i was pretty inspired by what all the modelers did on this thread that i decided to try the mods out myself (and plus i am cheap...lifelike loco =$20 haha). this was my first go at n scale modeling after coming from larger 1:144 and 1:200 aircraft modeling and boy...let me tell you i went through alot of eyestrain with these small parts! i hate it when i pick up something by tweezer too hard and it flings out to nowhere. almost done with my caltrain f40ph. just thought i show some progression photos. i like photos. i have a newfound appreciation for all you crazy awesome n scale custom modelers out there, my stuff compare to yours is like a newbie attempt. people here have such fascinating and mind blowing work. the original w/ bachmann dummy couplers added a ton of brass parts by blma, miniatures by eric, gold medal models, mv lenses, sacrificed my atlas gp9's fuel tank for it, new pilot, plow, and added some of my homebrew styrene parts. added bachmann dummy body mounted couplers...may modify some microtrain stuff as i broke my couplers (blah!) i never knew how chunky a f40 is compared with a gp9! that gp9 is also becoming a caltrain
and here it is at its current condition. lots more work to do to it. some photos showing it sitting next to my caltrain cab car of which i am working on too (a concor bi level stand in, not a nippon sharyo...yaya lookmodel is too expensive). i need to figure out how to reattach the couplers as i broke them dude i really hope my windows dry. i dont think i should have layered each glue layer ontop of each other before the previous one dried.
Yep, nicely detailed, nicely done. Don't forget that goofy nose piece on the GP-9. It was for mounting the SP light package way back when. Plus you can also do the Caltrain cabooses with the Athearn bay window caboose. I bought an undec for that purpose and am still mindboggled by all the little parts. But it's a kit, after all.
yea i saw that light piece thing. i think im going to forgo it. i mean, i havent been entirely faithful with the caltrain geep representation as this atlas undec has 4 fans on top (minus the dynamic) whereas the caltrain ones have 2. not sure what phase or model that caltrain uses. the only atlas models i could find with 2 fans were really old ones that cost as much as my newer undec one. yup i have the caboose in mind too! ill probably pick an el cheapo one off of ebay that no one wants for that purpose. cant wait for athearns stand in f59 and atlas's mp15 to be released!
Those are the Roco-made ones and are somewhat oversized vs. the current Atlas/China ones and not as nicely detailed. Certainly they are not great runners. I think you can easily forget about those for your project.
The ones CalTrain has are very late GP9's. They are GP18's in almost everything but name. You can get a LifeLike/Walthers GP18, call it a Geep 9, and it'll be a lot closer to what CT uses.
dohhhh, ive already started painting my gp9. LOL i guess the gp18 would be close, fans arent all that right though, blah...maybe ill just hold onto my gp9 and do a gp18 in the future.
Hello b-16707, I think you did a nice job with you Caltrain F40! I still have plans to upgrade mine, it's just for some odd reason I tend to sit on a project for a fairly long period of time...I don't know, maybe to wait for some epiphany as how to best complete it. With that in mind, I actually had an idea, but I'm not sure if it will work. So, as not to hi-jack this thread, I'll refer my thoughts back to Life Like's F40PH: Improving the Not So Bad - TrainBoard.com
I missed this back in August. Awesome. I want to do one. I think I even have a Life-like in the original Caltrain paint scheme somewhere.
