I confess I'm not much of a modeller.

But I've recently convinced Mrs Farrell to let me own an air compressor and Paasche air brush and so my EL body from BadgerBits is taking shape. The EL body is available from Frate-N ready-to-run or from BadgerBits as a body kit.

The EL comes as a urethane one-piece casting with a separate fuel-tank casting. The body slips straight onto an Atlas SD7 mechanism, available from various outlets. I got mine from Aust-N-Rail. The mechanism needs only two modifications, both of which even a mug like me can do:

Modifications required for the SD7 mechanism:

1. Rotate the bodies by 180 degrees. That is simple: undo the two screws holding the two halves of the mech together (you don't need to undo the whole thing, just enough for the bogies to fall out). Turn the bogies around, reinsert and screw up the mech again.
2. Clip the fuel tank off and clip the Badgerbit-supplied fuel tank straight on.

It's that easy.

The body

The body itself, being a one-piece casting, needs very little work. It's pretty clean of flash and so with a few small files I cleaned up the casting. The wipers form a triangular closure across the top outside corner of the windscreen; I opened it with a fine drill bit and used the bit as a very small file to shape the hole.

Painting

The biggest part of the job is painting.

I'm a lazy modeller and at the time of beginning the painting the financial controller, Mrs LittleBadger, would not allow me to buy the compressor and air brush. I had an ancient air brush from my HO days that was an external mix and I couldn't find the bottle: it came with me over 6 moves! 

So pre-compressor/new brush I used my spray can of automotive etch primer. I read somewhere ages ago that this etch primer is an excellent way to apply undercoat, and so I had no issues using it. I've used it for all of my other modelling projects before.

Having applied the etch primer I had to wait until the compressor and air brush arrived! So I went on with some other projects: my Badgerbits 40 class (shop link here; my status photo here), a Pallas Hobbies TRC with the "NSW N Scale Group 20th anniversary" logos from the anniversary dinner held in January 2008 (here), and my N-Trains 70 class (shop link here, my 70 class here).

So, the compressor has now arrived and so I set to.

Firstly, I did the roof using Railey paints NSW Freight Wagon grey. I was again being lazy, because freight wagon grey was on hand for my BadgerBits CW (shop, mine) and GSV (shop, mine) I'm painting. It's darker than the Frate-N version (see images below).

Then I sprayed the silver, using a spray can I had on hand from previous modelling projects.

The final painting step was to mask up the body and apply the CFCLA blue. I used the straight Tamiya blue.

To make the mask I photocopied the body and, after verifying that it was a true 1:1 copy, recopied it for many attempts! Satisfied with a mask I was happy with, I went to the train shed. I applied masking tape to a glass sheet and, using the mask as a guide, cut the masking tape and applied it to the body.

Here is the result. When the paint is cured I shall apply the decals that come with the model, then the brass rear-view mirrors and the rear step also supplied with the Badgerbits model.

Take this as a work-in-progress:

 And for comparison: The Frate-N model using the same body, completed:

 The Frate-N version has a far better paint job, and is a good price.

But I had fun learning how to paint a model.

Next step: Decals. Until then, enjoy!

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