Whats the best way to kitbash a standard cab NS C44-9W. BTW in HO, I'll go with a athearn 9-44 body but who's cab is better? RPP (-8 line) or Bachmans (C40-8 line). Thanks, Duane
Here are some photos of how bad the RPP cab looks: These shots are of one of three D940Cs I've built using Athearn C44-9Ws and RPP B40-8s. Honestly, if I were to do another one (and I plan to either redo these or start anew), I'd use the Atlas B40-8 body shell before I'd use Bachmann's C40-8 and I definitely wouldn't use the RPP shell again. There's simply not enough detail. I built these models years ago, maybe '96 or '97 and the Atlas shell wasn't an option then. Not only that, I'd actually use the correct decals for these units which are available from Shell Scale. RC Harris
RC and I had this conversation on another forum a week or so back. To get a model that is reasonably close to the NS Dash 9-40C, you'll want to start with an undecorated Athearn BNSF Dash 9-44CW body. The BNSF version has the correct phase II long hood that is also common to the NS Dash 9-40C and Dash 9-40CW units. Then you want to combine the Athearn body with an Atlas Dash 8-40B cab, cab sub-base and nose assembly. Using the Dash 8-40B as the donor is a compromise since the NS Dash 9-40C has a different access door layout on the sub-base and getting that done accurately would require lots more work and extra shells to use as donors. If you can live with the Dash 8-40B sub-base, this is not that difficult of a project. I recently started one of these models and I am working on it in my spare time. I found that cutting in the side sills and cutting back the sub-base on the Athearn Dash 9 allows the Atlas cab and sub-base assembly to be fitted rather easily to the Athearn body. See the following photos: That is as far as I have gotten since this is a project I am working on in between other things. Probably the most difficult part of this project will be to convert the steps from a 5-step layout on the stock Athearn body to the 4-step layout found on the Dash 9-40C. I will completely remove the steps and replace them with brass steps from A-Line. After that, detailing as appropriate (including the use of the Details West Dash 9 detail kits) and painting will round out what should be a nice representation of the NS Dash 9-40C. Chris Toth
