Oh yeah,thats lookin great!Hard to find these bells now..... Ok,2 number boards comin up. 121-2198_IMG - RailImages.com 121-2196_IMG - RailImages.com 118-1878_IMG - RailImages.com
Awesome! I have a bell or 2 spare from this project--are you interested in any spares? BTW, 5508 and 5516 were spied on their first revenue trip west... If I can talk that railfan into providing some pics..... I heard there were on a Nixon CSDPU empty coal train....
NICE JOB, HEMI. those 50 are a great set. i've got the black coat of paint on mine (Z scale) and hope to have the yellow on and ready for decals by next week. i'll post when it's done. dave f.
David, I dunno about you, but I would think that the black would make the Aspen Gold much darker if applied after the black. I apply the Gold first, and then mask for black. Thanks for the kind compliments--the trailing engine is an Atlas unit factory-painted, with added bell and nose lite. The mask lines are very crisp; I was surprised how nice they turned out.
Thanks, Jerry--I need to get some scenery done... Tired of bare pink foam scenery... BUT, I wanna get my F45's finished first. Decisions, decisions.....
My suggestions: Clean up flash as best possible first Drill all holes for details (grabs, stirrups, handrail ends, etc) Shave grabs and drill for wire grabs before doing any more assembly The stirrups are set too close to the truck sideframes for tight curves--offset-bending the stirrup mounting tabs (the ones you drilled holes in the base of the shell for) sets the stirrups closer to the flush face of the shell Paint as many detail parts separately as possible (namely grabs, fan grilles, handrails), if they won't be installed before painting The dynamic brake and radiator grilles are etched flat, and have faint photo-etch crease lines on which to bend the part. Use a flat plate of glass and a straightedge like a steel rule to bend these. Bend gently, and in small increments. Test fit, bend some more and repeat until the part fits perfectly. The DB part took many "repeat" bends until the angle was correct. The radiator grilles are 2 separate parts per side. the biggest mesh is installed first, then the fine mesh. Not the other way around...... I can't think of much else. If you have any other Q's, ask! I tried to add as many details as I could AFTER paint, so as to not destroy/remove any in the masking process. I have pics of the original build, they may help. I used a heavy maple cutting board and a sharp #11 blade to snap the parts fromt he fret. A fine file cleans up the parts. A straight snap motion versus a sawing motion works best. The more dense and durable the cutting surface, the better. These parts are etched from .005" stainless, and even at that thin dimension, they require some elbow grease to cleanly remove from the frets. I totally dragged this thread off course...
Maybe tonite, I'll take some better-lit pics. They are ancient Precision Masters (now owned by Red Caboose) 5-bay Ortners in CSDPU.
17 of those, plus 3 SD50's (1 will do the trick, but 3 looks better!) is all that will fit at Crescent and Plain.... They have Unimate (Red Caboose) couplers installed. No accidental uncouplings here!
here's my contribution: Z scale kitbash. when i get the etching skill down i'm going to redo the railings. i still have to install the glass and add wipers and some grab irons on the nose. dave f.
Awesome, David! What decals did you use for the rest of the unit? I know about the HO decals for the long hood lettering. Did you get them made for you? Those long hood & numberboard numbers look painfully tiny....
thanks hemi, it's not as perfect as yours, but then no one makes this in Z so i had to craft what i could. the stripes i used (this time) came from the N scale ski train decal set (microscale). the larger herald is from the N scale trailer set (450 or something like that). the logo is still a bit too small, but it's the closest one available. the end numbers and cab come from the #28 set (N scale). i could have used smaller yellow numbers on the side/ends but then the colors of different decals would have been completely inconsistent. the shell was given to me by a generous person, and when i saw your pics of your SD50s, i realized that the conversion from 70 to 50 was possible. again, not perfect, but i think it's presentable. Rio Grande modelers of larger scales will have use a jeweler's loop to count the rivets, so from a usual view distance i think i'm safe. ha ha ha. tunnel motors in Z are on the horizon, when MTL releases SD40-2 in Z next year. then my unpatched 50 will have some running companions. i love your 50s, hemi. they are really nice! dave f.
Right back atcha, that Z SD50 is very nice as well. I wouldn't recognize the difference between an SD50 and a 60 (which mine really are), so your kitbashed 50 is stellar! You just need about 4 more to make a believeable coal train for the Moffat....
ha ha ha ... and then i need the moffet on my layout!!! i look forward to seeing yours completed. have you seen erik welch's layout? he does VERY nice work. check out his album in rail images. df
