Hello all. My latest project is a BN duel fuel SD40-2. I painted an athearn in this livery but didn't do any modifications to make it accurate to the prototype. This is my second attempt and have made the angled radiator cooling fans, replaced the brake wheel with a ratchet style brake, and have made the correct anti-climbers for the front and rear. This time before I paint, I want to ensure it is reasonably accurate. Any ideas, comments, or criticisms are welcomed. Thanks!
Looks pretty good so far. The flared radiators looks super clean with the putty job. How much detail are you planning on adding? The biggest thing you can do to improve the Blue Box models is fix the big gap in the pilot. This can be difficult to do, but I would experiment with filling in the rear gap and keeping the front one and hiding it with the snow plow. Leaving the front gap may give you enough room to angle the shell when installing it around the patched rear pilot. I'm assuming this is the version with the coupler boxes cast into the metal frame. You may even be able to design a removable plug to make taking the shell off easier. It looks like you already filled in the side mounting pins, so I think you know what you're doing.
Thanks for the response. Excellent point about the pilots. I usually do fill them in and completely slipped my mind with working on the other details! To your point, the front will be mostly obscured by the plow but i definitely need to work on the rear.
Work has gotten in the way of my hobbies! Just hit it with the last coat of primer before color. Primer always shows how bad (what I think is nice work) looks. When the primer is dry, I'll snap a couple pics before the cascade green. Thanks for your interest.
Thanks! I sprayed the green and started the black and white. Hoping to complete painting by end of this weekend. I had to order another set of decals since the ones i had were slightly damaged so it'll be a little while before she looks the part.
Slight setback. While looking at my pics to guide me through the paint scheme, I noticed the rear pilot does not have an anticlimber. Razor sawed it off, and need to rework it a bit.
I like the transition between the green and white sill stripe. The little diamond shape as the white goes up onto the cab is pretty cool. I had to go look at some photos online because I never noticed that before.
It's definitely a unique scheme that stands out well. The pictures don't really do it justice as far as accuracy of color. Once complete, I'll post some pics taken with a quality camera.
