Not being an educated rivet counter on GP60M/Bs, I think they look great. Minus a minor fuel tank assembly glitch, they seem to have been delivered as failthful to the prototype as possible. WTG, FVM! My layout is based in an era in which these won't fit, but I do have FVM rolling stock. They are very, very nice!
I mentioned this to Matt at the 2011 NTS in Sacramento. It would make sense that he will do them in the future. +4 SP/SSW for me when they happen!
Okay, I finally got to finish the project of moving the fuel tank! NOTE: Removing the plastic spacer with a knife was not particularly fun or easy. While I'm happy with the result, and of course will now have to make my other GP60M a match, I would not recommend this project if you are a beginner with a chisel blade. Moving on... First a couple pictures of the fuel tank assembly. After comparing to some prototype pictures, I decided that moving the compressor tank to the foward pin holes on the right (engineer's) side was 'close enough', but that on the left side, it was very noticeable that the rear of the compressor tank and fuel tank should line up. So I drilled some new holes even farther forward on the fuel tank. (A #75 drill worked fine, although I reamed the holes a bit.) I also decided to lightly trim some of the piping on the right side to let it sit up better against the undersill. (This part is all one piece with the right side compressor tank, BTW. Here's a shot of all the tanks reassembled. Also, I stuck some tacky putty in the back to replace the spacer that was there before, although to reiterate, the tank holds firmly enough to the mech that this isn't really necessary. This would be a good place to add a bit of weight if you have something suitable, which right now didn't bother with. And, FINALLY, before and after shots. The left side is the more noticeable difference. And for reference, the prototype. And now the right side... ...and prototype. Note the fuel cap now lines up with the printing that says 'FUEL'! I should add... In my opinion the models are still awesome without doing this 'fix'. But if this was the only thing holding you back from buying, well... it shouldn't.
Jagged Ben, thx for the excellent pics showing the corrections - saves all of the rest of us a lot of time! And agreed, overall the FVM GP60Ms and GP60Bs are stunning.
Thanks! I first applied several applications of a thin "wash" of Polly Scale water-based "Engine Black" with just a tiny bit of "Grimy Black" mixed in, allowing each application to dry with the loco laying on its side until the desired darkness is achieved. This step darkens the deepest recesses of the grille, which by itself looks pretty good and would work for a newer paint job as the raised areas remain mostly or completely silver (if the wash was thinned with water properly). However, I like an even darker, more exhaust-stained look so I went over the grilles after everything was dry with Bragdon "Soot" colored powder applied with a dry paint brush. This darkens down the raised areas but there is still some subtle contrast between the raised and recessed areas creating a sense of depth.
Fuel tank looks great! Ditto on the grills! So, the next project for someone to solve is how to get the ditchlights to light up brighter. Does anyone have any ideas?
The first thing I did in the GEVOs was to replace the yellowish LEDs with white ones. Not an issue with the GP60s. On the GEVOs the light bar for the ditchlights was separate from the light bar for the headlights and the LED was shining into the headlight light bar but the ditchlight light bar was not making contact with the other light bar. The result: dim ditchlights. The fix was: 1. Use some super glue to bond the ditchlight light bar to the headlight light bar. 2. Bend the LED downward a bit to shine into both. Not my innovation. I credit Daryl Kruse who posted it on his blog.
I tried gluing the two light bars together (they were separated quite a bit) but this did not seem to change anything. It also appears that the LED cannot be bent as the leads are too short from the board. Not sure if the LED is lined up with the bar ends properly or not, although it looks like it could possibly be missing them low but I can't tell for sure. I intend to set up an LED that I can hold by hand and move around inside the shell to see if things get any brighter, but have not done this yet. I'm a little concerned about the amount of light that shines through the front walkway, which makes me think the light is entering the light bar fine but is dissipating at a bend under there. In the meantime, my kitbashed GP60M is staying on point as the lights are bright, although I positioned the ditchlights under the anticlimber to make running the fiber optics easier.
Heads up on the detail parts install in particular the sunshades. Install them last as these are very soft and the tabs will bend and break off VERY easily.
I tried bending down the LED. Didn't make any noticeable difference. I'll take a look at adjusting the position of the light bar.
Well, I finally got decoders for my units and added one to one of my GP60Ms tonight. After a drop of lube to the gearing the engine ran fine on DC and the same on DCC. Unfortunately, not only do I have virtually non-existent ditch lights my numberboards and ditchlights on the conductor's side are bright while those on teh engineer's side are about 5X dimmer. As noted above, the LED has little ability to bend (at least mine). This means I am probably looking at replacing the LED with a new one with longer leads and then doing some work on the light tubes to get things roughly equal left to right and top to bottom. I had hoped my LED replacements had ended with the ES44's... Anyone else have handrails that pop loose if you look at them? Once I get the lighting worked out, I'll have to glue them in but this is more work than I wanted/expected with these. I have three FVM SD70ACe's on order (and own and run 9 FVM GEVOs (and 6 Kato SD70ACe's)). I went with the FVM for the painted steps, endrails, warning labels, detail parts, and rear ditchlights. I find myself, at the end of the night, re-thinking the value of rear ditchlights that might require work to get to light up, etc. I love the GP60s and have supported FVM diesels from the get go but I am a bit irked tonight and expected a bit better.
FVM improves with each release. At least with this batch we have a nice white headlight. The ditchlights are a problem. Doing the Daryl Kruse fix of gluing the two light tubes together is not much of a help, at least with mine. Perhaps trimming the light tubes back and using a larger LED with longer leads for positioning would work. I am a fan of separate LED ditchlights - no light tube can look THAT good! But the locos are sweet runners. The mechanism has been kept simple and is relatively bullet proof. The speed is much more realistic than the Kato rocket sleds. The shells are beautifully executed and the extra details are frosting on the cake. In all likelihood I will be replacing my Katos as FVM broadens their line and time passes.
Jim, I have some white LEDs around from the FVM re-dos. I think you're right that I will need to some light tube surgery to see what can be done for those ditchlights. But, hey, surgery has always been a part of N scale. ...and I remember the dark ages in N...
I'm overall happy with the 2 I got, they run super smooth out of the box, better than Atlas but not quite as good as Kato. Detailing is great, but to me the red isn't as "red" as I think it should be, judging by pictures online. A shame they don't match the same red as the Atlas B40's. Weathering should help out some though. JB, I was just jumping on the computer to see if anyone had done this yet. Good job on the write up! The difference is phenomenal! On a side note, the spacer in my fuel tank popped right out with very little pressure from a small flat blade screw driver. :/ -Mike
Thanks! Well, I suppose it stands to reason that if they were glued in by hand then some might have been glued more securely than others. Maybe my second one will be eaiser...
And it was! Popped out just like yours, although I had to score the glue with a knife first. Wow. Moving the fuel tank on my first one took an hour of painstaking work. Moving the second one took about 20 minutes total, half of which was just gathering the tools.
I received mine yesterday and not really happy with them. Parts popped out even before I could give them a track run. The ditch lights are non-existent and the cab rear lights on both are brighter than the headlights. For the price paid, I am sure FVM could have done better.
