This is the first time I have ever built an engine kit. I have also never worked with a kit that is all metal. The first time I opened the box I realized that there were a lot of parts to the body kit. And I was pleased. "Looks like fun!", I thought. When I finally sat down to actually work on the kit, I became overwhelmed. This is not a kit for the beginner or the faint of heart. The instructions that come with the kit provide only high-level guidance as to what you might work on. There is no such thing as a detailed step-by-step guide. You have to figure it out by yourself, mostly. I, therefore, highly recommend that you get a copy of Dick Karnes' article in the April/May 1992 issue of "3/16 'S'cale Railroading" magazine (you can obtain a copy of his article from the NASG Library, of which Dick is the Librarian; I received my copy electronically very quickly). His article provides additional notes, but it is still not a step-by-step guide. Dick had built one of these kits before, and stated in the article that he built the RS-1's body in one evening. At the end of the first evening I had the holes drilled for mounting the handrails! This is going to be a project that will take quite some time. I also recommend lots of prototype photos of the engine from different angles. The instructions that come with the kit have three black-and-white photos of different prototype models from different angles, but I don't think they are of good enough quality (or resolution) to be able to make out the smaller details.

OK, with all that said, the rest of this page will be my step-by-step diary of how I built this engine's body. The kit's instructions state to first drill all the holes in the parts before assembly, as well as removing any and all flash. I think that is a reasonable first step, because in the process I learned a lot about the various parts and their names. The first photo shows the holes in the long running boards that I drilled. The instructions state to use a 1mm (#60) drill bit for the holes, but when I did that for the first hole, I realized that the hole was too large. I used a dial caliper from then on to determine what size hole the part actually requires. I wound up using a #75 drill bit for the holes in the sides of the long and short running boards. The parts have dimples in them to mark the spot, so that is easy. As you can see in the first photo, I used a vise grip to hold the part so that I could hand drill the holes nice and straight. The material is easy to drill.

Here's a photo of the short running board with its handrail holes drilled.

The short hood has dimples for the lift rings that need to be installed, so I drilled those holes using a #76 drill bit. I tried not to drill the holes all the way through the metal, because the lift rings only need to be glued in there, and having the hole drilled all the way through may make it harder to install them later on. Note that in Dick's article the hood part didn't have the dimples, but my kit did (the kit was indeed improved after Dick's review of it). There are four lift rings that will be shaped in a "U", so there were 8 holes to be drilled.

The long hood also has 8 holes that need to be drilled for the lift rings (near the center 1/3 of the hood). Near the front of the hood a radiator grill, made out of brass, needs to be installed. This requires four holes to be drilled. These have dimples near the radiator. There are four additional holes near the other holes, but I have not yet figured out what they are for. Since the radiator grill's legs are square instead of round, I had to use a #60 (0.040") drill bit to make holes large enough for the part.

The radiator grill shown in the photo above didn't come like that. It had some massive sprues attached to it. It took a pair of cutters and the Dremel tool with a cut-off disc to free it. Subsequent filing and straightening the legs completed that part. The next photo shows the part installed, but not yet glued down. The thing to remember about assembling this model is, do I need to be able to get to it during painting. There is a balance between assembling the model and then painting, vs. painting and then assembling. I think the grill pretty much covers the radiator, so I believe I will glue it in place soon. The grill is not see-through.

The front and rear vertical parts of the hoods require grab irons. The PRR prototype uses drop style grab irons. I happened to have picked up a set of grab irons from a local store last year, made by "Creative Model Associates". This product is now offered by Tichy Train Group. These are all pre-bent, so that will make it easier than to use the wire that came with the kit.

to be continued...