Hot or not? PC/CR paint-out

[Dave V]

Okay, so I spent this afternoon in the kitchen while my wife was preparing Easter dinner.  I set my airbrush spray booth on the breakfast table and did up a PC GP38 as a CR paint-out.

Before:



This was a beautiful engine, in the way those PC worms can really grow on you.  Ugly can be so ugly as to be beautiful.  And no, I don't meant the kind of ugly to beautiful transition that happens with a six-pack.

No, I took this beautiful engine, added a scratchbuilt cab signal box, ACI labels, and then weathered it with an airbrush.  I then added the CR patch stencils.

After:



So when I asked my wife if it looked good, she said no.  I'd taken a beautiful engine and made it ugly.  Now, she's been with me for 15+ years and knows my philosophy about weathering.  She also understands the whole PC bankruptcy and Conrail saga.  So she completely understands why I did this to this engine.  But she wishes I hadn't.

So...  thoughts?  I was on the fence about doing this one as a paint-out, but I broke down and did it.  Would you have?  Would you agree with my wife?  You know, sooner or later I plan to do this to a Kato GG1.  I haven't yet because she threatened to leave me if I did! ;D

The prototype:

http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/gp38/xpc7797ef.jpg

[GaryHinshaw]

Much better!

Does this count as helping in the kitchen??

[Dave V]

Patricia insists that "no," airbrushing trains in the kitchen doesn't count as help...  FWIW, I cooked Easter breakfast.  Ed would be proud because bacon was heavily involved!

[wm3798]

I'd have washed off some of the black out paint over the logo and lettering.  That was a pretty common weathering pattern.  I think they used tempera paints to do the blackouts...



Or hell, don't even paint it out and just drop the CR's on it...

Lee

[Dave V]

Lee,

I went with the proto photo on this one...  Though I love the paint bleed-through, it didn't show up on the 7797.  OTOH, my other paint-out, SD35 6018, has some of the paint bleed-through:

[Bob Bufkin]

Not bad Dave.  Here's one I've posted before you may have missed. 



Your's looks close to that one.

[wm3798]

Well okay then.  So, you gonna do 7656 then?  Didn't Atlas do a Lehigh Valley GP38?

Lee

[Dave V]

Atlas does, and the ex-LV GP38s did show up at Enola pit.  Awfully tempting.  Wonder what Patricia would say...

[Wlal13again]

I`d say it`s a winner

[wm3798]

Not sure what Patricia would say, but Laura would say "Don't you already have a locomotive?"...

[Packer]

The after is definently better.

Maybe it's a good idea to stay single;D, they may flip over a patched-out loco

[bbussey]

I did this "fade" back when Kato introduced the GP38-2 - backdated it into a GP38, painted/decaled it in crisp PC markings and aged it into CR a few months later.  Looks great mixed in with CR blue or other patched units.

 

[Dave V]

Bryan,

That 7825 is HOT!!!  I wish I'd have done it that way.  I was at that stage where I had it weathered up but still in PC, but a little voice said "you have a proto photo of 7797; you can't just ignore it."  I could have.

The engine doesn't look as light in person; it's still pretty black.  It looks fine to me, but I wonder if I squandered the chance for a higher level of hotness.  Let me run her for a while and see; it's nothing to strip and re-decal her back to PC.

[Philip H]

Hum . . . higher levels of hotness . . . Conrail patch-outs . . . . hum . . . .  :

[wm3798]

You can't really appreciate them the way those of us who remember do, Phil...  Ah the memories of the dead line at Enola, the 7 and 8 unit lashups (to ensure that at least three of them were still running by the end of the trip)...



You can't even begin to know!

Lee