Best Of New Brass EP-2 assembly & Mod clinic

[u18b]

OK.  My son Chessiefan got one of those for Christmas last year.
Not sure how his resolution compares to yours.

I could see how this would be useful for say, Santa Fe war bonnet.  Wow that curve would kill me if I had to do it over and over again.

[u18b]

Got some more painting done today.

Painted the walkway maroon.



Now, I have tons more masking to do since.....

-underframe is black

-sidesill is orange

-top step rail is orange

Next color will be black.

[u18b]

Note to self:

In the next step, paint the horns.

One is orange,  one is gray.

I have not painted then until now because as I have been airbrushing these water-based acrylics, I have been heating the parts pretty hot with a hair dryer in order to quicken the curing process.  So I have only been working with brass- no plastic parts.

But since Orange is coming up again, I need to paint one.

And gray will be right after that.

[u18b]

Before I had painted the maroon (last posts), I had tried black on one underside.

I was not satisfied with the color.  The Badger model flex black was not true deep black.  It was more like oily black.

On this loco, I wanted something blacker.



So after painting maroon, I had to mask the top side all off to protect the paint.



Dang!  This is a paint scheme that requires a LOT of masking.  Will be glad when it is all over.



OK.  Time to paint all the black parts.  All the truck parts have been in primer waiting for this moment.  I'm using a darker black.



Black is done.



I think it looks a lot better than the other black.


Now I have even MORE masking to do!

[u18b]

Another couple of hours just for small but important work.

Since the black was applied to the underframe.... and some black paint got on the end grabs...

I masked the underframe to protect the black.
Now ready to airbrush those grabs.



Grabs now painted maroon.  Then had to uncover the ladder rail.
Time to re-paint it.



Rail painted orange.



Unwrapping went well.
Gosh, I still have a lot of work to do on that walkway.
The side sill needs to be orange.
The flag holders need to be silver.
Hard glass coat needs to be applied.



Houston, I think I spotted the birth of a Hiawatha!



Progress, but lots more work to do.

[mmagliaro]

Ron,

Just because I haven't commented in a while, don't think I'm not watching.   WOW!
This is just beautiful work.  The best thing about it (well, that's a lie, I can't decide what the best thing is)
is that the electronics, mechanicals, detailing, prototype research and accuracy, masking, painting... every varied facet of the model
is getting the same level of ... how shall I say this... "fastidious" attention from you.   It's hard to keep on a project this long and
continue to treat every little detail as though the whole model depends on it, but you seem to be doing just that.

One of the finest engine building projects I've seen in a long long time.

[spookshow]

Bad news, Ron. I've been looking at proto pictures and I think you might've gotten the horns wrong 



Cheers,
-Mark 

[u18b]

Spook.  You made me laugh. 

I wonder if Woodland Scenics has tuba players!

[Roger Holmes]

Mark--That shot made my morning.

Ron--Knowing how meticulous your build has been I will interceded before you make a huge mistake.  Those are Sousaphones and not Tubas which are held in the lap with the bell facing upward.  I'd hate to see your fine work marred by such an egregious error   BTW many years ago I built a gazebo out of an old Bachmann built up water tower roof and some porch railing and created a band to perform inside.  The upright tuba was a clunky old N scale diesel horn.

Seriously, your build continues to amaze.  The latest issue of the MRHA's magazine arrived two days ago and features an "Electrospective"  (not my word) in observance of the 40th anniversary of the Milwaukee Road's abandonment of electrified operations.  There are a number of great Bi-polar photos though, sadly, none are adorned with musical instruments.

[u18b]

Thanks Max.

My wife walked by my workdesk yesterday and said Oh how pretty.

I said- man, this is about the hardest paint scheme I've done.

She said- Harder than Chessis System?

And then I thought about those awful Chessie walkways I've done and how GLAD I am that Atlas has done so much Chessie through the years.

[spookshow]

You're doing majorly amazing work here, Ron. I mean, seriously! Your blow-by-blow dissertation clearly demonstrates just how much time, effort, expense and skill goes into a truly high quality custom model! 

Now excuse me while I shuffle off dejectedly into mediocre-land (where I will try my best to apply decals to an RPO without accidentally setting it aflame) 

Cheers,
-Mark

[u18b]

Thanks guys.

When I started this project a long time ago, I had no idea that it would turn out this involved.

To date, I have posted over 800 photos (each one personally edited)- I'm sure I have taken 1,000 total at least.

My goal was to document...
-not just building the whole thing,
--but also specific modelling techniques
--as well as the thought processes that sometimes go on.  That is something you don't often get to see.
--I also made a decision early on that I would document mistakes or errors in judgement.  And I've made a few, but nothing disastrous.

My honest hope was that even if no one else ever did anything with a brass EP-2, that there might be some technique that helped or inspired someone in his modelling.

All in all, the loco (so far) has turned out better than I had hoped.

It has just taken me a lot longer than I ever imagined, too.

I'll be honest with you.  I was kind-of hoping that the final model would be one of the very best non-steam brass models out there.  Maybe that was too high a goal.

But I tell you what, when this thing is totally finished and tuned, I would LOVE to see it pull a prototypical length train.  The Olympian Hi ran with something like 9-11 cars regularly, and one or two more on some occasions.  This one just might do it.

[mmagliaro]

Thanks guys.

...


I'll be honest with you.  I was kind-of hoping that the final model would be one of the very best non-steam brass models out there. 

...

Ron,
I don't think you have to worry about that one.  It is one of the very best models, period.

[u18b]

This is a thinking/planning post.

When you compare this great photo.....



....With what I have done so far, you realize that something VERY significant is visually missing on the model.



Obviously, the missing visual element is the orange edge to the side sill.

But, dang, this walkway piece has a LOT of colors.

In fact, in the photo above, the cone-shaped pieces are the flag holders, and I still have to paint them silver.

But back to the edge....

I debated what to do.

Let's back up in time.
The whole walkway was painted orange first.  That was a very small error.  If I had it to do again, the first color is red.
So here in this photo, the red has been applied.
Then masked to protect the red for the next color.



With the red protected, the underframe was painted black.



But what about that edge?  I started masking the black off and leaving just the very very thin edge so I could paint it orange.
But, rats..... there were many detail obstructions- ladders, railing, jacking pads.  Space was tight. 
Effort effort effort

And if I did.... then I would have to paint these grabs AGAIN to be red (here they are after the black ready to be painted red).



Then I had an idea... and said forget this.
So I masked off the whole underframe AND the side edge to get the rails the colors I needed.



I decided, I have a lot of decals, and somewhere in there are some orange decals I could use.

So I went searching.......

[u18b]

In my decal box, I have probably about 100 decals.
I went searching.

These were almost all the decals with some kind of orange on them.
Rio Grande, SAL, IC pig service, L&N old passenger, and Central of Georgia.
The Cent of GA and the SAL had actual stripes ready to go.
The others would require a steel edge and razor blade to trim into a thin line.
A sample of painted brass handrail is in the middle of this photo.
Some of these colors were close.....



But the best match came from set 60-700 Western Maryland Cabooses 1936-80.
It allows you to make these.....

http://home.frognet.net/~mcfadden/wd8rif/img/bo_c1891.jpg
http://www.railroad.net/articles/railfanning/northeastcabooses/media/cab-08.jpg
http://www.railroad.net/articles/railfanning/northeastcabooses/media/cab-09.jpg

The Chessie stripes at the bottom caught my eye.



THAT was it.
So this was a two-fer.  I got a close match on color AND stripes which should not require trimming.



Now, I'll want to apply a thin clear coat for decalling and for sealing and protecting the paint.
In the old days, I used to use Floquil Crystal-cote.
I cannot tell you how much a hate that product.
Others may like it (fine with me) but my experience was that when you handled your model much, the oils from your skin began to break down the coating and it turned sticky.
And the more it turned sticky, it damaged the paint, and also picked up dirt and grime.

For years, people touted using Future floor wax to coat models.  It was clear and hard.

Well, I have found something that is made for models just like it (and heck, I wouldn't be surprised if it was floor wax in a modeling bottle.).

I LOVE this stuff.



Water based, easy clean up.  Hot hair dryer curing.  Clear, and hard.  Does not get sticky with handling.
Thin with special thinner.  Only takes a few drops so this bottle lasts a long time.



Time to do some work.