Yesterday, 10:03 AM
Finally got my replacement Hi-Ad trucks for the BCR M630 via UPS yesterday - they were in a package on my kitchen island when I got home from playing golf with my son - an early Father's Day gift.
My previous delivered set of 2 trucks (front and rear) lacked about half of the brake air chambers (looks like the glue failed to adhere and they weren't in the package), and one of the brass pickups had been bent to the point that the truck wouldn't ride on the rail (I showed the correction for that little problem a few weeks ago), and lacked the plugs on the end of each wire (I soldered on some spares I had on hand). Bowser had said they'd send me replacements, and here they were in the box - a total of FOUR Hi Ad trucks - enough for 2 locomotives. After installing 2 sets on the BCR locomotive, I declared victory and went to bed. On further review, one of those replacement trucks lacked one of the 4 brake chambers - again, looks like the glue failed or they were never installed in the factory and they were not in the delivered packaging. You can see the white spot on the trucks on the front axle of the picture below where the chamber SHOULD reside...
Popped off the sideframe and replaced it with one of the other sideframes delivered on the extra trucks. I blundered there. That would have been a really good opportunity to rust up the wheelset vertical surfaces, and the weathering was what I was going to start on today! Removed the shell one more time to make the weathering process a little easier.
If this unit was on lease to Conrail in '76-'77, it would have been 3-6 years old. I'm going with some road dust, exhaust stack refuse, a bit of rust on the plow and lower portions of the frame and walkways, but not my usual CR bankrupt railroad look, which was exactly what I was going for on this unit with the CR patchout of an old Penn Central/PRR C628. First order of business is to paint the cut portions of the cast frame where I had to dig in with my Dremel tool to make the shell fit as well as dosing the new trucks and fuel tank with dirty dark, dark gray to de-plasticify the factory finish. I brushed that acrylic paint on with a fairly compliant brush.
After that dried, I highlighted the truck components and the fuel tank with several lighter gray paints (adding more and more white to my paint) applied with a soft brush. Before finishing up the gray, I got the black paint back out and added some black highlights with a very dry brush. I like to paint to be the main component of underside weathering because that's usually where I'm handling the loco the most and powders won't hold up over time there. Here's a shot of the gray coats drying.
Next comes a little bit of brown - especially on the fuel tank drips (in vertical strokes) since dry diesel has a very brown component to it. That'll probably be a good time to rust up the wheel sets, but I'm going outside to do some weeding after I clean up my brushes.
My previous delivered set of 2 trucks (front and rear) lacked about half of the brake air chambers (looks like the glue failed to adhere and they weren't in the package), and one of the brass pickups had been bent to the point that the truck wouldn't ride on the rail (I showed the correction for that little problem a few weeks ago), and lacked the plugs on the end of each wire (I soldered on some spares I had on hand). Bowser had said they'd send me replacements, and here they were in the box - a total of FOUR Hi Ad trucks - enough for 2 locomotives. After installing 2 sets on the BCR locomotive, I declared victory and went to bed. On further review, one of those replacement trucks lacked one of the 4 brake chambers - again, looks like the glue failed or they were never installed in the factory and they were not in the delivered packaging. You can see the white spot on the trucks on the front axle of the picture below where the chamber SHOULD reside...
Popped off the sideframe and replaced it with one of the other sideframes delivered on the extra trucks. I blundered there. That would have been a really good opportunity to rust up the wheelset vertical surfaces, and the weathering was what I was going to start on today! Removed the shell one more time to make the weathering process a little easier.
If this unit was on lease to Conrail in '76-'77, it would have been 3-6 years old. I'm going with some road dust, exhaust stack refuse, a bit of rust on the plow and lower portions of the frame and walkways, but not my usual CR bankrupt railroad look, which was exactly what I was going for on this unit with the CR patchout of an old Penn Central/PRR C628. First order of business is to paint the cut portions of the cast frame where I had to dig in with my Dremel tool to make the shell fit as well as dosing the new trucks and fuel tank with dirty dark, dark gray to de-plasticify the factory finish. I brushed that acrylic paint on with a fairly compliant brush.
After that dried, I highlighted the truck components and the fuel tank with several lighter gray paints (adding more and more white to my paint) applied with a soft brush. Before finishing up the gray, I got the black paint back out and added some black highlights with a very dry brush. I like to paint to be the main component of underside weathering because that's usually where I'm handling the loco the most and powders won't hold up over time there. Here's a shot of the gray coats drying.
Next comes a little bit of brown - especially on the fuel tank drips (in vertical strokes) since dry diesel has a very brown component to it. That'll probably be a good time to rust up the wheel sets, but I'm going outside to do some weeding after I clean up my brushes.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows