Latest Project?

deandremouse said: "Nice Bachman Kitbash! I really like the it. the colors remind me of the Louisville & Indianna."

Yes, they do look quite a lot similar. This is actually because L&I actually operates a fleet of GP38-2s which they bought second hand from DEVCO. When they bought the second hand DEVCO units, they just swapped on a new logo, and kept the DEVCO colour scheme. The L&I then painted the rest of their locomotives to match the same scheme.

I'm liking the paint and decal work, Timberley. Your stuff looks sleek, especially the little updates on your LRC coaches. It's a pity that the LRCs don't fit into my usual modeling region. The cars look beautiful, and I'd love to buy some if I had a good spot for them. How well do they roll? I've been curious as to how Rapido designed the inner bearing trucks on them so that I can get ideas for any improvements or custom work to cars with inner bearing truck designs (Amfleets, Comets, WMATA & Philly stuff, etc.)

Anyway, yesterday was a productive modeling day, and I redid one of my Viewliners into Phase VI. The Viewliner originally featured in this post as a Phase IV shell is now this.






Pardon the bad lighting as I don't have sunlight to work with at the moment. The blue stripe was repainted with Floquil Light Blue which is a pretty good on-the-market match for the blue in Amtrak's current paint phase. Car name and number are from the Walthers decals as the car I did--62008 Eagle View--has the first variant of the new phase on the Viewliners which retains the Phase IV "VIEWLINER" label and pin striping as well as the car name. Amtrak logos are from the new Microscale decal set. The digital number screens on the A end and grills at the center of the car were given a little Floquil Old Silver--a pretty good match for Walthers stainless paint from before they got into the whole plated finish jazz--to bring out their detail like on the prototype. The body is sealed with a clear coat of Pledge Future Floor Shine. I'm missing the little handicapped decals by the door on this car and my other Phase VI Viewliner (62014 Imperial View), but that's because said decal is not on any decal sheet on the market, and I've yet to have a chance to get custom decals of this printed. It'll be added in due time. Trucks and shock absorbers are repainted Grimy Black and the underbody is weathered (Perhaps a bit much, but I haven't decided whether or now to redo it. This car has the custom-built interior featured in my first post in this thread which I plan on replicating for my other Viewliner as soon as my patience allows it.

Also, an interesting note: The Walthers Viewliners are very low slung, and the bodies sit lower than similar Walthers stuff, primarily the Amfleets and Budd cars they would typically run with. This has caused problems on my club's layout which has some funky curves and grades that cause problems with couplers and diaphragms that result in the Viewliners getting yanked off the tracks. The interior which has a .030" base boosts the car body up to proper height. I still need to test it, but I'm thinking that this height boost should solve the problems I've been having with the thing. (And, no cracks about my Viewliners, CAB. >:( )

Would the handicap decals on the Microscale Amfleet sheets work?

Sadly, no. The Phase IV handicapped decal is much larger with thinner lines, squared line ends and an outlining box. Compare this with the bottom left corner of this. In truth, it's an extremely small detail that I can live with at the moment. I just need to get my zetta huge, mega cool, superspecialawesome Phase VI decal sheet that I've been procrastinating on for the last 9,000 years to print--probably though Highball Graphics or E.L.S. Trains. I haven't decided which and need to get a quote from the latter.

In other news, I just finished said decal sheet by scaling the completed design to proper dimensions. For some reason, I originally designed it at something ridiculous like 1:12th scale proportions, and I just now took the time to get it right for HO-scale printing. Yay.

Oh, and for anyone who might be interested, I got two slightly better shots of the finished Viewliner along with its twin and the Walthers Great Dome in the new phase for comparison.
Shot 1
Shot 2

wow, never noticed the difference, it's a pretty big one. The viewliners look amazing though, I need about 6 more for my layout.

Mirai Zikasu wrote:I'm liking the paint and decal work, Timberley. Your stuff looks sleek, especially the little updates on your LRC coaches. It's a pity that the LRCs don't fit into my usual modeling region. The cars look beautiful, and I'd love to buy some if I had a good spot for them. How well do they roll? I've been curious as to how Rapido designed the inner bearing trucks on them so that I can get ideas for any improvements or custom work to cars with inner bearing truck designs (Amfleets, Comets, WMATA & Philly stuff, etc.)

Thanks! I've only very recently (ie. in the last year and a half) started doing any airbrushing and extensive decaling (I had been rather afraid to before!), and I have really come to love it...and get decently good at it as well

The LRC cars are absolutely beautiful! I've been waiting for them for a LONG time, as they make up most of VIA's fleet in South-eastern Ontario, which is my primary modelling interest. The cars are exquisitely detailed inside and out, and have awesome interior lighting and marker lights. With the little bit of decal work to bring them up to the modern scheme, they fill the niche I needed perfectly. I only ordered a small set of them now (to update with decals), but will be ordering as many as I can when they release them factory painted in the modern scheme. I just got the Club car as well today, and it's just as nice as the coaches.

Now having said all that, the rolling quality is the biggest problem with the cars. Essentially, they don't roll well. They track amazingly well, but there is a lot of friction in the trucks. Although I have not tried yet, apparently this can easily be solved by some careful lubrication and slight modification. Rapido has now added directions on their website (in the customer support section) on how to improve the rolling qualities of the cars. They also plan to make improvements to future releases based on feedback from modellers, and their own experimentation.

By the way, those Viewliners look great! I love the interior work you did on them, very nice. Funnily enough, the Viewliners are one of the few Amtrak cars I really quite like, and just like you with the LRCs, I wish I could fit them into my modelling region. I just think they look really neat =P

timberley wrote:deandremouse said: "Nice Bachman Kitbash! I really like the it. the colors remind me of the Louisville & Indianna."

Yes, they do look quite a lot similar. This is actually because L&I actually operates a fleet of GP38-2s which they bought second hand from DEVCO. When they bought the second hand DEVCO units, they just swapped on a new logo, and kept the DEVCO colour scheme. The L&I then painted the rest of their locomotives to match the same scheme.

Thanks! So thats the story, i guess I'll try this kitbash someday to make a L&I unit.


Finished the P72, just needs some decaling

(And, no cracks about my Viewliners, CAB. >:( )

Fine, but i will crack on this-

Mirai Zikasu wrote:I'm liking the paint and decal work, Timberley. Your stuff looks sleek, especially the little updates on your LRC coaches. It's a pity that the LRCs don't fit into my usual modeling region. The cars look beautiful, and I'd love to buy some if I had a good spot for them. How well do they roll? I've been curious as to how Rapido designed the inner bearing trucks on them so that I can get ideas for any improvements or custom work to cars with inner bearing truck designs (Amfleets, Comets, WMATA & Philly stuff, etc.)

Whats this? no LRC coaches in your usual modeling region? Are you sure?


BAM

green_elite_cab wrote:

Mirai Zikasu wrote:I'm liking the paint and decal work, Timberley. Your stuff looks sleek, especially the little updates on your LRC coaches. It's a pity that the LRCs don't fit into my usual modeling region. The cars look beautiful, and I'd love to buy some if I had a good spot for them. How well do they roll? I've been curious as to how Rapido designed the inner bearing trucks on them so that I can get ideas for any improvements or custom work to cars with inner bearing truck designs (Amfleets, Comets, WMATA & Philly stuff, etc.)

Whats this? no LRC coaches in your usual modeling region? Are you sure?


BAM

That's a lovely shot! It's awfully tricky to find any photos of the shortlived Amtrak LRCs. I've actually seen far more photos of the coaches once they were repainted into VIA colours for use on the international run to Chicago.

In their latest Timetable newsletter, Rapido had images of the new propduction Amtrak LRC cars:



IMHO, about the best looking Amtrak coach I've seen

You can read that Timetable here: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com ... k5nKsgI%3D

green_elite_cab wrote:Whats this? no LRC coaches in your usual modeling region? Are you sure?


BAM

...Jinkies.

Well, I've got nothing more to say for this round.

Yeah, i thought you'd like that. It also has the added benefit of sucking away more of your model budget, allowing me to win in the race to build epic trains. MuAHAHAHAHAH!

In addition to my VIA LRC coaches, I got my first LRC "VIA 1" Club car from Rapido last week. The Clubs are essentially identical to the coaches outside (since they were rebuilt from coaches in the '80s), but have a much nicer interior with an expanded galley to prepare the onboard meals included in VIA 1 service! I got the car last week, and almost immediately set about modernizing it like I had the others. I stripped off the old VIA 1 logos, and added the new VIA 1, handicap logos, "Canada" wordmark, and rooftop access panel decals. Rapido also includes an optional Wi-Fi dome as a detail part in the package, for those modeling ~2004-2009, when VIA installed the large white domes to add wireless internet service to Corridor trains. Although their new Wi-Fi service no longer requires these domes, I thought they were a neat addition anyway, and my era is really 2001 to today. Installing the dome required drilling 5 holes in the roof of the car, and then installing the base frame and the dome as two separate pieces. Looks pretty cool, if you ask me.

My latest project: Acadia, Halifax and North Coast Railway U18B #201.
This is the second of an eventual four Baby Boats in the AHNC's fleet. Here's the #201 and previously completed #203.

Working on #202 right now, and just because I like to be backwards, #200 will be last.

After I bought a second LRC club car, I realized I had bought the exact same number as my other LRC club car. I bought the second one for the intend on leaving it as-is and add modern decals and the wifi dome to the my first LRC club car. I also renumbered the car while I was at it since I have the LRC decals. I completed it a couple days ago and my renumberd club car is once again running on my layout. When I eventually get around to doing my two coaches, I'll leave their numbers as-is and just add the Canada logos.

I am also working on turning a Walthers VIA lounge car into a VIA 1 class Hep 2 coach. I've got one side done so far and have three more decals to add to the other side. Then I have to do the ends of the car.

no photos, but the closest ive ever been to train suicide has been a ridiculous Metro North paint job on a GP40 (this model is for a friend in trade for some model kits). The silver paint and black roof area went on no problem. I used Tamiya black (its what i had laying around) and Floquil Platinum mist.

Then I went to paint the blue stripe of the Metro North paint scheme (using Polly scale CSX blue). The paint seeped and puddled under the masking tape. Annoyed, i remaskes, sprayed the platinum mist again (this time with no seeping) and i seemed to be back on course.

Then I tried to airbrush the red stripe on the bottom of the shell two days later. I made sure to carefully press down the masking tape, just to be sure i wouldn't have any more disasters. using Polly Scale Caboose Red, i gave it a few passes, but it quickly puddled on the model, instead of spraying on like every other paint! I decided to wipe it off as it looked terrible and was collecting on the details. I figured it may also have been seeping. Sure enough, i peel the paint back, and not only did it seep almost all the way to the black roof line, but large portions of the blue stripe peeled off with it.

Of course, for some reason my airbrush refuses to be clean, and even though i had to take it apart every time to get the paint out of it, it worked less and less as time went by. I eventually resorted to spray cans for the red paint, and had to touch up alot with a paint brush, NOT what i wanted to do.

Right now, the model is just about ready, just some odds and ends to repaint and reinstall. I'm not proud of it, but i'm happy to get it done.

The one thing i am pleased with is now i can kinda-sorta mask curves, which i'm sure will be useful in the future.