Need tips on kitbashing a BQ23-7 and who custom paints loco's?


C

Chessie System

Member
Looking for someone to custom paint a loco after its kit bashed, anyone really good at that or that does it for a living or on the side? I do not want to attempt it myself at this time. It will be the Chessie System paint scheme.

I plan to kitbash a Atlas gold series undecorated HO B23-7 with a Bachman BQ23-7 cab. I know its not prototypical but its different I still have one of the bachman models from when I was a kid and it is still for some reason my favorite engine. That engine is now on on an Atlas U23-b chassis which works great, but I want to have one a little more realistic looking and the bachman shell detail is not the greatest.

Any tips on kitbashing before I start this project would be great.
 
Josh (jbaakko) is our resident expert diesel detailer and he and several other guys here do custom painting on the side. I'm sure they'll see you request and chime in. In theory, you should just be able to cut the Atlas cab off just behind the back doors and drop the Bachmann crew quarters cab into place since the crew quarters cab was relatively minor change to the basic B23-7. Notice I said "in theory". :) I have no idea how hard it would really be.
 
PM sent for painting...

To build, it should be as easy as Jim said. Cut the cab off the Bachmann unit, level with the deck. Remove the cab from the Atlas unit, all the way down to the deck. Attach the Bachmann cab. The body of the BQ23-7 was exactly the same as the B23-7, its just the cab that changed.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=246791&nseq=0
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=153554&nseq=12
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=112220&nseq=16
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=6320&nseq=29

Looks like CSX made them into B units in the mid 90's too. I've always wanted some, but I cannot yet justify them!
 
:eek:that is one ugly loco!!!! LOL (personal opinion only;))

But it will surely be diffrent to see on a model Railroad

Trent
 
Trent, that does rank up there in the ugly locomotive contest. :) It's a hisorically interesting locomotive in that it was really the progenitor of all the wide nose engines in use now. GE was the first one to get the idea that the days of the caboose were doomed and the remaining crew needed a place to sit, s**t, and eat. :) It took EMD a number of years to figure it out.
 
I kinda like the beast. I noticed some similarities with the E-60CF cab...

I've looked around for the Bachmann model and have never even seen one, much less had a chance to acquire one...
 
Chessie never had one of these, they all belonged to SCL and they got reapinted to CSX at the time of the merger. I got pics of them. they nick named them the "Aegis Cruisers"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
148696_10151164930192883_683348461_n.jpg
I think this is along the lines of what you may have been talking about here. I am disposing of the motor in this and am going to put a real chassis in this one. I have two, this one is fictitious but the real one, SCL # 5131 actually ran through places like Tennessee.
600252_10151164930197883_2034871092_n.jpg


these are both in my collection at the "New O&A "
 
Last edited by a moderator:
man every board has a guy that loves those homely beast ......... (as i meekly raise my hand) :eek:....... wait hold it , i didnt say that , im a big steam guy , nothing to see here move along:rolleyes:
 
I always said that they were so ugly they were pretty! They're out of my era, but I too would like to have one for the display case.
 
UP2CSX said:
Trent, that does rank up there in the ugly locomotive contest. :) It's a hisorically interesting locomotive in that it was really the progenitor of all the wide nose engines in use now. GE was the first one to get the idea that the days of the caboose were doomed and the remaining crew needed a place to sit, s**t, and eat. :) It took EMD a number of years to figure it out.
Click to expand...

Certainly an interesting locomotive, but EMD had been making wide-cab locomotives for a number of years already for CN (and a couple for UP) when the BQ23-7's were built.

The first wide safety cab locomotives were CN GP38-2W's and M420W's, introduced in 1973 (the more famous GP40-2W's were built after the first wide-cab GP38-2 as the latter was the last unit of a standard cab order). The first actual wide-cab locomotive was the DDA40X, but it lacked the safety cab innovations with the armored nose that were introduced with the CN Canadian Safety Cab locomotives in 1973, all subsequent wide-cab locomotives have shared the basic CN design with the armoring.
 
There are Q cabs available from Shapeway in both N anf HO scale.I have not seen the HO cab in person but I have two of the N scale cabs.

For those that may not know the cab was available across the Dash 7 line up.I am in the process of doing a CQ30-7 in N scale.Here is a in process pic (I just started on it) .

cq30-7e.jpg
 
That big yellow thing is getting work done on it. I got the chassis switched out and got a can motor in it now instead of the pancake motor it came with. I need to body mount Kadees. I need to stabilize the circuit board because that has the light on it but I got to get the DCC chip on it now. I had to switch out the truck frames because the standard GE frames were not used on these units they used Blombergs instead. So to do that, I had to chop off the talgo because if I didn't the wheels would not do curves. I also had to slice off the sides of the fuel tanks. The shell fits down and has plenty of space for everything I need it to do. I'm going to have some really nice pictures with it now. I might need some Chessie Orange paint and some SCL grey. Onward to the SCL unit!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top