My Midland Valley (fictional) Railway 1st loco


MikeOwnby

MikeOwnby

Active Member
Sort of a proof-of-concept, since I didn't want to destroy a "good" locomotive until I knew I could actually accomplish the paint job. I've painted and decaled a number of units in real RR paint schemes, but this was my first go at designing my own paint job, creating the decals for it, etc. This locomotive is N Scale, BTW, and the photo I've attached shows the progression from concept on the computer to the end product.

This is a conglomeration of an Atlas SD60 body I had lying around stuck onto an Intermountain SD45T-2 chassis that I had...you guessed it...lying around. So if you count rivets, this one's not even gonna be close :)

That said, I'm thinking the paint job generally turned out well, and I'll next set my sights on either a GP60M or SD70MAC as the next unit. While this won't ever be a prototypical unit, I can just pretend that it's been rebuilt from whatever since it is my own made-up railroad :)

I'm somewhat new to this (just back in the hobby for about 18 months now), so if there's any constructive criticism or anything that I got just blatantly *wrong* on this guy, I'd be interested to know any of that. I based the placards off of some Norfolk Southern SD60 photos, but since both the photos and the N-scale decals are so difficult to read, I had to just guess at what decals were actually appropriate, and basically just went with whatever seemed to have the same shape and colors.

This is my first post to the board, so I hope I'm doing everything correctly and all that. Look forward to hopefully contributing where I can and definitely garnering needed information from you vets out there along the way.

-Mike
 

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I think that is a great paint scheme!

I think you have found a niche in this hobby and could become one of the best at custom painting.

I have to add, my eyes are not the best so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I did use a magnifier to look closely at your work and I think it looks fantastic!

I look forward to seeing your next project.
 
Thank you for the compliments. I'm always second-guessing myself after I finish a job (nit-picking tiny details that I feel like I missed, mostly), so I appreciate a little positive reinforcement. Currently decaling a couple of box cars as the first of the Midland Valley rolling stock and trying to decide whether or not painting a FV GP60M is going to be do-able (never disassembled a FVM & they're a bit pricey to experiment on) or just go with something from Atlas that's a sure bet. I got bitten by Intermountain's SD40/45T's and I'm afraid the FVM will be similarly unfriendly to paint (any advice there, or are they as easy to work with as Atlas & Kato?)
 
Nice job. One question, where did you get the line drawing of the locomotive and what program did you use to add the paint colors? Okay, I guess that's 2 questions.
 
NScaler gave a link for the line drawing (trainiax.net), which was actually more than I knew since I found it doing a google images search. I used Photoshop CS6 for the coloring and fonts, which comes in handy because I could use layers and transfer the basic color scheme between different locomotives.
 
In the meantime...

I decided to liquidate my CP roster. My GE's will go on eBay I guess, but the SD90's are all headed into the paint shop to be reborn as Midland Valley power. MV 90 is being painted now, and once I have that paint job all mapped I'll do 91, 92 and 93 all at the same time.
 

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Really nice work. Good color selection and clever logo. And wonderful technique. I agree, you could find your self a little side business doing this, if you were interested.

Here's one question though, and I ask it because I am no marketing expert.

I assume the 'V' is intended to look hand drawn. (it makes me think of the logo for the graphic novel and movie 'V for Vendetta.') And it looks way cool.

But I suddenly found myself wondering if a RR security department would nix the logo because of concern it would encourage graffiti taggers.

This is coming from someone whose state a few years ago changed the time of its tourism promotion body to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin when someone realized that 'Wisconsin Tourism Federation' was abbreviated.... "WTF".... No fooling.

Overthinking again, I am sure... :rolleyes:

From the DairyStatePhone
 
Ah, but you have to realize that the Midland Valley Railroad Police are an elite crack unit with such things as remote infrared-triggered tasers imbedded in all trackside locations to discourage such hooligans :D

Seriously, though, that's something that never really crossed my mind. I just designed the logo, and frankly like it too much to change it even if I didn't already have one loco complete and a sheet full of decals already printed. I don't think it's really all that different from things like the ON Rail underline and so forth also, so probably not that much of an issue. Thanks for the compliments on the design, and yeah...I think I may just keep an eye open for people wanting things painted & decalled. I enjoy doing it, and as long as I keep the volume of work low...well, we'll see.

Was just checking the MV 90 paint job alignment now that major painting is done, and it's all looking pretty good.
 

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MikeOwnby said:
Ah, but you have to realize that the Midland Valley Railroad Police are an elite crack unit with such things as remote infrared-triggered tasers imbedded in all trackside locations to discourage such hooligans :D
Click to expand...

And that is an awesome response to my silly question. Well-played, sir! :)
 
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