ONR Polar Bear Express (was just the canoe car - now the whole train)

[craigolio1]

So the model was stripped with oven cleaner. (First time using that by the way and it was awesome!) I then primed and remanded, then shot the yellow with Floquil Reefer Yellow, which laid down beautifully.





Next I masked for the light blue. I also experimented with it using various accurately measured ratios of thinning. I normally thin by feel but decided this paint needed more precision. I settled on a 3:20 ratio.



Along the way some touch ups were required. I wound up remasking and shooting a couple of the blue edges to clean them up. Then on to the dark blue.

Again some touch ups were required due to a couple of lifts in the mask that I didn’t see. Additionally, I guess had a bit of a blockage that let go just as I was shooting the hood as it came out really quick and resulted in a heavier application than I would like. But I opted to leave it as it would have required repainting everything and I was fortunate in that this area of the nose had no detail to worry about covering.



Next I had to mask and paint the light blue around the head light. This required a very thin piece of tape to make the curves, and then a build up of more layers of tape around that.





The last colour to shoot was black for the sides by the fuel tank, steps and grills.





For the grills, I used a straight edge and a knife to remove the paint form the horizontal and vertical separations.

Finally all of the additional grabs and parts were added, I ***** a coat of clear gloss, and it was ready for decals.

For decals I used a set from Microscale which conveniently had all of the polar bear express markings.


After decals I noticed that this loco has a strobe light which I new had to be added as I love lights and don’t have a loco with a strobe yet. I found an orange marker light in an old 1/25 semi kit. It was perfect, and nice and wide at the base so I can put an LED under it.





Under the light I glued a bit of styrene tube to house the LED and then surrounded that with a fillet of liquid electrical tape so that the LED won’t be like a flashing sun inside the cab.









The final addition was to add a silver decal around the base of the casting.

And that’s where it is now. Ready for clear coat, then lighting and assembly.







Thanks for reading.

Craig.

[Angus Shops]

Ooh, what a saga! I’ve had problems with Rapido paints too; in my case the CP grey covers well put is too thick out of the bottle, and the CP ‘Tuscan’ is thick but the colour is translucent and doesn’t cover well. How do you thin a colour thats already translucent? To bad, because the colours themselves look right, but it seems that every bottle has different in terms of thinning requirements and opacity. I’ve pretty much given up on them except for their BCR yellow for brushing on handrails and etc.

I’ve got to say that paint scheme is not one of my favourites; to fussy. They should have skipped the light blue and gone with the dark blue in its place.

Looks good, and big extra marks for perseverance.

[craigolio1]

Ooh, what a saga! I’ve had problems with Rapido paints too; in my case the CP grey covers well put is too thick out of the bottle, and the CP ‘Tuscan’ is thick but the colour is translucent and doesn’t cover well. How do you thin a colour thats already translucent? To bad, because the colours themselves look right, but it seems that every bottle has different in terms of thinning requirements and opacity. I’ve pretty much given up on them except for their BCR yellow for brushing on handrails and etc.

I’ve got to say that paint scheme is not one of my favourites; to fussy. They should have skipped the light blue and gone with the dark blue in its place.

Looks good, and big extra marks for perseverance.

Thank you! I won’t be using Rapido paints again for the same reasons you listed. I experienced all the same.

This paint job IS ugly. The whole train is UGLY. That’s the reason I like it. Haha.

[Angus Shops]

I assume it’s the same paint that they use in their factory. What kind of magic do they use?

[peteski]

I assume it’s the same paint that they use in their factory. What kind of magic do they use?

I have my doubts that it is the exact paint they use for production in China.

Weren't Rapido paints originally made by Floquil or Polly-S?  Water-based acrylics?  Or am I thinking of another paint?

[craigolio1]

I have my doubts that it is the exact paint they use for production in China.

Weren't Rapido paints originally made by Floquil or Polly-S?  Water-based acrylics?  Or am I thinking of another paint?

I’m not sure who actually makes them but I can say for sure , @Angus Shops , that they are NOT the same as in the models as the passenger car roofs that I painted the blue do not match the factory painted Rapido ONR passenger cars. Close enough that with weathering it can be believable. But definitely not the same. Although I’m hearing from others that the Rapido blues specifically are not a correct match for the ONR dark blue. I would be inclined to agree but it’s hard to say with weathering , fading, and lighting, display, etc etc in  prototype photos.

[craigolio1]

I made some progress on the FP7 last night. All of the lighting went in.

I embedded an 0402 bright white LED in the beacon:



0603 warm white being the ditch lights, with fibre optic lenses.



And a larger flat warm white for the headlight. I also made an insert for inside the head light that has two fibre optic lenses but you can’t see it in the photo when it’s lit.

Next up will be to Surround the LEDs with liquid electrical tape so that no light bleeds out from the inside of the locomotive.

Craig

[Dwight in Toronto]

Very nicely done. This is going to look really nice on the layout, and will be something to be proud of … high five!

[craigolio1]

I’ve made some good progress on this train of late.

The loco is now on a chassis with DCC installed.



I got back into the buffet lounge and baggage cars after receiving some decals made by Switchline decals. He did a very nice job and worked with me to get the decals as close to the paint colours as possible.

For the buffet lounge it was as simple as applying the decals;





The baggage was another story.

So Rapido made an N scale model of the ONR baggage:



They made numbers 414 and 413. Both had large end doors. Rapido’s 413 has the wrong paint job for my era. In the time period I’m modelling it was all white, and was used as a spare. 414 I don’t believe is in service anymore.



412 is the car most seen on the train. It’s got no end doors and is a 3 axel truck.



It’s also unique in that the baggage doors on one side of the car have been replaced by some kind of metal roll up doors… perhaps galvanized steel?



I procured a six axel, end door baggage and as seen earlier, stripped and painted it. I then added the roll up doors on the one side by cutting out the existing doors and replacing them with styrene siding.





These cars are both now ready for clear coat and assembly.

Craig

[craigolio1]

I had intended to paint an atlas GP38-2 in ONR but I had a really hard time with the FP7 and have sworn off of Rapido paints.  I didn’t want to invest in MORE paints for these models and Altas released a factory painted model a few years ago so I opted to try to find one of the factory painted models.




 The thing is they are really hard to find and regularly sell for about $200 up here in the great white north. More with DCC!   I put a post in a Facebook buy and sell group asking if anyone wanted to trade shells or sell a loco. No takers…. But one fellow suggested I contact Atlas to see if they had any painted shells hanging around. Wouldn’t you know it they did!



And so with a simple shell swap the power is complete…. And I was able to sell the CP shell for almost what I paid for the ONR shell. Check mark in the win column!




Finally I got started on the last car of the train… a very awkward 40ft box car. It has a door only on one side, and had previously been strengthened and fitted with 8.5 foot doors. I’ve been waiting a long time to do this car as 40 ft box cars with an 8.5 foot Youngstown door are hard to find, and this is a bit of a taller door so the parts in the market don’t work. Well I was rummaging in the parts bin looking for something else and found some left over doors from a Kaslo 50ft NSC box car. Well what are the odds, it’s an 8.5ft Youngstown door. Another check mark in the win column.

For the base model I started with an Intermountain modified 40’ AAR box car.



For the side with the door I added length to the door channels using brass, and then added the Kaslo door. I also used styrene to add the larger reenforced sill, and cut the additional gussets from .005” sheet. Finally I used Archer rivets to add the rivets as per the prototype. Or as close as I could get anyway. Man they are TINY!





On the non door side I widened the door opening to match the 8.5’ door that would have been there prior to filling. Then I cut a tight fitting .040” styrene plug. I filled the edges but didn’t spend too much time blending them as I want the seams to show. Finally I added the same reinforcement and rivets as the other side.



I can’t find ANY pics or the roof of this car. So I’m sticking with the IM roof for now. I can swap it out later if needed. It had the roof wall holes filled and blended.



That’s all for now. It needs a unique end that isn’t available.



I’ll have to sort that out in the future.



Craig

[CNR5529]

It needs a unique end that isn’t available.

Or is it?? Might be able to hook you up with a similar NSC end I recently printed for another project... lets see if it fits the bill.

[craigolio1]

Or is it?? Might be able to hook you up with a similar NSC end I recently printed for another project... lets see if it fits the bill.

Ooooo excellent. Thank you.

[cv_acr]

I can’t find ANY pics or the roof of this car. So I’m sticking with the IM roof for now. I can swap it out later if needed. It had the roof wall holes filled and blended.

While I also haven't seen roof pics of this SPECIFIC car, this group it came from did have rectangular panel roofs, so no swap needed.

[craigolio1]

While I also haven't seen roof pics of this SPECIFIC car, this group it came from did have rectangular panel roofs, so no swap needed.

Ah good to know. Thanks!!

Craig

[craigolio1]

I’ve had the chance to get back at this train lately.


When it comes to blue paint, the ONR seems to use what ever dark blue is on sale, and in the case of the passenger cars, the Rapido ONR dark blue paint wasn’t a good match. Nor did it match the factory painted Rapido cars, or the decals that I procured. Nothing looked right. So I decided to strip the flat cars and some parts of the passenger cars and repaint them. Thanks to a tip on the ONR Facebook group, I used this paint from Canadian Tire, and my opinion it’s a very good match.



The baggage car roof was attached and I didn’t want to repaint the whole car so I removed the decals and masked / shot the roof. On the snack car I removed the decals and stripped the roof.

As far as decals were concerned, this time I opted to paint the dark blue and yellow stripes, and use the light blue decal.



For the sizing of the stripes I used the decals to assist in masking.



When compared to the factory painted Rapido cars it looks quite good. The Rapido car is on the left.



The final step to decorating the cars was to add Polar Bear Express and dangerous goods placards to the factory painted cars.



Now I’m very pleased with how they look and can move on to clear coat and reassembly.




The one door box car got end doors and paint. It still needs a bunch of yellow ladders and grabs and such, and also custom decals.

The blue flat cars got re- painted. The two sided tape I used to hold the metal mesh down didn’t like the new paint so I’ll have to fix that. They are ready for custom decals now.







Also the APU is now assembled. I opted to remove the motor and run it as a dummy. The train already has two or three locos so it just wasn’t needed, nor was the additional cost of a decoder.



From an operational standpoint, all that’s required now are trucks and couplers on the flat cars. Still lots of detailing and bits and pieces to do here and there though.   

Craig