Finished the base coat of paint on the Climax, and I got it running fairly smoothly! Sorry for the white balance issues, the green mat and workshop lighting just makes a mess of things! So I assembled the frame and the side rod assemblies and gave them a coat of paint using the airbrush while the motor was running. It's still the same black rattle can paint, I just happened to decant it into a small bottle to use through the airbrush. This way I had a lot more control over the spray and could use only light coats on the side rods. The picture looks actually darker and shinier than the real thing. Still, after weathering it will all get toned down quite a bit. I then added the trucks to the frame and gave it a try on a 36" pierce of flex track. The gear box is oiled so it's running quite well actually, no hesitations and runs quietly! I did also take a picture of the Climax with its body shell on the frame. It's not screwed down or anything, just for show. Unfortunately I fumbled the shell and it dropped to the workshop desk. No real damage, the fall was from very low (I forgot it wasn't screwed down!) but annoyingly some black paint chipped off the top of the stack (barely visible in the picture) and a tiny bit off the top front of the cab (other side from the picture). Urgh, I'll have to touch those up with a paint brush. Next up I'm going to paint the details on the body - graphite smokebox, brass bell and whistle, red trim on the windows, and number decals (this one will be #54). I also have some black sign making vinyl, I'll cut a rectangle and cover the motor with it to hide it better. Bonus, a video!
Forgot to mention - I used my little Arduino speedometer and clocked it's top speed at a blistering 15.5 mph! I don't think the video was doing top speed in reverse, but it doesn't get any more noisier than that!
Painted in the details! Red trim on the window, brass bell, whistle and pop valves, and the graphite smoke box, all with the paints you see in the background. Pretty much like the shay, I'm not happy with the brass paint, I'm just meh on that. Always feels like I have to add so may coats of paint to get the right coverage and then it looks lumpy. It looks fine so long as you don't stick your nose too close to the bell (the whistle and valves are better). Next up, number decals followed by a clear coat. I can think about weathering afterwards, too black right now, I want to at least get it dusted down like the Shay.
Looks great so far Stephane! Excellent work! If you hadn't mentioned it, I would not have even realized the bell was painted brass and not an actual brass detail part.
Just some quick photos of the current state, gave a coat of varnish yesterday and today assembled it with some silicone wires connected to the motor terminals. This afternoon I will be applying washes of dirt (airbrushed with motor running) and weathering powders before a final light airbrushed matt varnish. Then I can start on the headlights and DCC installation. I also ordered some tiny jewels for the class markers. I'm not sure what colours I'll use - probably just amber all around (though I ordered clear, amber and red).
It has certainly come a long ways and you have done a fantastic restoration and more. Bet it runs better than it did new. Sumner
Thank you! it's been a journey for sure! I don't know how it ran new, but I suspect that yes, it probably runs better with the can motor than the original open frame motor Okay, so brace yourselves, I weathered it First, this is basically the setup I used, a DIY spray booth, and I use temporary silicone wire to keep the wheels and side rods moving as I do the weathering. I did stick some masking tape underneath the trucks to try and protect the exposed gears as much as possible, and it looks to be a success. I used old screw bits to lift the model off the table. I can spin the lazy susan, but carefully. As for the first weathering pass, this is what I use... It's about the same formula I used on the Shay, 1/3 Vallejo Black Grey, 2/3 Burnt Umber. Then 1:6 paint to thinner mix. The thinner is Vallejo thinner and water. See it mixed up on the left. I strain it into the airbrush and go at it with the motor running... Here is is under the harsh LED lighting of the spray booth, I do a pass all over, and then a few more passes towards the bottom of the locomotive. Yeah, it dirts it right up, with a bit of a fading effect as it gets higher up. After I finished this, I let it air dry for an hour or so, before getting back to the next steps. First, with a paint brush and some alcohol, I carefully cleaned the bell and whistles, to restore some shine. Second, I dry brushed some Vallejo Steel colour here and there. I basically just did it to most edges - the running gear, steps, hand grabs, front and rear pilots. Next, I just used a bit of pan pastels to apply some more dirt here and there, nothing special. You might see the effects in the next pictures, it's rather subtle. Then finally, a matt varnish airbrushed over everything. Oh, and then I decided to try something new. I mixed black, burnt umber and gloss varnish and "stained" some near the fill cap. I ran the Climax upside down and gave all the wheels a real good clean, sheesh, the gunk that came off was epic Installed some couplers and removed the temporary motor leads. And now.... The pictures a bit harsh, possibly slightly over exposed, it looks bit darker in person. And I think it may be a bit "dirtier" than the Shay. My next step is to install headlights and the DCC decoder, afterwards, I photograph them side by side and you can let me know if I improved Still, I'm fairly happy, and I like the oil stains. I certainly drybrushed more steel than I did the Shay, but I like it. except maybe the front pilot, I went a bit hard there. (oh, and it still runs well, I didn't gunk up the gears!)
Glad you got it and are hopefully still happy after all the work that you have had to put into it. Was with me about 50 years moved to a lot of different places during that time in a box. I'll bet it was glad to get out of that box finally and put a new face on. I can't remember exactly when I bought it, the very late 60's or very early 70's. I think I paid $75 for it then. Really wanted to build a logging railroad. Wanted to build the one in California where they took log/lumber cars across a valley via a cable... .... but that never happened. Now I'll live a logging railroad through you. I am building a sawmill so ship the logs to me Sumner
I've come to realize that my favorite part of the hobby is working on locomotives, yes, still very much happy, more than I've been in n scale actually. I'm slowly planning my HO layout, and I'm hoping to start it this summer after some basement renovations. I don't know what I'll do about my n scale layout. It's not in great shape, mistakes were made. At least one turnout broke, the flex track is out of gauge at a few places (kinked?), causing derails, and the climb to the second level is too steep (5% in places ). I may just start it over with something much smaller, something like what BNSF Fan has, I like that layout. Keep diesels in n scale and steam in HO! That logging layout in California is really cool, someone must have modeled that, it's too cool not to have done so!
To look at this picture and see where you are now is truly impressive. Simply a fantastic job sir. Looking forward to seeing it together with the Shay. That should be a marvelous pairing. And thank you for the kind thoughts about my small empire .
Yes, someone did model it and did a good job. I just can't find the link at the moment. If I do I will post it. Sumner
Did the headlights today! At the end of last year, in preparation for this, I had ordered some acrylic rods off Amazon - inexpensive, and now I have a lifetime supply. However, they are not actually the right size for the Climax. So I bought the size closest to the opening of the headlight enclosure, with the idea that I would trim it down. On the Shay I did this differently where I cut round disks out of plastic sheets. On the Climax, I don't have the lip inside the headlight enclosure for only a disk, so I needed a cylinder. I just stuck a short piece of acrylic rod in the drill, and sanded it down until it fit snug inside the headlight. For the final length, I used a razor saw and while spinning the drill, I cut a piece off. The little bit you see sanded up above was more than enough for the two headlights! Here above you see how I prepare the LEDs. I always solder my own wires to the LEDs, and the easiest way to do so is to stick them down to some masking tape. It also helps that I can use my tiniest soldering iron tip. Usually I would use the NMRA colors for the wires, but part of the front headlight wires will be visible, so I used black and mark the negative with a silver sharpie (you can barely see the silver at the end of the leads). An old cell is 3V, so I can test the LED without fear of burning it out if I reverse the polarity. We can also see the completed lens cylinder. To prevent shorts and to make the wire/led assembly stronger, I like to dab some liquid electrical tape over the contacts. Again, a lifetime supply, or for however long it takes before the contents of that bottle solidify! I CA'd the LED to the back of the lens cylinder, and then dabbed on some liquid tape for good measure. That completes the assembly, and just need to stick them into the headlamp enclosures... For the rear light I did use the proper NMRA colours, those wires will never be seen outside the shell. Both sets of wires are much longer than needed, but they will be trimmed later. I did too good a job at wet sanding the face of the lens, both front and back, and the lense is a little clearer than I would have liked. I make stick a tiny bit of 3000 grit sandpaper to a toothpick and carefully frost them a bit. Either that or spray a bit of matt varnish on them.
Amazing! I love your acrylic rod idea. They would make great light pipes too. Kudos on the tiny soldering job. Now you're getting into my wheelhouse! Part of my work duties is the occasional surface mount component soldering. Your Climax is outright awesome.
It's finished* !! *minus the jewel class lights, those are still in the mail I spent the entire weekend installing DCC sound into the beast. Everything had to fit into the bunker - speaker, decoder and stay alive. The big problem is that I blew the audio output of the first ESU LokSound Nano I installed into the bunker. Turns out I thought the motor was isolated from the frame, but wow, was it not. I powered up the engine on the LokProgrammer and the sound immediately started glitching, with hisses, static, and finally a looong never ending beep. The engine wouldn't respond to forward/backwards, and the front headlight was on. Some debugging with the multimeter found that that yep, the motor wasn't isolated. So if you go back and see how I mounted the motor, you'd see it in on a brass plate. I used my brass plate as a template and made one out of styrene. With the new motor mounting situation, the engine could move forward, backwards, etc. But the sound was horrible, glitching, staticky, and just wrong. I removed the speaker, and tried a random bare speaker (no enclosure), same thing. I took off the shrink wrap off the decoder, and hooked the E24 mount right up to the ESU decoder tester, leaving the wiring harness in the loco. Same thing using the onboard speaker for the decoder tester. Lucky I have other Nanos new in box (all slated for n-scale locos, but oh well ) - I just hooked a new Nano on the decoder tester, uploaded the ESU sound file/programming, and voila! New one worked fine. The busted decoder is going to ESU for warranty replacement. Live and learn, betcha I won't make that mistake again As for the Stay Alive, I stuffed a Large Zen Stay-Alive (from DCC Concepts) into the Climax, and ooooh boy does it need it! The Zen stay alive are three wired, and have board a board and the capacitor pack to fit in the loco. In my case... The ESU speaker (a double size ESU 50321) fits in the rear of the bunker behind the motor. The ESU nano decoder is on the roof of the oil bunker, most of the wiring is stuffed behind it (under the headlight) The Zen stay alive board is on the engineer side of the bunker. The Zen stay alive capacity pack (four capacitors) is in the cab, right behind the 54. It's sites just below the window, and just clears the flywheel. Sorry no pictures, it was a bit frustrating, and once I closed up everything as cleanly as I could I couldn't bring myself to open it up for photos. plus, it's a bit messy spaghetti of wires I did disassemble the trucks and cleaned them real good, but still, I can see the lights flicker a bit as it runs down the piece of flex track I was using for testing. And the flex track is clean! The thing is, the Climax only picks up power from four wheels - track left is from the rear two wheels, and track right is from the front two wheels. Still, the stay-alive is doing work! After I start it up, just wait 30 seconds to charge the power pack, and then start down the track. It can crawl forward without dying (but the light does flicker, I noticed that when using the capacitors, the light dims just a tiny bit). It's funny to turn off track power and see the Climax continue for a few seconds down the track. I have not finished programming the decoder, so no video yet. But soon as I get it setup the way I like, with the correct cuff rate etc, I'll make a good video and post it.
Here's a comparison with the Shay... I was definitely heavier on the application of dirt to the Climax. But that's okay, it's just dirtier. And shamelessly, here's an upcoming project..... I have a Shay, I have a Climax. How could I not buy a Heisler?
