I have gotten 3 new UP sd90s. Two without "We will Deliver" and one with. I got the two without at a different store from the one with. What I have noticed is that the raised walk area behind the cab on the conductor's side of the engine has lighter paint than the rest of the yellow areas on the engine. Since I got these engines at two different stores in two different states I was thinking its more than a coincidence. Has anyone else noticed this? Is this how the protoype is or is it a defect in the painting process? Mark
Hi Mark, glad to have you on board! Yes, I also noticed this. Not sure if you do any custom painting but I do LOTS, and think of painting this engine like your painting the sides of a box one at a time, then putting all the peices together to see if they match. Most likely you will have at least one side that is a little darker than the rest, one a little lighter, the same thing applies here. Another thing is the UP shells were cast in yellow plastic, but I think this part of the unit which is attached to the handrail section was cast in a gray plastic. Yellow on yellow will stand out a lot more than yellow on gray. Is this a big deal, nah, I don't think so, and I'm sure most of the people that have these units didn't notice untill something was said. Another thing I want to point out on the Conrail and UP units is the line (red in UP's case, white in Conrails) that runs along the sill. If you look closely down the unit's sill from either the front or back, you will notice that the line drops down a bit under the cab. This IS prototypical, and I was surprised that Kato recognized it. Well, I'm done blabbeling for the night!
Mark Just had a brief glance of these units at our local hobby shop this week and cannot tell for sure.... There is a great UP SD90 photo roster page here http://www.widowcreek.com/wcrr/unionpacific/locomotives/SD90AC/roster.cfm Click on the dark red numbers on the roster to bring up a photo of that unit. With all the different surfaces on the SD90 it is possible that the paint was not applied evenly. It also depends whether Kato painted the yellow directly on the light gray shell or whether the painted the shell all gray first and then applied the yellow over the gray. Yellow is a notoriously bad color to apply. The newer paint pigments are not as opaque as they once were. eNjoy Don B
Ive found that floquil railbox yellow is a pretty close match for Kato's up aromor yellow. I like the fact that they dont match, giving an aged or sun oxidized look.
