I bought some foam board at Office Depot. I used the original
cardboard end inserts as a pattern and made new interior cab ends.
While I was at it, I simulated interior doors using card stock. I also
built floors for the cabs with the same material and added an engineer
at one end. All these parts were hot glued into the cab after first
being sprayed with silver paint.
I also used the foam board to build a speaker enclosure to direct
the sound out of the roof grills, and cut a piece and painted it flat black so the
interior lighting does not leak out through the roof opening.
The question that is always asked is what end did I put the
engineer in? The front end of course! How can you tell which is the
front end of a RDC? If you look at the roof and radiator housing, you
will notice that the housing is not in the exact middle of the unit.
One part of the roof is actually longer than the other. I prototype
practice, the long roof is on the front of the RDC. I used decals and
put an "F" on the sides near the doors. This is the end where I
installed my engineer in the cab.
While I had the ends off the body, I loosened the safety chains
so that they would hang with more of a droop than the factory installed
configuration. This is actually one single piece of chain that is hot
glued in place. By removing the glue, the chain can be re-installed to
look more prototypical. I also painted my chain silver to match the SP
#10 that I am modeling.
The battery for the sound system was installed inside the RDC
body, and the wires were led down through the floor to where the
equipment box was located for the sound card.
I body mounted Kadee #820 couplers at both ends of my RDC.
This involved cutting the mounting posts down that hold the original
Aristo couplers. The Kadees fit the opening in the pilot at the proper
height, and have been given a squirt of Floquil rust with the airbrush
for more realism.
While I was at it, I cut off the battery connectors on both
ends since I don't plan on running a battery trail car.
The RDC was them re-assembled and made ready for exterior
details. I bought some screen (HO Gauge) at the hobby shop, along with
a package of stainless steel side grills for an HO F-Unit. The side
grills were measured, cut, and glued to the side of the radiator hump on
the RDC. The prototype had them, but Aristo chose not to add them to
their model. Thin styrene was cut for the four under window vents, the
side number board, and the six roof vents. These were glued on with
Marine Goop. The HO gauge screen was cut to provide grillwork for these
roof vents, and all parts were painted silver.
The SP had unique number boards on the cab roof at both ends
of their lone RDC. These were fabricated with styrene and glued to the
roof after being painted silver and number decals added. SP-10 was
added to the side number boards using decals, and all decals were sealed
with Testor's glosscoat using a soft brush.
The sound card and all switches were installed in the box
under the floor. I went to a hobby shop that specializes in R/C cars,
and found plugs that would work with the Aristo sockets under the floor
on their PC board. This simplifies hooking the power and the speaker to
the sound system.
The RDC was then lightly weathered. Floquil black was
dusted over the radiator housing grills and all intake grills. It was
also used along the pilot and the bottom details. Another overspary
with Floquil earth on the pilot and underside details completed the
weathering.
The unit now has a more prototypical look, and the sound
system adds to the realsim of the unit as it travels over the rails.