Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[C855B]

Five years!, as of July 1. Hard to believe, but half of a decade has gone by on this project. Granted, only the past year or so has been building a model railroad, but... still... a lot of time, money and anguish under the bridge.

Nothing to report on the layout itself this time as I'm still "on the disabled list" ("No lifting. DO YOU HEAR ME??!? NO LIFTING!!!"). [sigh] Things should be back to normal next week.

However, that doesn't mean I can't pick up a locomotive or two.   I had a bit of a scare on the C855 project during painting. After noting the FXD surface issues, I started in with the Tamiya primer/filler, only to find I was filling gaps between hood doors. Fixed the biggest problems with a #11, but had concerns how much it was going to blur other details after the final paint. Started the final coats, and realized after the first two coats I didn't have the airbrush mix right - what wasn't speckled had orange peel. Oh, crap. More layers of paint. It was but a scare, after a little more thinner and a touch more air pressure, voila!, I think we have a workable result:



The two A-units could use another shot in corners where the paint went down too dry, but if they're as recoverable as this, we're good. I can see a couple of spots where hood door gaps might have filled a little, but the overall look is better than expected. So now comes (the very tedious job of) masking for the gray. That should go down in a single coat.

In the meanwhile I've been tuning the chassis, adjusting cup gear lash with shims. It also has a newer Kato motor. Runs well and remarkably quiet for a locomotive of 1970 design, although the lack of flywheels shows sometimes. Pulls like a monster - 42 cars up 2%, no strain or wheel slip. That I'll take.

[Chris333]

That turned out pretty good.

[davefoxx]

Agreed, that looks really nice.  I wouldn't have noticed any paint filling gaps, if you hadn't pointed it out.

DFF

[rodsup9000]

 That is nice.

[jagged ben]

Looks good from here.

[C855B]

Thank you, gentlemen.

I just left the spray booth. Masking this thing with all its lumps, bumps and protrusions is a real piece of work. Because of the detail I decided to mask it in pieces, doing the top first. What you don't see in online pictures of the prototype is the walkways and horizontal surfaces are gray, not yellow. I have exactly one picture that shows this, an official publicity still from 1964. The end walkways may be brush painted; those lifting eyes at each end really should have been "cast" as separate pieces to be applied after painting, like the sandboxes are.

The biggest issue with FXD/FUD for models is it is absolutely unforgiving about paint. It's porous, and any solvent known to remove paint also dissolves the resin. So, accordingly, I was super-nervous about this, but am happy with the results:



Tomorrow, sills and walkways... maybe.

[James Costello]

Did you see this photo this week?

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/621774/

[C855B]

Ooooooo! Thank you, James. That picture has not appeared anywhere that I know of, so it is quite timely! Beautiful photo, too.

Had to have been taken in 1964, just after delivery - they were never that clean again.

[davefoxx]

Did you see this photo this week?

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/621774/

Sort of ironic that the C855A behemoth has "Dependable Transportation" painted on the side of the cab.   

DFF

[C855B]

That particular irony is always good for a smile whenever I work on these things.

[C855B]

A couple of interesting developments on the long-term (...scenery...) front:
... an article in the August Model Railroader that arrived Tuesday. It is a rather nice piece on 3D modeling... of the UP Kelso station, planned to be a key LDE on my railroad. The model in the magazine was executed in HO, of course, but I sincerely hope the MR editors will pass my query to the author about making his designs available for resize ... in N, ...

Success! Author made contact today and asked what format to export for the CAD files. 

[Philip H]

Success! Author made contact today and asked what format to export for the CAD files. 

Well now that's fabulous service?

[C855B]

Yes, I was pleased and grateful for the response. I'll post when I get the DVD full of files.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Much sadness in Mudville.   The C855 project reached an "OH, $#!+" point a few minutes ago. I screwed up the B planned to be done for a train show next week. The upshot is I have to start over with a new shell, there's no fixing this mess. It's only money. Thankfully this doesn't affect the chassis, which itself has a number of hours of work and debug. And the redo will take a lot less time having learned stuff along the way.

The hard lesson in this case is that you don't brush Tru-Color. If you apply it wet enough to cover, it dissolves what's underneath. I should have listened to my own intel, as this is what comes with it being a lacquer, as discussed in the other thread. The walkways are incredibly convoluted and all but impossible to mask, so I decided to get out the brushes. Wrong. Very wrong. Tru-Color is absolutely airbrush-only.

Also, and shame on them, I opened a new bottle of HM gray, and it was noticeably darker than the prior two bottles. So, apparently, Tru-Color is having issues with batch-to-batch consistency. Since I'm losing so much to cleaning the airbrush due to start-stop-start-stop of the complex painting and masking I will need to buy three or four bottles to intermix to make sure I have enough for all three.

Damn. 

[davefoxx]

Mike,

Sorry to read about your disaster.  I've been there, i.e., total loss on an important project.  But, as you wrote, you can take the lessons learned and improve the next attempt.

If it helps, I once painted a locomotive, and I was worried about screwing up the walkway due to the complex masking.  So, to avoid that problem, I spray-painted clear decal film, cut some pieces up to fit, and decaled the walkways and steps.

Hope this helps,
DFF

[C855B]

... I spray-painted clear decal film, cut some pieces up to fit, and decaled the walkways and steps.

Thank you for the commiseration. The decal approach is an interesting idea if it was something straightforward like an EMD hood. One of the things that appeals to me about the C855s is they are incredibly quirky, the walkways alone are Rube Goldberg affairs with many odd nooks and crannies. That's what bit, trying to get coverage in the corners. The decal idea is a possibility, but there are so many little corners, and this particular rendition also has simulated tread plate that'll work against getting a decal to settle into. Seeing that I now have a test shell to try it on, however... 

If there's a positive to the process to date, it's been practicing decal work on other scrap shells. I had a really good result today with laser-printed decals, including that beastly 4" top stripe on a long locomotive. With that skill refreshed I'll have more confidence with the fresh start.