Detailed and Weathered FVM GEVO -- BNSF 5719

[ednadolski]

Hi gang, thought you might enjoy this, it's an FVM GEVO in BNSF, with details & weathering added.

Details include scratchbuilt scale handrails from 0.008" phosphor bronze wire, soldered to GMM stanchions.  For grabirons I didn't use the factory supplied ones, since they were at least as large diameter as the PB wire handrails, and I wanted a contrasting look. So instead I hand-formed my own grabirons out of 0.005" stainless steel wire -- you wouldn't necessarily think that 0.003" would make much of a visual difference, but when they are in close proximity the eye can pick up on that.

To drill holes for the SS grabirons, I used the factory dimples as a locating guide.  Not having to shave off cast-on grabirons and touch up factory paint is a huge improvement -- many kudos to FVM for going with that!   With the small SS wire, even a #80 drill bit is way too large, so I used a #94 bit which is 0.0071" diameter.  These bits demand a really light & steady touch, but it's worthwhile since the grabs aren't swimming in holes that are way too large, and have to be filled with paint.

The rest of the details include BLMA hoses, mirrors, lift rings, and GMM wipers (accidentally I broke one of the factory ones).  The sunshades are the factory ones, which are really nice with their matching paint.  The cut levers are hand-formed out of the 0.005" SS wire, since the factory cut levers looked too large to me next to the wire handrails.  The MU cable on the front pilot is a thin strand of copper wire, formed to shape.   I also installed McHenry couplers (with the trip wires cut off).

There are a few things that still could be done.  The stock plow is too large for BNSF, and I didn't do grabirons on the plow.  The factory ditch lights are kinda boxy-looking; if I were to replace then I might consider some kind of scratchbuilt lights with the #603 LEDs, which could also be wired separately for DCC control.

Weathering is relatively light, considering these are pretty new locos.  I did try to capture some of the grimy look that these locos get, where the grime accumulates on the trucks, fuel tank, and pilots.

(My picture-taking leaves a lot to be desired, so the weathering didn't show up as clear in the pics as I hoped.  Also, my camera & lighting don't seem to agree, so the color came out kinda funny)

Please let me know your comments & feedback! Thanks!

Ed

[James Costello]

Ed, please stop - your handrails and now your hand formed grabs are killing me! I'm seriously rethinking every detailing job I've done!

Nice work, on both the details and the weathering (the trucks are really nice!).  ;D

[Heath]

I like it!  those handrails are awesome.

[tom mann]

Wow, that looks really great!  nice work!

(how many #94s were broken?)

[GaryHinshaw]

I gotta echo James' comment here: CEASE AND DESIST!  I admire the Old World fortitude that leads you hand craft every detail, but I like to get some sleep now and then, and seeing this is going to drive me down the same path.

Of course the model looks great: the railings blend right in, and the truck coloration is spot on.  If I had any nits to pick [this is Railwire...], I would hit the air cylinders along the fuel tank again, and maybe try to trim the joints on the front handrails a bit.

So now that you have my attention, I have a question for you.  For my 2nd diesel project, I thought I would try an SD70MAC (a bit of an oddball on Tehachapi, but sadly, it's the only unit I own in the H2 scheme).  I was looking over the model trying to decide what needed doing, and new handrails were high on the list, but I'm not sure how to proceed.  Here is a shot of the shell partially disassembled:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GFHinshaw/MotivePower#5442103317197495298

In this case, I don't actually object to the thickness as much as the fact the stanchions lean in chronically, which drives me crazy.  This is largely due to the design in which the rails are cast on to a pretty thin flexible walkway that just rests on the lower support.  There is no mechanism to force the walkway to sit level and therefore to prevent handrail lean.  Here's a closer shot of the handrail part:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GFHinshaw/MotivePower#5442103322545153170

So how would you go about replacing these?  I was thinking of gluing the walkway to the lower support, then mounting new stanchions directly on the side sill.  But the sill is notched to accommodate the stock stanchions, so there is nothing to mount to without filling the notch, and that seems problematic.  (It's not worth doing unless the new rails can be made straight as an arrow - and sturdy!)  Another option is to mount directly to the walkay, but not sure how this would work.  Any tips?

Thanks for the inspiration (seriously, it's great work) and cheers,
Gary

P.S. Is it just me, or is the color on the GEVO a bit off?  

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=282627

The FVM orange strikes me as too red, and the green seems a bit too light.  How does it look to you in person Ed?  (I haven't seen one yet - I'm waiting for the DC model to come out.)

[ednadolski]

I gotta echo James' comment here: CEASE AND DESIST!

Dang, I have a UP GEVO on order, and just got one of the new Kato Dash 9's (BNSF #722 in Warbonnet) .....

But at least I didn't try to scratchbuild ditch lights from #603 LEDs, does that count for anything?    ;D

I like to get some sleep now and then, and seeing this is going to drive me down the same path.

Ah well, I'm an insomniac, but the handrails only took about a week of evenings, about 1-3 hours at a go.  Some of the time was me just figuring out how to disassemble the model without breaking something 

The hand-bent grabirons took a bit of time, because my tweezers are getting a bit old & bent so they have trouble holding on to the very thin wire parts.  I think I have more grabirons in my carpet than on the model.

So how would you go about replacing these?  I was thinking of gluing the walkway to the lower support, then mounting new stanchions directly on the side sill.  But the sill is notched to accommodate the stock stanchions, so there is nothing to mount to without filling the notch, and that seems problematic.  (It's not worth doing unless the new rails can be made straight as an arrow - and sturdy!)  Another option is to mount directly to the walkay, but not sure how this would work.  Any tips?

The GEVO was similar, except that the stanchions were on the bottom piece, rather than the top piece.  What I did was glue the walkway & sidesills together permanently (using CA), then flush-cut the stanchions off at the sidesills.  On some models that may leave a gap but usually you can fill that with paint, enough not to be too noticeable.  It may be necessary to shave off a bit more plastic with a sharp knife blade, if the cutter doesn't leave a clean enough edge. What you want is a surface that is as flat & flush with the sidesill as you can make it, tho it doesn't have to be perfect since it will be mostly covered.   Next, use a fine awl to mark the location where you want the hole for the GMM stanchion, and drill it out with a #80 bit.  (I don't recall offhand if the #80 hole was large enough for the stanchion's tab, or if I had to enlarge it slightly with a second bit.)  Be careful about locating the hole too close to the bottom edge -- if the bit tears thru, it's a pain to repair.  Also, be sure to use enough glue (not too much tho), otherwise the walkway/sidesill pieces will move against each other and make the drilling trickier.  The front/rear pilot stanchions are easier because you can flush cut them and drill straight down into the walkway, but you still want to be sure that they are securely glued.

For the Kato another approach might be to fill the notches in the sidesill with styrene, securely glued and cut flush on both the outside and on the angled side.  If done right, that should be no problem to drill.  Then when trimming the stanchions off the walkway part, be sure to cut flush against the angled edge on the underside.  I have an SD70MAC (executive paint) somewhere -- I'll see if I can get that apart for a better look.  (This is the kind of thing that makes me wish for sidesills like Bernie K's design....)

The GMM stanchions attach pretty easily with CA.  When attaching, try to eyeball them against the door panels on the loco body, to get them as straight as you can.  Once glued, you do still have some opportunity to bend/adjust them if they don't come out straight the first time.  Once you do a side of stanchions, be sure to sight down the body lengthwise, and line up any stanchions that are leaning too far out or in.  BTW, I use the longer stanchions and trim them after soldering. 

Don't mangle up the old handrails when removing them -- they are a useful guide for forming the new handrails out if wire.  The trick tho is to remember that you are trying to form something narrow by comparing against something that is wider.  Keeping things neat, and appropriately parallel/orthogonal/coplanar, is more important than getting the bends in exactly the right places.  (Diagonal angles can be off a bit too -- the eye is more forgiving in some ways than others.)

On sturdiness, scale handrails can never be as strong as the stock ones,  but that usually isn't a problem unless the model is handled in a heavy-handed way.  I think it really helps to use the phosphor bronze wire (from CMA) instead of brass, and to solder to the stanchions rather than CA.  BTW I use a paste solder that I got from a local Lowes, and I thin it a bit by mixing it with some SuperSafe flux.  Before soldering, I heat-sink the stanchions by covering them at the base with a thin (1/16" or so) strip of paper towel that I wet with an eydropper.  That keeps the heated stanchion from melting the plastic.  It's also a good idea to slip a small piece of paper onto the bodyshell, to protect it from the spatters that can happen when you apply heat to the thinned solder.

Is it just me, or is the color on the GEVO a bit off?  

It's the pics -- my indoor lighting is terrible.  It think it's obscured the look of some of the weathering.  I used Photoshop's "Smart fix" which brightened things up a bit, but it's lipstick on a pig.  I've got some additional lights to try, and I'll post a few more pics if I can get anything with better results.

BTW you're right about trimming the front handrails.  I use a flush-cut pliers to trim the stanchions, but it's basically a one-shot deal - once trimmed, it's hard to get in there and trim of just a little tiny bit more.   I may try to get in there with a Dremel and see if I can't take off a bit more from the offending parts.

Be sure to keep me up to date on how this goes! 

Ed

[ednadolski]

(how many #94s were broken?)

<sheepish on>

Umm ....  uhh ... three ...  :-[  :-[  :-[

I still gotta develop a lighter touch...

<sheepish off>

[GaryHinshaw]

Nice write-up Ed.  Thanks for the tips.  I have a set of stanchions on the bench, so I may be off to the races soon.

Cheers,
Gary

[ednadolski]

The hardest part is clipping off that first plastic stanchion 

[UP1996]

Wow !

[ednadolski]

Awright, my new shipment of #94 drill bits just arrived:



... and the UP FVM GEVOs should be out in a few weeks. 

[Hyperion]

Those are some sweet looking drill bits.  So I followed the URL to locate them on my own and found that they're over $100 a set.

For that price they better drill a hole themselves and never, ever break.

[GaryHinshaw]

Now I'm puzzled.  These appear to be Drill Bit City items, but when I searched using this link, I couldn't find any #94 sets.  A bit more Googling then yielded this link which shows gobs of sets, including the set in Ed's picture, for $101, and a 5-pack of re-sharpened #94 bits for $19.95; still $4 a bit, but not $10!

So: a) are the two stores above the same outfit?  b) Any opinions about new vs. re-sharpened?  I've had re-sharpened micro-bits from the first DBC link above for a long time and they're great, especially for plastic.  I like having the mandrel as an integral part of the bit too - it's all you need for drilling in plastic, but it also easily chucks into a Dremel and stays true.

-gfh

P.S. Personally, I prefer slightly oversized holes because it gives me a fighting chance of aligning the grabs in a ladder.   

[ednadolski]

Yep,  I was confused over that too.  There are two different Drill Bit City stores that don't seem top be related.   I got mine from the http://drillcity.stores.yahoo.net/index.html.   They do have a set of five bits for $55 which is still pretty pricey, and unfortunately they do break from time to time.  I sure wish I knew about the re-sharpened bits. I'll definitely go that route in the future, seems to me that they should be fine for plastic.

On the re-sharpens I wonder -- how is it possible to re-sharpen something that small?   I also wonder if the re-sharpened bits would be stronger or weaker than new bits.  On the one hand, new is new, but OTOH if a bit is able to survive use and re-sharpening, it probably doesn't have any flaws that would make it weaker.

The #94 bit is 0.0071" which is slightly oversized for the 0.005" grabirons that I make.  The #94 hole leaves 0.001" clearance all around for the CA.  I have tried aligning the 0.005" grabs in #80 holes, which are 0.0135",  but that didn't come out nearly as good.  It just seems that the #80 has too much clearance, and leaves a fair gap for you to fill with paint.   Actually, more important for me at least, is marking the hole locations accurately before any drilling.  I found that considerably easier with the FVM GEVO and its dimpled drilling locations provided by the manufacturer.

BTW in addition to being delicate, the #94 bits are also small enough that they can easily poke your finger if you're not careful, almost like a hypodermic needle.  So some extra caution is definitely advisable

Ed

[tom mann]

We need a tutorial on how you bend the grabs so they look all consistent.