My kitbashing adventures continues as I completed this conversion work for my friend Yvan Déry. It started with an IHC Consolidation of dubious lineage which was nothing more than a USRA 0-8-0 with a pony truck. However, the weird proportions were in fact quite close to a real CNR engine that worked on Quebec North Shore back in the days, making her a potential candidate for kitbashing.
I went quite far with this one, modelling in 3D the very peculiar Ellis-Chalmers rivetted vestibule cab to grasp the essence of that prototype. The tender was also shortened and heavily modified to follow CNR practices. I also went overboard and added a lot of lead inside the cab and boiler, following Yvan's request to make her a good puller for his less than perfect tracks and steep grades. Domes were reshaped using epoxy putty until they got the right silhouette and smoothed by fingers with water.
I didn't weather too much the driving wheels because I wanted to keep them in good shape to pick up electricity. Had it been my own personal locomotive, I would have probably done it and suffered from frustration at less than stellar performance.
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| The original model before kitbashing |
All in all, it was a fun project than was relatively straightforward. It proved the USRA boiler and chassis can be a good starting point for some stubbier CNR Consolidation. A light weathering consisting mainly of modulating the color and glossiness over the model brought the details to life and I can't wait to deliver her where she rightly belongs!
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