Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[Amalynn]

That locomotive is coming along excellently.

[TMo]

Final install of the grabs and lifting eyes complete with a rough coat of paint on them.  I figure they'll get some weathering along with the rest of the locomotive.  Next come the cab details (horn, antenna, rain gutters) before I put all of the big pieces together (minus the rails) prior to weathering.  

       

[TMo]

Tonight I was able to spend a little time on the cab details - windshield wipers and horns.  The windshield wipers are brass pieces on sprues.  Once you have them cut to size you have to bend to appropriate looking angles, and they get tagged to the windowframes with a dab of super glue (wielded on the end of a straight pin in my case).  These are really small parts, so it took me a while to maneuver ithem into position to tack them on.  I had already assembled the horns on the bracket I made up, so a little glue and support until they set up.  I still have the rear wipers to install, the roof antenna and the rain gutters, but that'll have to wait for another day.

   

[TMo]

Continued fun.  It's brisk outside, so rather than catch a cold, I decided to spend some more time on the cab.  The rear windshield wipers and the antenna (I ASSUME it is an antenna - can't see what else would be on the roof cab as a vertical element and I found them up there on a number of century locos).  

   

Then came my moment of dread - trying to mount a piece of flattened and bent painted wire (the rain gutter) on the curved roof surface.  I was hard enough getting in aligned there on the roof without glue.  Once I was happy with the positioning, a needle's worth of glue on the bend and on the two ends.  It's drying in this shot.

   

Nothing more humbling than a closeup of this detail work.  Up close in these tight shots this stuff looks clunky and less than skillful (huh....  kinda like me!), but from about 8 inches with my old eyes, it ain't too bad.  

After a few minutes looking at these same photos, I started looking at things like details around windows in the plastic casting and edges of original paint.  Those ain't perfect either, so I'm gonna give my lukewarm thumbs up.  It does make you appreciate the people in the manufacturing facilities for their willingness to go to work everyday, and maybe those finely detailed "run out of the box" versions are worth the expense...

[jim currie]

myself I'm a 2 ft modeler if it looks good at 2 feet that's about as close as anyone can get to look at my layout.so your work great as far as I can see.
Jim

[tompm]

I agree with Jim. If it looks good at 2 feet than it is good. From what I can see it all looks good.

[Charlie B]

I agree with Jim and Tom.  The problem with modeling today is the darned cameras.  they always photograph things that we re not supposed to see. 

You work is just amazing. I find the more details I put on, the more I break off. I bought a bunch of detail parts for my centuries from Bowser but I will wait until I have more things done so I don't waste my time . Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing. 
Charlie

[TMo]

Thanks for all of the encouragement - you guys probably help keep my sanity with some of this stuff thanks to your commiseration.  

Well, here she is (minus handrails, weathering, cleanup and decals).  If I take a look at the "stock" Stewart model that I started with, I really think the detail parts do add a lot of interest.  That's good to say after spending some time and money with this locomotive.  I like the 2-ft rule, Charlie.  Problem is the "closeup" mode on the digital camera and the crop feature on the photos.  I just can't seem to help myself from the zoom button or cropping extraneous stuff.  

   

Decals are next for this beast.

[tompm]

Nice job. I see what you mean about the detail parts and how they can draw your eye. I assume you are going to weather it. Right now to my eyes the black makes the yellow very bright.

[Amalynn]

That definitely looks much better than when it started. The detail work adds a lot of interest.