doctorwayne's Get off yer duff Challenge (Part I)

[doctorwayne]

I've edited my previous post to add some photos of the initial alterations made to the auxiliary tender.

Still working on this locomotive as the Challenge deadline draws near.
I added some rivet decals to the main tender, to help hide the joint where the section was removed...



...along with some treadplate detail...



The auxiliary tender got more of the same...





As I learned with the Seaboard boxcar in Part III of my Challenge, even repeated applications of Solvaset will not settle the rivet decals well and I had several instances where entire strips of rivets would fall off, even with careful handling. Once all the rivets seemed to at least be staying in place (but with upturned edges and lots of silvering and bubbles, both indications of poor adhesion), I very carefully applied MEK to each river strip and tread plate decal. This requires a light and rapid pass, using a fairly small brush to avoid carrying too much solvent at one time. Where areas are missed on the first pass, go back a few minutes later to apply more, so that there's no excess accumulation of it: if the area remains wet for more than a few seconds, the individual rivets (tiny blobs of resin) will separate from the decal film. I purposely applied the rivet decals on unpainted styrene, most of it not at all glossy due to sanding. While such a surface does encourage silvering (trapped air), the bare styrene seems to react, along with the decal film, to create a much better bond. I'm tempted to say that the rivet decals are cemented in place.

A coat of Floquil Gray Primer made the rivet details "pop"...



...and gave a uniform finish to the disparate materials used in construction...













Since I'm planning to paint this locomotive using Scalecoat paint, the running gear modifications were brush painted directly on the unprimed plastic or brass. It'll get airbrushed at the same time as the tenders, although I may run out of time to get the lettering done before the Challenge ends. If that's the case, I'll still finish this build in this thread.

Wayne