A first 006 diesel - bonnet

 For the bonnet I looked towards Matchbox, specifically their Drott Excavator. I have a couple of broken ones knocking about, acquired just for cutting up, and one donated its bonnet and engine after some work with a cutting disc in a mini-drill.

Here's the bonnet, along with my other broken toy;

Note that the engine is part of the baseplate casting.

As you can see I've stripped the paint, and drilled the top for an exhaust (1mm brass tube). I've also stuffed some lead in, there's a useful hollow section in the engine casting and more lead sits behind the front grill.

There's some filling to be done, two round cut-outs under the bonnet where the front axle sits need disguising and the rear corners are missing as a result of being cut from the model. I used .030" plasticard to infill these areas. At the front Squadron Green putty was employed to fill the slot where the two parts fit together.

Here's the two parts, engine detail and outer shell, epoxied into a whole;

And the right way up;

Attached to the footplate;

The exhaust and cab roof aren't attached at this stage; they'll be glued in place after painting.

The cast engine detail and sloping front add interest and don't look out of place on a narrow gauge loco.

I filed away the raised detail on the front. The look that I wanted for this build was of the kind of loco that a small system would build themselves rather than an off-the-shelf design like a Ruston or Simplex. Hopefully I've achieved that, helped by the bonnet being from one of Matchbox's less well known models.

Couplings next.

Paul.