The Freelanced Blackwolf Mountain Line (Equipment/Layout Progress)

DragonFyreGT Apr 10, 2017

  1. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    Sneak peak of the new Blackwolf Blue (Mr Hobby SG13 MS Zeta Blue/EUG MS Blue) and this is only after 3 coats of paint. I have at least 2 more to go based on what I did with my gundam model. I will say this, being ble to step outside of railroad paint has really opened up my color palettes. I know I Hve gotten some dislike for this but I just ignore those haters. This is a fictional scheme nd I wnated a blue that really stood out to my liking. ANywys, enjoy the sneak peak:
    [​IMG]

    Now as long as the rattle cans are out, I decided to take this oppourtunity to repaint my 9-44CW CHassis fuel tank area from bnsf silver to black. I used Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black spray. This black wil also be the black in my Blackwolf Mountain paint scheme. I am very happy with the results. Both blue/black paints are lacquer based because they have a nice smooth sheen and they do not get bled into by acrylic paint as I will be hand painting the white seperation stripes. Once again proving that rattle can painting is a viable option as long as you take your time like you do with airbrushing. ANywaays here's the chassis
    [​IMG]

    Now the fuel tank skirts are glued and installed. They have to be filed down now and than I can paint them as soon as my paint sticks show up. THey are in the country finally so I am just waiting for them to show up. I did run into one problem with this kit. Now before i Begin, this is not a slam against Details West. I love that company, they make amazing parts and i alredy emailed them over this issue. And that issue is both pcks were missing parts for the fuel level gauges that make installation a bit.....tricky. Even if I don't get the repacement parts, I'll fabricate somethin on my own most likely. Which now brings me to the deskirting. I am going to do the deskirting myself but definately after the blue paint is finished and before I start applying the black. So far thins are going to plan here.

    Next month I am bringing in the fuel filler gauges and the air tanks for my Dash 9 unit so I can paint the locomotives removable side covers. I am also going to follow a guide I Found on youtube about using themetal insert side frames on athearn locomotives to wire truck pick up like modern locmotives are set up and than add a motor repower kit from PPW/A-Line going from Hex drive to Can motor.f Now this limited edition dash 9 has plastic coating on the ends where the couplers go so that when a kadee is hooked up it won't short anything out and lso by doing the repower trick, the cchassis never needs to be used to ground and a proper standard esu loksound decoder can be added in. I am also going to go with athearns palstic handrails because i can get them prepainted. I know replacing metal with craptastic plastic, but I'll make it look good

    Well that's all I got for now. I'll post the finished photos of the blue when it's done and the fuel tanks when the paint sticks show up and i can get that done. So until next time.

    -Nate aka Snowball aka DragonFyreGT
    Blackwolf Mountain & Ash Valley Garden Railroad Owner/Operator
     
    Kurt Moose and BoxcabE50 like this.
  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,733
    653
    Congratulations on going your own way!
     
  3. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    Never EVER use Krylon Shortcuts on HO Scale models. exeperience they eeaty up and destroy shells. I tried to use their blue thinking it would be a great money saver as I've never had an issue using Rustoleum (I use their 22x Primer now and it's great for the price);. Well Sad to say both shells could NOT be salvaged. I managed to save the numberboards, the pilowt plow and the rear doors/diaphgragms but the base of the shells are gone. I am at a crossroads here. Do I attempt to get into bid wars for two more stewwart shells or go down another path with results that might be a bit easier on me.

    Well I've been mulling it over and I've made my decision. Both locomotives chassis are salvageable. And there's only one non Stewart Shell that will fit that I am aware of and that's the old Highliner Kits. I'll be picking up the shells that look like the F7B Phase 2 before they had their pointed ends cut flat. Full Dynamic Brake grid, 48":, Phase II to F9 Side Grills, so basically what these shells looked like just more in line with what I had wanted to do. I know their pricey and IT's going to cost me around 150 bucks just to find a decent kit with everything there. But I'm this far down the rabbit hole, I guess they wouldn't be premium units I built by hand if I didn't invest the time and effort into them. There's a lot of mistakes and fauxpas along the way here, but I know I'm not the only one who has had to learn from mistakes like these with their first attempts. Everyone starts somewhere so lets try this again. Now we've got a set of F7Au and F7Bu's for my Tier 4 complience upgrades. Still with the 567D3 prime mover upgrade but at least this time I don't have to worry about drilling and installing canon fans since I know the highliners have side grills and fans on the foof, a little less work for me to do this time around.

    Also another blue candidate has been found and will be picked up soon, and that's Tamiya's Mica Blue. I saw one video of it being spratyed on a Lancer Evo X Model white basecoat and it looked fantastic, almost the right shade I need. Here's hoping it works. It's funny I remember being told by someone I knew at the local swap meet when he was still alive who said, "Half the fun of the hobby is failing, because you know where it went wrong and how to work around it." I never took much stock in that until now. Oh well. Soon as the right shell kit shows up I'll have photos and what not, might be a month, I don't know at the moment, we'll see.

    Til than.
    --Nate aka Snowball aka DragonFyreTGT
    -Blackwolf Mountasin & Ash Valley Garden Railroad Owner;/Operator
     
  4. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    Status Update. I now I have been gone for a while but I'll spare you the details. I moved. Again. To a shoebox of a studio apartment which means the HO Scale layout is going to temporarily be cut down from Pine Ridge, WI to Duluth MN it's a good starting point and I may end up doing Woodland scenics module kits as I can. I don't forsee moving for a while. But a lot of my tools got lost or stolen. So right now I'm working on getting the necessities I need and the tools and euqipment.

    So lets talk the stars of the show. I will be pullling down any photos of the F-Units for a reason. We're rebooting. The chassis are going to stay the same but I am getting my hands on the F7A&B Highliner shells. I always wanted that icnoic F7 look with the outter cheveron on the shell. The Rapido winterization hatches survived as did the chassis but the stewart shells didn't make it. but that's okay as the highliners were originally designed for these chassis. I will have to order all my detail parts again, so be it. But this time around things should move a bit faster. I'm also replacing paint too. And since i planned on using Trix's longest and widest turning curves in the c-track line, all my track si going trix c-trax, but that means my temporary floor layout will take a bit, as there is only one webstore that has the track for cheap and ebay is outside the country with too pricey shipping.. The rolling stock did make it and I sold off some of it to replace iwth others soon.

    The blue paint is stil lescaping me here, but I am going to try the Mica Blue from tamiya on the spare parts of the highliners i don't use. Hopefulyl this will aly well on the bare white plastic it's molded in. I also have to get the power trucks and what not for the B units finally motor assembly, and than I can start on frame details, modificatiosn and hard wiring the ESU Loksound decoder in. ALso I am hoping that by starting bare I won't have to deal with the use of long and medium shank kadees. Upside is that the see through fan blade system the highliners had makes it easy to avoid the high cost of the Cannon and Co fans and I can reorder my juneco number boards and get them ready for lighting. I might seek out some talented modelers for certain things and paint/decal work on trainboard in the future.

    A Fresh Start sort of. 4226 and 4227 are just getting their facelifts, still the same old girls at the heart of their motors.4349 WIll start getting her parts soon but the white face blue bird work tests turned out okay, just need to touch it up. But now I won't have to worry about dealing with feeding a hosue full of people, just me so that frees up my budget for my hobby and that i'm okay with. This hobby is therapy for me, don't know why maybe it's because I have this detailed obsession of what I want to see and I can get it all done.

    Not to scale jump, but my g-scale mostly made it over minus my 3022 custom. so the survivor of the RLD hobbies run is going to be the lead girl and my old u25B and stainz set survived. But that's g-scale just felt it was easier to throw this int oone post. So keep your eyes peeled, next month we'll get things started.

    -DragonFyreGT aka a Snowball aka Nate
    Blackwolf Mountain & Ash Valley Railroad Owner/Operator
     
  5. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,733
    653
    Ouch. Sounds like you've been through some deep mud. :( :( :(
     
  6. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    Micro Update Time. Okay, so when your setting up shop in a new place on a limited budget you have to go month by month and the first few months we know are always rough. I picked up a slow cooker. Why mention this on a model train site? Because it cuts my food costs in half which frees up my spending money for my hobby. So as mentioned last month 4226/4227 are getting face lifts. Well 4227 is first.

    We all know that Highliners makes the shells for all Genesis F-Units. I just purchased after winning on eBay a Sooline F7B Late Phase Shell wit hfactory backup light housing/wiring. This gives me an advantage. The winterization and spark arrestors get pulledd off and wil lget my CN Long time and standard F-Unit exhaust stack along with cooling coils and the normal parts I need. It already has lift rings so that's a plus. I need to pop the non dynmic brake panel out which being that this is Highliner shell should i ntheory pop out. If not, tape drill and install cannon and company. It has all cut levers, MU and Trainline hoses. And it will fit my stewart chassis. The est part is it's deskirted. So if i have to remount the fuel panel tab to fit the extended fuel cells I can. This also means we're back to close coupling with Kadee #158's.

    A lot of people say if you don't build it yourself from scratch it doesn't count. I can't do everything and I knwo that. I'm skipping steps by using a shell that makes it easy to detail and repaint a couple of parts plus the shell. I see no shame in this. It's stil la highliner shell And the A-Unit will be a ground up kit anyways. Fact is either way you look at it, I'm getting the shells I want. Photo's to come on the 11th when the shell shows up. Gives me something to do while riding out winter.

    So until the shell shows up....
    =DragonFyreGT aka Snowball aka Nate
    Blackwolf Mountain/Ash Valley Railroad Owner/Operator
     
    Joe Lovett likes this.
  7. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

    1,927
    2,022
    44
    Pics or it didn't happen Nate aka dragonfyregt aka snowball lol.

    Should be a good restart for you.
     
  8. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    Omg that so made my day Lol Yes, Yes it will.
     
  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,733
    653
    Yup. Life for me is good now, much better than it had been in many loooong years! Hoping the same for you.
     
  10. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    Oh yes. Here we go. If it's not one thing it's another. The shell is in and it's beautiful. It is missing the porthole side glass but being that highliners makes these for athearn, I can easily get those parts no problem. I took the rear fan caps and grills off since my CN Large type winterization hatch will cover them with my brass screens in it. The stock winterization hatch was removed as was the spark arrestors. I will be ordering exhaust stacks and port hole glass next month from Highliner's.

    Now to the big issue. Chassis fitment. I can't confirm it snice there's 2 red tabs at the back of the shell that block it from sitting. Being that this shell cost me over 40 dollars, I am not prying that off with my utility knife. I ordered a hobby knife set so I should be able to get a chisel blade in to carefully pull it off for test fit. But that's where the bad news ends, there's more good news.
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]

    I had enough left over on my spending money to continue the repowering of the chassis. I ordered a pair of Kato/Stewart Blomberg Type B F-Unit motor blocks with their wiring (I'll have to strip the analog connectors off to expose the wires, no biggie). I also ordered a set of Atlas Motor Screws hoping they will fit the chassis. Sadly the UV Joints to hook the trucks to my motor got bought out from under me so I'm back to watching. But the next big project will be to pick up an ESU LokSound preprogrammed for me next year around march (happy early birthday to me) so I can solder in the B-Unit and give everything a proper break in run. Along with a KA-2 since i don't intend to take that decoder off unless i have someone do the intricate wiring for me, and that's only for the A-Unit. The Booster will also need a speaker but I have the baffle plans from sierra so I an construct my own.

    But now that the trucks will be coming in next week, I can get to work detailing them. Rear snubber shocks and I'm going with the GE type purely because they are already assembled vs the EMD ones and I think only Detail Associates makes them. I also need a set of speed recorders as I've seen both a and b untis with them in prototype photos, the Thoroughbred's I think. if I can find heat shrink tubing small enough, I'll get a set of red ones and add a ruberized wire texture to the recorders. Otherwise i'll just paint it red.

    All I got til the new parts come in.

    -DragonFyreGt aka Snowball aka Nate
    Blackwolf Mountain & Ash Valley Railroad Owner/Operator
     
    Hardcoaler likes this.
  11. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

    1,927
    2,022
    44
    Highliners also sells the glass directly.

    Just bought some stuff from them and now will be switching scale back to N.

    So will be selling and trading off my Ho.

    They carry the glass trees.

    Unit looks great be interesting to see it thru to fruitation
     
  12. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    The problem is going to be locking it to the chassis fter the modification work. If I cn get some stewart Porthole glass to fit, I can cut and glue it in and than the portholes will lock the shell in place s if it was a Stewart shell. And I priced a highliners kit part by part, cheaper to buy my A-Unit. Because the A-Unit has a lot more work to do, it's easier to buy a blank canvas vs the B-Unit where I don't have much work to do. Upside is I can drop my paint on it since I use laquer basted tamiya spray which adheres on all paint types. Another epic win as soon as I use my spare parts to test the blue.
     
  13. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    And the powered b-unit chassis is almost there. So this was hit and miss. I took a chance on some atlas chassis screws for the motor. I figured it would work as all motors mount the same more or less. Well it didn't. Sort of. Their too long and I refuse to screw any tighter. I'm afraid of snapping the motors cradle mounts. So as it stands I need the Universal Joints to connect the trucks to the motor and the proper Stewart/Kato screws and that means a sit and wait game with ebay. Once that is done i Have to cut the slide connectors, strip the wires and be rready to solder in an ESU Loksound 4.0 (I really don't feel like paying an extra hundo for the 5.0 even though they are nice). Than it's built a custom speaker mount/baffle (the A Unit has a built up wall in the back, the B does not), Start work on the truck details (Brake cylinders in ust need to add the speed recorder cable and the rear shocks), Kadee Close coupling brackets (B-Unit needs a replacement and the A-Unit didn't get one in the front), and some 158 Kadee's. I've found you don't need the stewart assembly kit for the Kadee's other than the brackets. The 158 boxes fit inside the bracket mount pretty snug.
    [​IMG]

    Also that back bar inside the shell is giving my my hobby knife a fight. Going to try a hobby hacksaw style blade. And since it's easy to replace the Dash-9's Cab with one from a resin maker, the dash-9 cab will be the test for my Tamiya Mica Blue spray. if this works, I can go ahead and finish painting that shell and start detailing it. Been told that the A-Line/PPW Mashimoto motor will mate up with the Kato Dash 9 Trucks on an Athearn blue box frame. I've seen it on youtube but not word yet from the uploader. Fingers crossed. Otherwise I know how to use the metal pieces on the stock trucks to wire them up so the chasis won't be used to ground anymore. Looks like that'll be it til next Friday. The brackets and Kadee's are coming, ad the paint, we'll see because Walthers dropped a sale on their scenemaster containers and since I have to load out my 3 intermodal cars, I might do that.

    -DragonFyreGT aka Snowball aka Nate
    Blackwolf Mountain/Ash Valley Railroad Owner/Operator
     
    BoxcabE50 likes this.
  14. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,733
    653
    Wow. Sounds like a really major battle. :eek:
     
  15. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    When it rains it pours. The inner tabs of 4227's shell are finay off and the rear part of the shell fits great the front part.... not so much. Stewart Chassis have a angled front that the coupler pocket clips into and also designates the front of the shell/locomotive. I can see that the way the door is molded in, it won't fit with the coupler pocket clip in place. I will have to file it down with a metal file and glue the coupler pocket to the chassis. My big question is does anyone know some super strong plastic to diecast adhesive that won't break and can hold up to pulling, although I might switch the chassis around so that the "front" of the chassis is the rear of the shell so that when the motors are running, the B-Unit will be pushing on that end reducing strain on the glued coupler pocket.

    Oh well, other minor update, my Custom painted BNSF GP35 BN Executive locomotive i got years ago has FINALLY got her plow on the front. I just need to tip the modled grabs white (it was from an old life-like proto1000 GP15 kit) and get her back footboard part installed. I'm debating on if I want to add cannon fans or not. Her matching custom GP60B in BN Executive (That'll make santa fe fans start pooping bricks) has them. Dunno yet. Next task however is going to be cutting the molded air tanks off and getting a kit fitted to the bluebox frame. I'm going to attempt to get a set of Kato GP35 trucks and attempt to mate them up to a Mashimoto PPW Repower can motor kit. I have no idea what I'm doing with the 60B as it realyl doesn't sit or fit on it's chassis very well. oh well. Til the next round of parts show up.

    =DragonFyreGT aka Snowball aka Nate
    Blackwolf Mountain/Ash Valley Railroad Owner/Operator
     
  16. Mike C

    Mike C TrainBoard Member

    1,833
    468
    42
    J.B.Weld is great , get the J B Quick for a fast bond .
     
  17. DragonFyreGT

    DragonFyreGT TrainBoard Member

    991
    60
    22
    I've been Furnishing my new place, so that's the absense, as for the outbreak in IL I'm fine. most people in my county are fine and due to broken car (talon's up on wheel blocks in her storge shed) and my semi okay vision preventing me from doing much driving, been biking a lot and remembering how much I Miss the trails. But bck on track *rimshot*

    I've been waiting and watching for parts as I need them, mostly work on my poweredchassis. I have the Universal joints, they are in and hooked up, I will post the photos tomorrow, I just got the EMD Snubber shocks so I could burn my ebay bucks certificate and I'll get them installed once I get some toothpicks to do glue application. Right now I'm focused on the power trucks and their details, the chassis weight that needs to be shaved down will get done for the battery box kit, And in regards to my "stimulus package" I don't need it as I can work my budget just fine, but I'll be happy to apply it to my hobby. Once all parts and shells are together I'll be seeking out someone on trainboard for detail install/paint assistance because of my vision.

    So originalyl yes I was going to do Highliners A Unit but I figured if I could find an A-Unit Genesis shell, button top fans, non dynamic brakes I can file down the F7 chevron over the walkway door, gut the pilot off and install the freight pilot kit and deskirt to match the Soo Line B Unit shell I Have. Not exactly the original plan, but being that these girls pull only passenger or a 26 car freight train, I don't think they'd need the dynamic brakes so that detai lcan go, plus if you find a Genesis shell with lighting preinstalled, it makes it easier to add what I need and and change out the nose/door lights to the dual setup as well as get the shell scale number boards to light them. Move over Mr Shron, I can detail my untis too......as long as it fits 1980s on the kingston sub. (See Rapido's youtube Q&A for that joke).

    Anyways. We're down to a floor layout atm but I will have the track plan running behind the bed and over the small closet of an apartment, works for me.
     

Share This Page