Gorgeous model. I've built three. Two based on Bachmann's combine and one from an AHM coach. I found the hardest part was finding the white lettered decals for them. For some reason I never thought of cutting down one of the AHM combines.
Thanks for the compliment IHM, I picked up this hobby milling machine off of Amazon a couple of years ago. It ain't work a crap in cutting metal, but it sure can plow through plastic! All I did was drill out two of the plated over windows forward of the three cast opened windows, then cleaned up the edges with a straight miniature routing bit. I used some plastic stock to frame out each window and to fill in the transom above. I also used my little router to carve off all the cast on handrails and grab-irons. Everything you see there is hand built wire forms. Pertaining to white Santa Fe banners. I've had pretty good luck on eBay finding old Champion Decal stock. You can also use the white banner on the MicroScale express car decal set in a pinch. There's also some very old Walthers decals still floating around on eBay but you have to act fast before someone else scarfs them up before you do...
