Glen's diesel rebuild thread

[cnrglen]

Now that the FA-2 is completed, I got back to decaling the H16-44


I added the upper and lower stripes yesterday. when they dried I noticed that I did have a bit of maroon overspray on the gray so I sprayed the shell with dulcote and brush painted over.
On a side note I noticed that micro-scale didn't include the yellow numbers on their sheet that I will need. I might have to get their cab-unit sheet for those. I checked the black cat decals and they are of a different shade than the microscale, as are a number of other decals that I have.

[cnrglen]

I finished decaling the 'H-liner'



I managed to use some dry transfers from CDS for the numbers. They seemed to be the closest match in color. I hope with a little weathering they'll blend in. I also removed the masking tape from the fan screens. It's starting to look like a completed engine now.



The pilot and front nose decals were the most difficult. They are both one piece so I had to trim the pilot decal to clear the coupler buffer and make sure they were centered.
I gave the shell it's final sealing coat of dulcote tonight, now it's time to start reassembling.

[Charlie B]

Glen, in the pictures those numbers appear to match very well. Great job doing these. I would be hard pressed to do any locomotives if they had a complicated paint scheme.
Charlie

[cnrglen]

Thank you Charlie. It's not that complicated of a paint scheme, mostly it's all angles and no compound curves. My most difficult paint job was a F-7 in Canadian National. Trying to get the chevron right on the nose was very tricky for me, and here I am thinking of doing 2 more!

I finished off the H-liner this afternoon.



I added the handrails, horn, mu hoses, glass and the rest of the screens. The handrails are supposed to be CPR maroon but they didn't stay that way for long so I painted them flat black with weathering to follow. The ends of the handrails are yellow.

I also replaced the couple cut bars. Originally they were a friction fit but I couldn't get all four lifting eyes in and lined up at the same time. I just drilled the holes out a bit larger and CA'ed them in. Now that the engine is all re-assembled, I fired up my airbrush and weathered it.



These engines were real workhorses in their day and got pretty dirty, pretty quickly. Most of the pictures I've seen have the anything that was originally black looking gray, more like Polly-s Grimy Black. So that's what I did. I also used Polly-s dirt on the walkways and footboards, rust on the couplers, truck springs and brake shoes.



When that had all dried I took it to the layout for some run-by shots.







I also used flat black on the roof to show diesel exhaust. And I added a brakeman to the front foot board for some character.

[Charlie B]

Glen, the locomotive looks great. Those run-by shots show off a nice layout too. That paint job is very complicated compared to the PRR, but even the nose stripes of the PRR f7's were a little tricky. I still have a lot of detailing and weathering to do to mine.
Keep up this great thread.
Charlie

[doctorwayne]

I agree with Charlie: great job on the diesel and a nice look at your layout, too.

Wayne

[e-paw]

FM FM FM

[cnrglen]

Thanks everyone. I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out. It fits right in with my other 'dirty diesels'.
Charlie, my layout is only 17' long and 6' wide at it's widest part. I usually use this area for photoshoots since it's the longest straight section.

I went to a swap meet today hoping to pick up another project but came home empty handed on the diesel front. In the meantime I started a mini-project.




I managed to find the B unit mate to my Canadian Pacific C-liner A unit. Whoever owned it before me never put the hand grabs on the sides and then lost them. I did find a set of A unit grabs but that only gives half of what I need for the 'b'. So either I find another set of grabs or I start bending wire.

[Charlie B]

Glen, seeing your work you will have that wire bent by Monday. :mrgreen: Charlie

[cnrglen]

Doing a quick check on the grabs for the C-liner 'b'





As I mentioned an 'a' unit set gives me enough grabs to do one side of a 'b'




I could use the kit grabs on one side, and bend wire for the other side but you will notice that the kit grabs have either a curved or angled piece below the bottom mounting pin. Or I could just bend a whole set of grabs for both sides so they would match on the engine but would be a bit different than the 'a' unit that it will be running with.

[Charlie B]

Glen, could you put a small bit of wire in the bottom hole ant then use CA to glue the pre-bent grab to it? That looks like a tough problem but not one you won't solve.
Charlie

[cnrglen]

Actually I spoke too soon. I managed to track down a set of grabs for the engine after all.
It pays to be in a Model Railroad club with a dozen guys that refuse to throw anything out!

I'll be adding the grabs in the next couple days.

[cnrglen]

I finished installing the grabs and weathering the C-liner 'b'.I'd show a pic or two but both the a and b are at a friend's house getting speed matched. When I tried running the two together the b was running twice as fast as the a.
On the other hand I just won an Ebay auction for a F-7 Phase1 a&b set. These will replace the Bachmann set. The Bachmann set is okay, but I think I can do better. The Stewart set has a bit better fidelity than the Bachmann engines. The new set also is a single headlight, non dynamic brake which will represent one of the earlier units that CN had.
I am looking for a Detail associates Stewart F-unit 'b' detail set for the grabs. I looked through my detail collection and found I have the set for the a but not the b. I also have to find a few other details for these as well.

[Tyson Rayles]

You do great work!

[cnrglen]

Thank you Mike.

I got my A & B C-liners back



I just did a little light weathering on the trucks and lower bodies on these two.



Now that they were matched a bit better, they run very well together. mostly I think the problem was two different decoders. They both have the same Digitrax dh-121 decoder in them.