01-27-2023, 06:34 PM
PART IV - The Denuding Begins
There are two LV Diamonds front a rear on the locomotive. The Lehigh Valley was known as the Route of the Black Diamond, as it was primarily an anthracite coal hauler in its heyday. The D&H kept the diamonds, but removed the "LV" inside the diamond and applied a small script D&H on 7324. I'm using diamond logos from a set of decals designed specifically for GP39 (Reading units), but they should work just fine.
Removed the end handrails to get easy access to each diamond. The "LV is actually probably bigger than the black diamond decal I have to add, so I had to carefully paint out the "LV" with some black acrylic paint.
Once the paint dried, I could then add the D&H diamond logos.
Next came the big paint out. I'd have to paint out the big "LEHIGH VALLEY" on each long hood. It was like the point of no return. The prototype photo shows that the red they used for the paint out was a couple of shades different than the Cornell Red used by EMD. Got some of my red acrylics out and painted on the inside of the shell to find the tint I wanted to use. The winner ended up being Ceramcoat Rooster Red.
The paint out in the prototype photo RailPictures.Net Photo: D&H 7324 Delaware & Hudson EMD GP38-2 at Enola, Pennsylvania by George W. Hamlin was fairly uniform in shape, but it looks like they were a bit short getting all the way to the top of each letter, and it looks like a hurried, fairly sloppy job. I can duplicate that (I think)! Decided to mask the area, so I removed the handrails on each side before applying the painter's tape to the sides. Two of the holes were glued, so rather than force it out, I left the rest of the handrail loose to help with manuevering the tape.
Applied two sloppy coats to try to hide the yellow letters, but they are stubborn, and I'm not fighting. The fact that you can still see that this was once a proud locomotive of a different railroad is part and parcel of the rainbow years, and specifically these locomotives. Even after the blue dip they eventually got, the blue paint flaked off and the LEHIGH VALLEY was resplendent for all to see.
Added those script logs in the diamonds front and rear. Since they were centered in the crease of the nose, I carefully applied Micro Set and Micro Sol until the logo had settled onto the surface.
Took the masking tape off the body. There are a couple of white script D&H logos I could put on the long hood, but I don't have them yet. It's now time to move on to adding the snowplow and MU hoses.
There are two LV Diamonds front a rear on the locomotive. The Lehigh Valley was known as the Route of the Black Diamond, as it was primarily an anthracite coal hauler in its heyday. The D&H kept the diamonds, but removed the "LV" inside the diamond and applied a small script D&H on 7324. I'm using diamond logos from a set of decals designed specifically for GP39 (Reading units), but they should work just fine.
Removed the end handrails to get easy access to each diamond. The "LV is actually probably bigger than the black diamond decal I have to add, so I had to carefully paint out the "LV" with some black acrylic paint.
Once the paint dried, I could then add the D&H diamond logos.
Next came the big paint out. I'd have to paint out the big "LEHIGH VALLEY" on each long hood. It was like the point of no return. The prototype photo shows that the red they used for the paint out was a couple of shades different than the Cornell Red used by EMD. Got some of my red acrylics out and painted on the inside of the shell to find the tint I wanted to use. The winner ended up being Ceramcoat Rooster Red.
The paint out in the prototype photo RailPictures.Net Photo: D&H 7324 Delaware & Hudson EMD GP38-2 at Enola, Pennsylvania by George W. Hamlin was fairly uniform in shape, but it looks like they were a bit short getting all the way to the top of each letter, and it looks like a hurried, fairly sloppy job. I can duplicate that (I think)! Decided to mask the area, so I removed the handrails on each side before applying the painter's tape to the sides. Two of the holes were glued, so rather than force it out, I left the rest of the handrail loose to help with manuevering the tape.
Applied two sloppy coats to try to hide the yellow letters, but they are stubborn, and I'm not fighting. The fact that you can still see that this was once a proud locomotive of a different railroad is part and parcel of the rainbow years, and specifically these locomotives. Even after the blue dip they eventually got, the blue paint flaked off and the LEHIGH VALLEY was resplendent for all to see.
Added those script logs in the diamonds front and rear. Since they were centered in the crease of the nose, I carefully applied Micro Set and Micro Sol until the logo had settled onto the surface.
Took the masking tape off the body. There are a couple of white script D&H logos I could put on the long hood, but I don't have them yet. It's now time to move on to adding the snowplow and MU hoses.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows