I like the looks of the pre-war pilot, that's not it. It's just the way that it is attached to the front of the locomotive shell instead of being free floating. To attach it there is a fair amount of structure that was not present on the prototype.
I took a look at it to see what I could do about it, and I came up with two different ways to reduce this visual aberration. The first way is to detach the pilot from the shell and attach it to the frame, unfortunately this is not easy to do. The second way is to carve away as much of the offending structure as possible while still leaving the pilot attached to the shell.
The pilot that was left attached got all of the plastic between the steps trimmed out, as well as all of the structure around the sides. A piece of plastic was then added to the bottom of the smokebox to prevent light from the headlight leaking out and illuminating the pilot truck. I need to paint the frame that is now exposed but I think it looks a lot better.
The second method was to cut the pilot from the shell and then attach it to the frame. To do this I sanded off all of the top step and then put new top steps on, attaching the backs of the steps to the frame. It's not the best looking way to do it, the pilot is farther forward than the other locomotive, but it does look better than the way it came from the factory.
The biggest problem with the second method is now I can't swap another shell onto the chassis unless I detach the pilot again. Another problem is the cylinders are not the right size or style because the chassis is of European design and was used for the K4 because it was close enough.
I wish I was good at 3D design, I'd come up with a better solution and make it in Shapeways. Both ways look better than the original at any rate. It should do until I can afford the Bachmann locomotives I guess.
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