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Did a little more digging on the history of the only two GP35's CN purchased. As I indicated in one of my posts, I saw photos of these units that made it appear (in some pictures) that there was no dyanamic brake fan present. Found this little nugget: "All units delivered with dynamic brakes. In later years the units had their dynamic brakes disconnected, and dynamic brake fan removed and plated over." So, focusing in on my modelled years (1976, 77), I think I'm good with keeping the fan in place and maintaining "protoypicality" for either of these. I also spied an evilbay "Buy it Now" of detail parts tonight including at least 6 diesel sunshades. The blue box Athearn unit didn't have those and I'd like to add them. Only other thing I could add is a destinctive plow. The same website called it a "rock pilot" plow, which was specific to CN locos. Might explore finding one.
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Got the airbrush out and gave the entire GP35 shell and railings a coat of Black - actually Polly Scale Brunswick Green. I like the faded black, kinda of an ebony gray - which is what you get with a locomotive outside for a couple of years. In this case, the original paint jobs were done in 1969, with 4001 getting the zebra scheme (and a new dip) in 1975. I'm still in the throes of which paint scheme to model - both will need this black base coat, but the red's a little different depending on which scheme - the zebra stripe gets a full red cab, the older "big CN" scheme gets red only to the front face of the cab. Since I still don't have the blessed bell, I won't be painting the red until that's installed. I'm also going to at least drill the holes for the grabirons (those are also still in the mail) before I put the red on.
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Got my grabs today in the mail (Tichy drop type). Went through several #80 drill bits, but eventually got all of the grabs installed. Except for a couple on the long hood, I'm going to glue them all in from the inside of the shell before I hit them all with some paint. Still no bell delivery. I may reconsider a darker black for the shell - Brunswick Green was probably a bit too faded.
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Todd,
DRWayne passed a tip about chucking those bits long so they had more flex. I always thought chucking them short was better and I broke a lot of bits Long is better. I also found that one of my pin vises will chuck into my power screwdriver/drill and I am able to hold the drill base flat on the bench and hold the model where it needs to be drilled. I was able to put grabs on 4 locomotives and never broke a bit and they were the cheap bits to boot. I have a mini drill press but it is sometimes difficult to position the model for proper hole placement but it sure is great for drilling fo a 2-56 tap for couplers.
Charlie
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Thanks for the tips, Charlie. I recalled your suggestion with the power drill, but didn't catch that you actually put the pin vise into the chuck of the drill, which is brilliant and something I'm going to try next time. My problem with chucking long usually leads me to bending the bit at a sharp angle since I probably lack the patience to "let the bit eat".
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Found a local source of airbrush paint - Michaels had some "Golden High Flow Acrylics" in matte Carbon Black.
I then spent some time taking my two brushes apart and learning the full ins and outs of cleaning the things through a nice tutorial I found on the web by Marco Frisoni ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pchYkrw6mG0) which I thought was educational. Sprayed the black over the Brunswick Green on the GP35. Looked too "shiny black" and new (even though it was a matte finish), so I got the Brunswick Green back out and hit the whole thing with a light coat to dull down the black. Drying now and I think it's more to my liking.
It's now time to decide on the paint scheme, and I think "4000" (the older non-zebra scheme) is going to be the winner. Something like this: https://www.canadianrailwayobservations....ulombe.jpg. My initial supplier for the bell confessed late last week that they couldn't get it for me. Found another supplier (CMR Products) that said they had them in stock, so maybe later this week... I also bought a set of Cannon sunshades to add, so it's all coming together, albeit slowly...
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The rock plow has been found! Same site I found as the second supplier of the Canadian-style bell (CMR products https://www.cmrproducts.com/).
Unfortunately, I ordered the bell and it was shipped before I found they also had the plow. This GP35 has ended up being a multi-stage acquisition and I'm spending more money on it than I initially thought I would: paint, decal sheet, bell, rock plow, grab irons... Death by a thousand cuts!
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Got the bells this week (man are they tiny!), so tonight was the night to install one.
I'd previously cut off the lens shades on the cab mounted headlights, but that still left an oval area that didn't match the rectangular area to mount the bell bracket.
After contemplating the arrangement, I decided to get out the Dremel with a sanding barrel on the end and I removed the plastic down to the base of the cab.
A little CA, and the unpainted bell now resides in the middle of the cab roof!
While I was at it, it was also a good time to install the sunshades on each side of the cab. I'd bought some Cannon and Co. EMD Cab Sunshades. Word to the wise, these things are really thin and easy to snap in half! They do fit nicely in the slots that Athearn molded into the area above the wide though... Again, a dab of CA did the trick. All of these new details will get splashed with some primer soon.
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Dulled up the paint (too shiny) by fading with a coat of X-21 flat base mixed with rubbing alcohol and then applying a black wash. I may retouch the wash here and there to even things out.
I'm going to be painting the front and rear ends (after masking off the remainder of the body) sometime in the coming week. By looking at the available images, it looks like only the big CN logos on the long hood and the road numbers, model type and "FR" decals will need to be applied. Still haven't received the plow, but I'm also hopeful that will arrive this week as well. At some point I'll have to paint the sill white all the way around.
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Added the splash of color on the front and rear ends after quite a bit of masking. Still a little detail painting to go including the sills and a couple odds and ends. I'll probably dull up the orange/red as well at some point. Got a little overspray inside the windows which reminds me that I wanted to at least paint the inside of the cab with some light gray maybe.
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Added the white paint on the sills. Still have to paint the interior of the cab. Plow continues to be "processing" at CMR, and that's the final piece to be added (aside from MU hoses). I'll get to decaling sometime this week.
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Update on the GP35...
I decided to work on the number boards for the front and rear, so I went searching for the transparent window insert for the front cab.... I started last night and turned over my workbench and my desk to no avail. What should have been an easy task just got tougher. Plan B.
Since there's no cab headlight, I wasn't going to worry much about lighting up the number boards, figuring that there would be enough blowback from the nose light that it should wash into the cab and hit enough of the transparent number boards, but now that I can't find that piece, Plan B has to try to get at least some light onto the board.
So, I have an extra cab roof (alas, without the number board insert) to serve as a test bed. Dug through the extra plastic parts and found some decking for a bridge. Just so happens that the ties on that bridge are just the right width to fit inside the number board on the cab
Cut to approximate length, sanded the ends until they would slip in, and then ran a few holes through the middle to allow some light in.
Printed the road number on some sticker paper and cut to fit the boards and installed on the real deal.
Also cut a light window in the center of the two rear number boards with three holes drilled in each,
and applied the same stickers there, and I'm really pretty happy with the way the number boards are lit (reduced the exposure quite a bit to get the number boards to show the light you see in real life). Ready for decals and that blasted plow (if CMR ever gets it into the mail).
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Well, while I was watching The Masters this afternoon, I did a little less than half of the decal additions and did some base painting of the trucks and fuel tank on that side. The K4 decals are on pretty thick film, so there are plenty of applications of Micro Sol to get the "CN" worm decals stretched over, around and down into the shell. Here's a shot of one side with the Micro Sol drying.
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Todd, that is coming along nicely. It will be a great addition to our fleet.
Charlie
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Thanks, Charlie! I think so too. I got to thinking how this thing all started, and it was one of your photos from the late 70's that inspired me to add the foreign power...
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