The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[Tristan Ashcroft]

Add one more Charger to the line in Carlisle!  😀  Honestly, I just started the decals, but the roof and door decals give instant gratification of what this will be.



DFF

Nice F40PH

[John]

Add one more Charger to the line in Carlisle!  😀  Honestly, I just started the decals, but the roof and door decals give instant gratification of what this will be.



DFF

Now you need one of these ..

[davefoxx]

Haha!  Call it GE for short. 😜

DFF

[davefoxx]

I finally got the courage to mask the front of the General and apply flat black paint in the grille area.  There’s just not a lot of surface area for the tape to stick to on the leading edges of the fenders, hood, and bumper.  But, it’s done, and it’s as good as I could ever expect that to be under the circumstances.

I’ll probably just give a touch of silver to the headlights when I touch up the chrome bits and call it a day on this project.  I’m pleased with how this has turned out.  It’s certainly not perfect (it’s not even the correct model year Charger!), but it passes the three foot test.  It’s probably the best looking General Lee model I’ve ever had, and it’s in HO scale. 🙂



DFF

[Mike C]

  I wouldn't worry about the headlights . These Chargers have hide-away headlights , so during the day they don't show . My first car was a 69 Charger. 

[davefoxx]

  I wouldn't worry about the headlights . These Chargers have hide-away headlights , so during the day they don't show . My first car was a 69 Charger. 

Yeah, they do, but the headlights are visible on this model as if the covers are open.  So, I decided to just give the headlights a touch of a chrome pen, just to give a pop of color.  Good enough.  Once the black paint cures, I’ll try to get in there somehow to mask off a cleaner line and do a final touch up the chrome bumper.



Hard to believe that this is how this Charger began its life.  Again, it’s an Oxford Diecast model.



We’ve come a long way, but, on the show, the Dukes and Cooter also built the General Lee from a Charger that had a past.  That one was supposed to have been a wrecked black Charger.

DFF

[Mike C]

   The silver does look good .   Mike

[davefoxx]

And now, back to our regularly scheduled railroad:



DFF

[mu26aeh]

Poorly timed back swing with a train horn blaring

[davefoxx]

Poorly timed back swing with a train horn blaring

Hahahahaha!  Might explain why she never gets out of the bunker. 😉

DFF

[davefoxx]

I’ve been stumped on what to do with the grille on the General Lee.  Today it hit me.  Make a decal.  This worked on a 1980s Coke machine I made a few years ago, and I still have some blank decal paper.  So, I went to the internet and got this picture of the nose of a 1968 Dodge Charger.



Then, I printed the decal.  I’m giving plenty of time for the ink to dry, and then I’ll spray the decal with a clear coat.



DFF

[davefoxx]

I redid the decals on former Lehigh Valley GP38-2 No. 317, eliminating some ugly large red patches that never looked right to me.  I decided to add full lettering, rather than merely the planned initials, so it no longer appears to be a slap-job patch and get it on the road.  Although large red patches hiding the “Lehigh Valley” on the long hood is the way that Conrail did it on the 1:1 engines, it didn’t work here for me.  I like this better.  The short story is that I got distracted and left the MicroSol on too long, so I not only removed the N scale lettering that I was replacing, but I also managed to get through the center of the red patch and some of the underlying Lehigh Valley lettering!  That’s what led to the complete redo, which involved a few hours of scrubbing the patch and the LV lettering off and dealing with all of the removed bits trying to migrate all over the side of the engine.

Admittedly, the oval A&R logo is offset from center to fit between the latches of the cab subbase, and I might remove those and push them forward to the battery cover.  On the fireman’s side, the oval is partially covering the scars of the N scale logo that it replaced.  But, I have since learned from removing the big red patches that the factory Athearn paint is pretty durable, and lots (and I mean lots) of scrubbing with MicroSol didn’t lift it.  I might just work more to get the decal film remnant off the cab subbase.  We’ll see.





DFF

[motofavorite]

Many of your photos include Rapido's Budd cars, and I even recall a modern 4-4-0. Please would you describe the passenger operations on your layout? Thanks!

[Missaberoad]

Not sure how I missed the ex Lehigh GP38-2 but that is absolutely gorgeous.
Proto freelancing in its highest form!