active Member
I model ho scale, so I haven't had any experience with n scale, but I have some ideas.
First question, are there any doors on the side of the low nose on the short hood? I can't see in the pic. I suspect that there isn't any doors. I would take a vertical cut right in front of the cab. Then take a horizontal cut even with the top of the battery boxes, and remove the high nose. cut out a section of the high nose until it is right for the low nose. Then you will need to make up a new front for the cab with windows out of styrene, and glue it in. If your sd9 has the headlight in the nose, carefully cut them off so you can use them on the front of the cab, and if needed, fill in and sand the nose. You may need a bit of filler and small sanding sticks to clean up the joints. I guess that is why I model in ho even though I like the ratio of scenery to model in n scale. The idea of doing kitbashing in n scale just gives me the "willies." If you have access to a later model emd like a gp38-40 or sd40 that you could steal the low nose off of, that might work, but you are going to have to build the cab front anyway because all of the factory low noses that I know of had more of a gable roof on the cab rather than the round roof.

In ho scale, I think the undecorated Atlas bodies are available from Atlas very cheap. Is that true in n scale as well. If it is, I would buy 2 or 3 to practice on. Then paint the best one for your chop nose when you are finished.
 
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