My holiday project. I got tired of waiting for Kato to do the SD75M in Warbonnet, so I did one myself. I had to add the 'bulge' on the right side of the long hood (just forward of the 'Santa Fe' logo) that differentiated the 75M's from the 70M's. I forgot how much fun the Warbonnet is to paint & decal . Since I model spring/summer of '95, this unit isn't going to have any weathering. The 75M's were delivered in April/May of 95, and were clean and shiny, the pride of the ATSF!
Really nice, Dave! It never ceases to amaze me the amount of talent people on this forum have. It gives me something to strive for.
Dave, Very nice paint job! How did you do the number boards? They look too good for individual decals. Craig
:thumbs_down::thumbs_down::thumbs_down: Just kidding! I'll join the chorus: great looking paint job! Could you comment on how you handled some of the highlights, like the grabirons and the gasket around the rear numberboards? It's exceptionally neat. Thanks, Gary
Very nice job on that. I've got a question on the bridge tho. Is that ME bridge track? Whatever it is that scene looks very well done.
Dave, Excellent!!!! Did the clear work out to your liking? It looks good from here. The sheen on the silver looks right in the photo.
Thanks guys. I used parts of 3 different sets of Microscale decals - - GP60M set for most of the Santa Fe specific stuff - the 'Santa Fe' and cigar band logo, road numbers, number boards, grab-irons (the decal set gives you little yellow strips - you have to cut them down a little as they are a bit too long) - Dash 8 set for the Warbonnet curve stripes. The GP60M Warbonnet curves are different radii unique to just the GP60M's. Also, the lettering of the "Santa Fe" was different on the EMD units than the GE units. The EMD's had slightly different 'a's and 'e's - they must have used a different template at EMD than at GE during construction. It's slight, but noticable to my eye and one of the details that makes the SD75M look cool. - GE/EMD loco detail sheet for warning labels and the number board gaskets on the rear re. the number boards, I'm old school, they are individual numbers cut from the decal sheet. I maneuver them into position using a toothpick. I used to be able to do it w/o glasses, but I need to use reading glasses now (one of the hazards of turning 45 - watch out you young guys out there ...) The track on the bridge is just plain ol' Atlas code 80, like the rest of the layout. If I were to do it again, I'd use the ME bridge track - it looks really nice. But I've got the track down and bullet proofed now and w/ ballast it looks ok. Maybe my next layout.... Tony's asking me about the finish I used on the model. I sprayed the base colors w/ Polly Scale (Santa Fe Red and Flat Aluminum) and they went down really smoothly (gotta love my new airbrush ...) but rather flat. Since I wanted the model to have the 'shiny new locomotive' look I was debating how to gloss it up some - but not too shiny & run the risk of having it look 'toy-like'. I initially bought a can of Testors gloss, but after experimenting w/ it thought it might go on splotchy or too heavy since I couldn't control the rate coming out of the can, so I ended up going w/ Polly Scale gloss w/ the airbrush. Most everything else I've painted I just weathered/dullcoated, which is a lot more forgiving than gloss. I'm really pleased w/ how the Polly gloss went on. And yeah, I've got some Athearn units, but when Kato released the SP SD70M's I got a few of them and love them, and have been wanting a 75M w/ bright headlights & working ditchlights that I can run on the point of a train. I probably could have gone the route that Tony's taking and wired up some ditchlights to the Athearn unit, but I think this was easier!
