Painting a GE44 tonner - How crazy should I go?....


F

fast_ian

Member
Hi,

Taking a break from layout design decisions, I want to spray some paint!

I have a couple of Bachmann Spectrums in black & silver that need to be redone in "my" prototypes green & yellow. [Pic attached]

I pulled the shell, windows etc but the handrails (and some pretty nice "hinged wire") are all fixed in pretty solidly.

Questions;

- I don't have a "sand blasting" gun to strip the original paint/decals - I think a couple of coats of rattle can primer may be OK, or should I strip it first? How?

- I'm nervous about the handrails and stuff - I guess I could cut them off, paint, and then redrill the mounting holes and use thin brass/styrene, but is that "required"? Or just making more (unneccesary?) work.

I'm not counting rivets, or looking (yet anyway!) to "superdetail" the thing - Getting it "close" to suggest the prototype is good enough, but I'm not sure where to start......

Cheers,
Ian
 
Ian, the handrails are glued in with a little bit of rubber cement. They will come out with a bit of gentle pulling. Or use a straight X-Acto blade to gently pry them off. I would recommend to strip the paint first. Leaving the original paint on, you'll see the raised areas after painting. Also the colors your going to (yellow) would require a lot of paint to cover the original color (black). You'd lose a lot of details with so many layers of paint. Best to strip it and start from scratch. I use 91% alcohol to stripe paint.
 
wheeler1963 said:
....Best to strip it and start from scratch. I use 91% alcohol to stripe paint.
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That's what I'm talkin' about!.... Thanks dude!...

Given your comments, I "pulled" a little harder on the rails and dunked the whole thing into 91% alcohol - The first two are "from the box", the 3rd after I pulled (gently!) & dunked, and the last after primer.

Thanks again!
Cheers,
Ian
 
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fast_ian said:
That's what I'm talkin' about!.... Thanks dude!...

Given your comments, I "pulled" a little harder on the rails and dunked the whole thing into 91% alcohol - The first two are "from the box", the 3rd after I pulled (gently!) & dunked, and the last after primer.

Thanks again!
Cheers,
Ian
Click to expand...

Very nice, I too have one of these I'm going to repaint into Milwaukee Road colors, good to see the original paint came off easy in the alcohol!

That Sante Fe shell was nice looking, I would have felt bad getting rid of those colors! At least mine has that boring B & O blue!
 
jasonelki said:
Very nice, I too have one of these I'm going to repaint into Milwaukee Road colors, good to see the original paint came off easy in the alcohol!
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Indeed - There was quite a lot of it on there - I thought at first it was softening the shell and I was putting fingerprints into it! But a gentle scrub with an old toothbrush stripped it right back and revealed quite a bit more detail [and a bunch of "swirls" from the injection process. Easily covered with primer.]

That Sante Fe shell was nice looking, I would have felt bad getting rid of those colors! At least mine has that boring B & O blue!
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:) Hopefully green & yellow will work..... [apparently it was affectionately known as "the banana road" back in the day!]

A couple of notes - Most of the hand rails were actually "pushed" out from the underside, not "pulled" as discussed. What I called the "wire hinges" at each end are molded into a *red* carrier - No need to freak out when you start seeing red as the paint comes off!

I'll update once I get some color on it.

Cheers,
Ian
 
One thing that is bugging me now that's in primer is the size of the windshield wipers! I know I *said* I wasn't going to get carried away, but I may have to do something there!

Cheers,
Ian
 
fast_ian said:
One thing that is bugging me now that's in primer is the size of the windshield wipers! I know I *said* I wasn't going to get carried away, but I may have to do something there!

Cheers,
Ian
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Ian, A-Line makes some nice wipers that look 100% better. Bachmann did use some very over-sized wipers on those.
 
Ian, I feel your pain. Knowing when to stop is always a hard things to do. The only other problem I have with the Bachmann 44 tonner is the up-coupling bar. They have it mounted on top of the sill with 4 posts. The bar comes no where close to the actual coupler.
 
wheeler1963 said:
Ian, I feel your pain. Knowing when to stop is always a hard things to do.
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Indeed! And this thing is just a ~$40 loco after all......

In addition to the wipers I'm now looking at photo etched steps & grab irons! :eek: Then there's the handrails themselves - Maybe they'd be better done in brass. Then there's the cab. Then..... ;)

The only other problem I have with the Bachmann 44 tonner is the up-coupling bar. They have it mounted on top of the sill with 4 posts. The bar comes no where close to the actual coupler.
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I presume that's what I'm calling the wire hinge?.... I looked at cutting it off completely (to paint) but as noted, it's kind of "in there". It may not be right, but it's a little more "detail"......

Found the wipers: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/116-29201

Cheers,
Ian
 
Ian, yes those wipers will work perfectly. I wouldn't worry about the handrails, they look pretty good once painted up. Yes I think we're talking about the same thing when you said wire hinge. That is a draw back to the over-all looks of it. But that would require removing the 4 posts, filling in the holes, then re-positioning it on the front of the pilot, which then makes another problem. The posts on either end would be sticking through at the steps. It all depends on what you have planned for this little guy. Is it going to be a show piece for your layout, or just an ordinary runner? Here's one I did then Mark put the DCC and lights in it for me.

100_2940.jpg


I have 5 more in that yellow/black stripes scheme that I haven't even touched yet. I'd leave the etched steps off personally. A lot of work for little detail really. Where do you need wire grabs irons at? I see in the photo of the prototype that it has them, but the Bachmann model has a door in that location.
 
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wheeler1963 said:
Ian, yes those wipers will work perfectly. I wouldn't worry about the handrails, they look pretty good once painted up. Yes I think we're talking about the same thing when you said wire hinge. That is a draw back to the over-all looks of it. But that would require removing the 4 posts, filling in the holes, then re-positioning it on the front of the pilot, which then makes another problem. The posts on either end would be sticking through at the steps.
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Thanks!

It all depends on what you have planned for this little guy. Is it going to be a show piece for your layout, or just an ordinary runner? Here's one I did then Mark put the DCC and lights in it for me.
....
I'd leave the etched steps off personally. A lot of work for little detail really. Where do you need wire grabs irons at? I see in the photo of the prototype that it has them, but the Bachmann model has a door in that location.
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Agreed. It's very definitely "just a runner". It was actually the first DCC install I did - Popped a DZ123 in it (which subsequently let the smoke out for reasons unknown). Digitrax replaced it, but I have yet to put it back - IIRC the decoder kind of "filled" the cab! - Your's is real nice - thx for the pic.

I can't find any other pix of the top of the prototype, but assume it *must* have a light on the roof? That would mean using a 4 function decoder, and I hate "wasting" functions.....

Cheers,
Ian
 
Ian, usually a beacon light, horn or antenna is on the roofs. Not a lot of good photos of the tops, but I did find a lot of profile pictures that you can see certain detail parts from. Do a search of GE 44 tons on Railpictures.net
 
ghosttrain2 said:
Ian, are you modelling the Virginia and Truckee D1 ?
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I'm *trying* to model the whole thing! OK, not the entire line, but what I consider the "highlights". Thanks for the pix! Are you from around there?

I do the annual VC Hillclimb (affectionately known as "the Ferrari races" by the locals) every year and started out with an HO slot car track that would be scenicked appropriately. Then I thought it would be cool to add "a little loop of RR" and the grade crossing at Goldhill. Then the wheels fell off and I decided to spray some paint instead......

The whole (somewhat sorry!) tale is in my "8x4 to 10x7" thread in the layout design forum; http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20027

It seems to have "disintegrated" into something of a pissing contest, but I guess that's better than being ignored ;)

Thanks again for the pix,
Cheers,
Ian
 
So, I'm gazing at the primer-ed shell trying to decide how to mask it and made, what for me anyway, is a huge discovery - The entire cab section snaps out! How cool is that! I think I can now see some ways to get 'er done almost without masking! :)

I'm a happy camper! [Although, I think I'm gonna stick with the original prototype photo - Putting letters in the stripe as shown above is probably a little above my pay grade ;)]

Cheers,
Ian
 
You know Ian, your enthusiasm in this tread is refreshing to see. It really livens things up and is inspiring to me as it reminds me of my younger modelling days. And Jerome, I admire your work, your knowledge and your willingness to help others. You are a huge asset and inspiration to these forums. Thanks both of you for a great thread!

On topic, I have one of these little 44s also from years ago just before I put the trains away for a bunch of years. Probably one of the first run models as I believe it was given to me the year they came out or the next. Anyway, they truly do have a way of bringing a certain flavour or magic to a layout in these days of BIG power and mainline through-frieghts. I don't run mine often but it really fits well on my prairie branchline. Here's a quick pic just for Show & Tell (ignore the incomplete scenicking I just started on this layout late December)...

DSC01652.jpg

It's a re-badged unit with a couple extra details - I don't even remember what Ry is was when I got it. Weathering never got done as I recieved this late in my early MR days and it was soon packed up. Today was its first light in many years. It needs a dusting of coal dust to finish it off as it belongs to the Dominion Coal Works (DCW) which was a 6 mile industrial line off my branchline operating from the 60's into the early 90's.
 
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