Paul,
Nice fodoz , the E's look great.
When I use Polyscale I dilute with Isopropyl Alcohol, same as you used for
stripping. Usually the silver family doesn't need much thinner if it is a fresh
bottle. Some shops move paint faster than others, so be careful. Anything other
than a alcohol based thinner gives you nasty silver salad dressing. Oil and
water don't mix. The last few hobby shops I stopped at didn't have any N-scale
E sets. Decals in general are becoming as hard to find as CB&Q reporting marks
in a train these days.
You brought up a good point about having to cut and space lettering to match a
prototype fodo. I do it all the time. I never take a decal manufacturer's
product verbatim. I have been a printer for 25 years and started out doing
pasteup the old way so I am highly critical of type. Font, height, letterspace,
word space all all contribute to well detailed model and can ruin the best of
paint jobs if not done correctly. There are those who say it's just a hobby and
it's meant to be fun but remember we model the Q. It ain't fun, it's hard work.
We are preserving mechanical history in miniature and our road deserves it.
About the skirts, I'll look in my B&Ws and see whatI have. They should have had
them originally. Skirts and nose grabs and other appliances depend on the year
and the number. Sometimes these were part of an on-going upgrade that was done
when the unit came in for major or scheduled repairs. So again, find a photo
and work from it. Don't forget to check out the Q stuff on the Fallen Flags
website, he has been a great source of modeling inspiration.
----- Original Message ----
From: Paul A. Leonard <paulaleonard@tx.rr.com>
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 9:00:55 PM
Subject: [CBQ] Re: Paint & Decals for E-Units
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.trainboa rd.com/railimage s/showphoto. php/photo/ 74980
AND:
http://www.trainboa rd.com/railimage s/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]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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