Electric Locomotive E94 »German Crocodile« in 1/38 scale.

[fokawe]

Electric Locomotive E94 »German Crocodile« in 1/38 scale.
First of all, my many thanks and respect go to Mr Albrecht Pirling, the designer of this perfectly engineered and stunning model.

The electric loco is a German design built by AEG, between 1940 and 1956.
More info here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR-Baureihe_E_94 It is in German but Google translate does a decent job!

A pic of the real thing....




To be honest, I have never been much of a train freak, but a friend of mine has done something special for me without being asked. I found out later that his favourite train is the E-94.
So, I decided I would build it for my friend as a show of gratitude. He also turned 50 during the build process, and I ended up presenting it to him at his birthday bash in front of all his family and friends.
Due to the timeline I was working on, I had to work many long hours into the night, to make sure I got it finished in time for the party. As it turned out I glued the last piece on at exactly 16:30 on the day of the party and the party started at 16:30... That was close!!! I was only getting about 4 hours sleep a night over the last 2 weeks of the project. (So, if this thread suddenly stops in mid sentence, then you know I have fallen asleep! LOL

Anyway, enough babbling, and on with the build....

The model came in 21 A4 sheets with seperate basic photographic instructions, well, more of a guide really. All the part identifiers are in German, but once again Google helped out. I printed the sheets on 160 gsm stock. The pdfs actually look scanned, and I dont think they are the originals. I was a bit sceptical about the quality at first, but as you'll see they were perfect.

The loco is divided into 4 seperate sub structures: 1 + 2 are identical twins of the nose and drive train, 3 is the central cab structure, and 4 are the two pantographs, which are models in there own right!!

I started with the 2 nose and drive train structures first. I have only posted one set of photos of these as they are both identical.

I started with the chassis. The formers are laminated for strength and glued into position. To be honest, nearly 90% of the parts for this model are laminated... The chassis was then glued up ensuring everything was straight and square.




I then fitted the 'axles'.




There were no tabs on the curved side walls of the motors but I made my own. Once attached to the motor shell the 3 assemblies were attached to the chassis.



The wheels came in two halves. I laminated these halves to thick card (1,5mm) and cut them all out once dry, using a circle cutter.

[fokawe]

I then lined up the two halves and glued them together. I gave the edges a light sanding to smooth out any imperfections and then lined the edges with thin strips cut from thin aluminium tape, used for ventilation ducting, and no, not duct tape! These strips I then burnished to the wheels with my thumb. It gave the wheels a little more realism.



I then attached the wheels to the chassis assembly.



I then cut out the side rails and painstakingly cut out all the springs, t-bars and tensioners and glued them in place on the side rails. Some of these required to be attached onto a cardstock spacer to raise them from the surface. It should go without saying, everything is edge coloured after cutting. I tend to colour everything, if the printed colour butts up to plain white paper, it gets coloured.




I then started to make the bearing housings. Again, there were no tabs evident on the round end sections, so I made my own to ease assembly.

[whulsey]

Just seeing red x's for the photos.

[fokawe]

Once complete, the bearing assemblies we attached to the side rails. (all four, from both trucks are shown)



I then made all the sand boxes and fiitted them to the side rails. These also required spacers when attached. You can see these as the white squares in the previous photo.



I'm not sure what they are, brake shoes or something, had to be laminated to 2mm cardstock. These were cut out and attached to the side rails butting up against the bearing housings.




I then made up the 2 tiny brake cylinders ready for attachment later.

[fokawe]

I then made up the two air tanks. I use hole punches to make round shapes. I used these to punch out 2mm thick end caps for the tanks. This aided in assembly, and also kept the shape true.



I then made up the 2 upper decks that are double laminated. I then started to put the nose section together and attached this to the smaller deck plate. Before assembly I cut out the six louvre panels and attached them while the nose section was 'in the flat''. Both ends of the box are laminated as well as the support former. I nearly laminated myself to death with this model.




More soon.

[fokawe]

Originally Posted by whulsey

Just seeing red x's for the photos.

Apologies.
It should be ok now.!