Here are some photos of my new locomotive that GATS detailed and modified for me. I'm sure Gary will post explaining what he did Thnak Gary I really appreciate your efforts [ 05 April 2001: Message edited by: Colonel ]
Very cool and great job Gary! Very clean! Just by looking I can see a few extra details added to the cab and roof line and many headlight movements. Very cool!
Thanks guys! Body - An ex-SP Life-Like GP20 was the starting point. I added the Sunrise N-629 central air filter box after removing the turbo stack. I tried to remove the lettering only the flanks but when this failed I stripped the body and cab. Next, I drilled and chiselled the nose to size for the new front Detail Associates DA 8217 dual headlight (late), glued a small piece of styrene behind, then partially filled the the hole with .020" styrene to allow the headlight to sit only slightly inset. Note, this casting is very thin. The rear had the original headlight removed flush and a Sunrise N-615 cluster bracket (SP GP9/20 with early dual Pyle) added. The nub representing the class light lenses were trimmed off leaving the housing. The number board gaskets were trimmed flush and .005" stryene strips placed over them to represent the welded blanking plates. Cab - The cab had the horn moved to the engineer's side and an antenna made from a sliver of .047 styrene rod and .010" wire placed over the resulting hole left from the horn removal. The upper headlight blank used is Sunrise's N-627. A hole was drilled for mounting the rotary beacon (below). Sill/walkway - The only modifications done were removal of the the front and rear footboards and adding a pair of scratchbuilt MU stands on the front walkway. These were hand painted before given the overcoat mentioned below. Painting - Body was painted using Floquil's SP Dark Lark Grey and SP Scarlet. The sill/walkway, railings, and tank were all given a light coat of Dark Grey to blend them to the body - the original LL paint is darker than Floquil - and the handrail ends were painted white. Fuel fillers, cut-off switches, and sightglasses were picked out in red. MU hoses were painted weathered black with flat aluminium ends and the step edges white. Microscale decals were used for the lettering and 'bloody nose', which was touched up by hand with SP Scarlet to match the sprayed areas. The whole unit was protected with Dullcote then a light weathering applied to the body, including the trucks, with another coat of Dullcote following. The front number boards were painted black and numbered using lettering grey numerals, the same as used on the body front and rear, and the boards and cab glass installed. Last part to be added was the rotary beacon. I used an out of production Loco-Details (a division of Loco-Motives which are both out of business) beacon. This is a black casting that was painted silver then the beacon lens painted Tamiya's clear orange. This is the first time I used this method as I've used their clear orange cast beacons in the past. I think it turned out quite fine! I must thank Dallas Mallerich of Boulder Valley Models for sending these beacons, amongst other parts, with a few all-weather windows he used to produce under the Loco-Details name. Unfortunately, some years back the mold cracked and none of the parts are now available. Dallas kindly sent them from his spares box. BTW, his 2-bay open side hoppers live on as deLuxe Innovations' hoppers. All that is needed to complete this unit is adding MV lenses to the lights castings. The other option is to add fibre optics to light them. I think that's about it! Gary. [ 06 April 2001: Message edited by: Gats ]
