First of all, I'd like to say "Thank You!" to Rob Manley & Scott Myers for
their advice about re-doing Life-Like E-8's.
Here are the results:
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/74980
AND:
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/74979
Stripping with 90% IPA went really well. I used a plastic sports bottle with a
wide-mouth cap.
I drilled-out & filed the holes for the numberboards, which are closed-over on
the Life-Like U-P models. However, I left on the side-skirting for the fuel
tanks, which apparently was there originally. The side-skirts disappeared over
time, probably during maintenance. I didn't see a single Brulington E-8 photo
in Spoor Vol.2 that had them! I eventually will cut them off, I think, but
then I'd have to detail the fuel tanks & fillers.
I had some issues with the spray painting ( -- I discovered that diluting
acrylic paint with Floquil thinner is a big mistake. It creates an emulsion
that is thicker than my spray nozzles! -- ) but eventually settled on
"Stainless Steel" cut with IPA, and then used a dilute wash of "Aluminum" to
silver it up some -- both were Testors ModelMaster acrylics.
I also spray painted the truck castings with a light coat of the Aluminum.
The bottom side-stripes, and also the lower part of the nose were high-lighted
with red painted-on striping (Badger CB&Q Red), after masking the area and
sealing with acrylic clear-coat. I thought this worked really well.
Decals were a problem, since I could not locate any sets of Microscale E-Unit
decals (#60-98). What I ended up using was a combination of N-scale E-5 decals
(set #60-581) and HO-scale E-unit decals (#60-98) as follows:
1. For the nose stripe decals and the "Burlington" side letters, I used mainly
Microscale E-5 set #60-581 . The E-5 nose-striping is more curved than the E-8
(I suppose because of the rake of the E-5 nose), and there were only 2-1/2
stripes per side. I used that as the starting point, then added a top stripe &
a half using pieces cut from Microscales HO set for the E-units (set #87-98).
2. The "Burlington Route" Symbol on the nose came from a set of N-scale Caboose
decals, which has several sizes & styles from which to choose!
3. The E-5 "Burlington" lettering was too spaced-out for the E-8, so the
lettering had to be cut apart and each letter applied individually on each side
for each of the 2 E-8's that I re-did. This took awhile, a lot of patience,
and a lot of MicroSol!!!
4. The upper red side-stripes were modified from the HO-scale striping decals
from the Microscale E-unit set (87-98). They are too wide, but with my eyes
they need to be to see them!!!
5. The builders model plates were from the E-5 decal set: they actually say
"E-5", but again I am so blind that I it looks like they say "E-8" and so I
won't notice!
6. The "F" letters designating front on the N-scale E-5 decal set were too
small, so what I applied is actually from the HO-decal set.
7. I added clear plastic for the number boards, then applied the black unit
numbers from the HO-scale E-unit decal set from the inside. After they dried,
I painted over the decal/numberboards with white acrylic from the inside. This
is backwards from CBQ practices which has white numbers on black background,
but again I am too blind to notice. For reference, one of these is now
#9940-A, and the other is #9947B, both of which were still on the roster at the
merger.
The "glass" for the side portholes is Testors "Clear parts Cement & Window
Maker", rather than the clear plastic "buttons" that came in the Life-Like
models.
The biggest deal was changing out the couplers. On the rear I am using MTL
#1130's. This is the first time I have been able to actually assemble MTL
couplers. (Hooray for me!) They were inserted in place of the Rapido-style
couplers that came with the Life-Like models, and glued in place with a spot of
Control Gel CA. The problem is that the couplers are so long that they make
the units seem VERY far apart. I think I will run them like this for awhile,
then try to fabricate draw-bars that will bring the units closer together.
For the front couplers, I replaced the stock Unimates with Atlas #23015
Accumates. (MTL #1015's fit also.) This modification involved widening the
holes in the pilot and also deepening it. On one of the units I got a little
too carried away with the filing, and so had to fabricate and glue in an
interior brace for the pilot in which to screw the coupler. I made 2 of the
braces and will retro-fit the other unit, I am sure.
Thanks again for the advice.
Best regards, and best wishes for a Happy & prosperous New Year!
Paul
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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