NIR C4K CAF from a modified Bachmann Class 170

[33lima]

Some clips and pics of my NIR C4K unit, completed in between work on the CMAC C3K.

I have seen 170s repainted as C3Ks but opted for the C4K as the former has a rectangular front light cluster, while the C4Ks looks somewhat like the 170's 'teardrop' shape.

It is difficult to do much about the 170's tubby profile and different pax window spacing but I wanted to get closer than the common approach I've seen of a repaint (many seem to incorporate basic errors, like the black side band not extended beyond the clip in windows). So what I ended up with was this.

1. Roofs - grills and fans cut out, cut up and repositioned correctly (fan in the middle, grill either side).

2. Roofs - existing raised detail removed (notably the prominent box fairing over driving car fronts).

3. Roofs - plastic longitudinal plasticard strips added (not enough as the tubby body's taper results in a thin roof cross section).

4. Roofs - new raised detail added (including four cowls over the two door bays, exhaust ports and cab roof panels).

5. Cab section - front window sides de-rounded/straightened (the pop-in glazing piece allows for this; I stuck with the existing wipers tho; these are hard to position so they lean the same way at rest).

6. Cab section - extended and reshaped the air dam to the correct profile (I have not yet modified the cosmetic front coupling).

7. Cab section - added a new cab roof light fairing (curved side down) and modified the clip-in front window so the destination display is on the correct (left) side.

8. Cab section - subtly sanded, to try to reduce the chubby look (I should also perhaps have tried to build up a little the top corners but they would likely have bulged out from the roof) and filled in the red light apertures.

9. Bodysides - added triangular yaw damper brackets just above each bogie. 

10. Bodysides - filled in the top of the driver door windows (it's too high).

11. Bodysides - added plasticard 'destination boards'.

12. Corridor ends - removed the external exhaust pipes and added a vertical strip of plasticard where needed, to represent the recessed exhaust shrouds.

13. Underframes - filled off the small brackets along the top edges, the raised detail on the fuel tank (?) and the air scoops, so that (after also trimming a little of the 'mini-fairings' along the bottoms of the bodyside pieces) I could then...

14. Underframes - cut and fitted very slightly turned-in lower valences, from plasticard.

After priming, I opted to spray bodies overall with car alloy wheel silver - this never seems to turn out particularly 'silvervy' on the intended objects to I reckoned it would be ok for 'NIR silver-grey'! Blue side-bands, I opted for Vallejo Dark Blue as this looks accurate to scale, when compared with pictures in decent light. Window panel bands were just black, carrying side and roof colours around onto the car ends as per reference photos.

I long debated choice of roof colour, rejecting the black I have seen on many repaints as clearly too dark - it can look black in certain lighting but comparison with the black cab window surrounds shows it is a dark grey. It's the same colour as the air dam and valences I am sure. The shade of Humbrol grey I ended up going with should have be a bit darker but if it bothers me I can always change that.

The superb Railtec decals for the C4K are indispensable and excellent, tho they omit the four wheelchair door stickers (they supply five bicycle ones). I left off the large white WiFi stickers.

Apart from some hesitation on an inner circuit on the club outing previous to the trip in one of the clips - cured by the application of a track rubber to the Quarry layout's inner circuit - she runs well, thanks to  the Bachmann dual-flywheel-drive motor in the centre car.

It was a lot of work to end up with a model which is still not accurate, tho I'm very glad I didn't just settle for a repaint. I got a CMAC 3d printed C4K on finding recently they were available, so she and my CMAC C3K will have some more CAF company in due course.

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Edited August 11 by 33lima