Rock Island 4798 to Canadian National 5375

[quadk]

Hello All,

 I was asked on another forum ( :-[ ) to do a step by step on kitbashing and detailing a engine. I had gotten a Rock Island SD40-2 off of an eBay winning and my youngest son likes the CN (god knows why) so I decided to turn this engine into a CN SD40-2. So I don't have to post on both forums and cut into the modeling time, I will post the link here. Whenever I put an update up I will leave a message in this topic if you would like to follow it.
http://www.railroadforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9669

Thanks guys!!

[quadk]

After today I was able to get all the details done on the shell and it's ready for it's first trip to the paint shop in the morning. Here is the link again to the new update.

http://www.railroadforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9669

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I hate to mention this, as it may be too late, but the radiator grill style is wrong.

I run into this when trying to make a Conrail SD40-2, but the ones on the model are the corrugated style, while the proto has the "chicken wire" ones.

Luckilly, you're in HO, and I believe that Cannon and Co makes the correct replacements.

BTW, I hate you for that...

[quadk]

Yeah thanks ED, I seen that when I started it but I didn't have any radiator grills on hand. I was hoping with all the other details I put on it would kinda take away from the wrong grills

[bsoplinger]

You might want to look at the Gold Medal Models GP-18 fret. It has replacement grills to convert to GP-9s and I think they're the right style, but don't know if they're a size you can use, the SD-40 is after the timeframe I model.

[quadk]

Thanks bsoplinger, but I don't think I'm going to change them on this model. The main thing that I wanted to do to this engine is add some details to it and paint it in the CN. This model also has one of the old round brake wheels on it and I think the proto engine had one of those newer embedded lift brake handles.


Well the engine made it out of the paint shop with it's final coat of primer. I will let it dry for the rest of today and overnight before I start painting the final colors on it.
http://www.railroadforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9669

[quadk]

Hello again all,

 The shell has made it out of the paint shop it's final time. I'm hoping to have the decals this week to finish the shell, but for now I will start working on the chassis. Here is the link again for the update on how the shell turned out.
http://www.railroadforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9669

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'm not registered, but I can answer the light question.

The lights were there so crews could look down and easily judge if they were moving at night, hence the lights only under the cab.

It might seem like it'd be easy to tell, but it's not. Being able to look straight down and see if you're moving is an asset.

[quadk]

Thanks Ed, I had thought they only had lights on the front trucks or under the cab. I did not know the reason though.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Glad I could be useful after beating you up on the grills  ;D

[quadk]

Hey that's no problem Ed, I'm glad you said something in case I didn't realize it. Thanks for the help!


I have also posted an update on the chassis. What I did to the chassis to get it ready for the paint shop and how it looks after it came out of the paint shop.
http://www.railroadforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9669

[nscalesteve]

Ken, I'm not trying to play judge here and to bash your work and effort (for that we have others...)
but what are you using to bring the color on the shell ?



for me it looks like the color was too viscous or you sprayed just too much color on...  :-\

...but I like the tone of your CN orange - looks good to me  ;D

(sorry, I'm not able to register over at the railroad forum or I would have placed my comment over there,
it looks I'm banned there even before I was registered - is Andy, steamKen or "Mike" involved in this forum too ?)   

[quadk]

Well...Steve, there is to much of the red paint on, you were not supposed to notice that. hehe Earlier when I painted the white I had said on there that I had problems with that Badger Model Flex white paint, I found the problem when I was painting the red. My regulator on my airbrush stuck wide open and that's why it was spraying the white like it was. So in order to get this engine sprayed I left my air hose lose so it would bleed some of the air off why I was spraying. It worked but as you can see the red ended up a little heavier and the black is a little bit but not as bad. Need less to say I ended up going and getting a whole new system last night, the airbrush, regulator and compressor. My stuff was getting pretty old so it was a good time to upgrade! Shhh, least that's what I told my wife!

[quadk]

I now have the chassis all wired up and the trucks are ready to head to the paint shop.
http://www.railroadforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9669

[quadk]

Here we are guys, it's finally finished!

 

Here is the link again for all the pictures of the finished model
http://www.railroadforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9669&whichpage=2