Bachmann GP38 - Repainted, weathered & minor detailing

[jonte]

Hi.

First post of first attempt at repainting, weathering and minor detailing of any item of rolling stock. My victim is a rather cheaply purchased but much cherished Bachmann GP 38-2 which I think is a sweet and reliable runner, if not the most highly detailed model ever produced.

When purchased it looked like this:








My intention is to turn it into the livery and condition of the C420 in this picture akronrrclub.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/fc_315c.jpg

so that it become the single engine in steam on my nascent layout: 'Robust Yard', Ohio, based on the MAW at Defiance.

If nobody minds, I will post this now to determine whether the image I attached from Photobucket comes out or not. If so, I will post further photos of the build to date on the next post. If not, I'll need to hone my skills at uploading and come back. Wish me luck!

jonte

[jonte]

Oh dear, still refusing to upload despite manual entering of URL.

Perhaps it's something to do wth the tablet?

Apologies,

Jonte

[emd16645]

On photobucket, look for a line called "direct link". Copy that url into the photo link space in the forum. I post photos frequently on here using my phone, so it should be similar on a tablet.

Are you using an app to access the forum or just through the tablet's browser?

[jonte]

A gentleman, Chris, thank you.

Regards,

Jonte

PS .......just using the browser on my iPad, Chris.

[jonte]

Now that the little problem of attaching photos has been surmounted with Chris's kind help,
I can carry on bringing you up to date with this minor project.

I didn't bother stripping the paint off, opting to rub it with wet and dry paper to remove any loose lining/decal and provide a key for the light grey acrylic car primer as seen in these following couple of photos.

I also removed the moulded grab irons using my wife's nail file, the intention being to replace them with some metal ones purchased from Micro Mark (I think) some time earlier together with an appropriately sized drill bit to assist with the process. When I say I removed the moulded-on grab irons, that isn't quite true; no. It was only after I'd applied the primer that I realised that in my haste to get painting, I'd forgotten to remove the parallel lines of steps from the rear hood! Never mind; perhaps I'll return to these eventually.

     

About a week later I started to paint it, wafting it over with a hairdryer to remove any dust that might have started to settle prior to doing so. The dark grey undercoat is A Humbrol enamel paint, chosen because the top light grey coat appears to have a darker coat peeking through in places that appears dark grey, and because I had a tinlet of the stuff residing on my desk. The paint was applied by brush in the form of a thin wash, which was actually more thinners than paint, and from memory it took about three to four coats of wash to cover. This has imparted a texture to the paint surface which hopefully will assist with the careworn patina of the prototype and provide a suitable key for the top coat and the application of pigments if necessary.
The next stage in the painting process will be to mark the locations of rust spots along the bodywork using photographs of the prototype as reference, then applying a series of browny/orangey shades of Humbrol enamel, to represent the rust itself, starting with the light shades first then going gradually darker. Once achieved, the rust spots will be covered with masking agent, before a red brick coloured shade is applied to one or two panels as seen in the Proto photos. Once more spots of masking agent are applied to the red brick panels, the whole lot can be washed over with a couple of thin coats of light grey wash as per the dark grey undercoat. As per the prototype, certain areas of the model will be covered with further washes of top coat so that when the masking is eventually removed, we should be left with rust poking through top coat, panel red brick and undercoat peeking through the top coat in parts. In places, the rust will be surrounded by flaking paint which is easily represented by this process. Numbers will be a mixture of decals and brush painted types applied via home made stencils.
I hope I'm not lolling you into a false sense of security here: I really don't know if any of this will work, it'll merely be a protracted process of good ol' trial and error. We shall see!




As you can see from the photos, the trucks remain in their primed condition. Eventually they'll be given a matt black Humbrol wash before receiving an application of both wet and dry pigments. The search continues for a suitable prototype chassis to copy btw, as the colours int he photos of the C420 are a little too vivid, or simply out of focus to get a true representation. Shame really.

As you can probably tell from the photos attached, I've replaced the moulded plastic fuel tanks with some home made ones cobbled together from a sheet of K&S sheet brass which I can't even remember buying - I knew it would come in handy though one day!

If anyone is interested, I'll explain how I fabricated them - which was dead easy - but for now, I'll just say that I had a bash because the originals of the cheap Bachmann model were devoid of detail so there would be nothing lost in trying, and also because I wanted to emulate the litany of prototype locos whose photos adorn the 'net, displaying impact damage to their fuel tanks.; a feature I think that is rarely modelled. They turned out okay, for someone of my meagre experience, and were originally a lot neater. However, problems later arose in replacing the body with the first method of fitting, so a lot of unsoldering and filing imparted a more agricultural look to it. I also ran out of suitable solder, and not wishing to wait for new stocks to be ordered and delivered, I pressed on with some inferior stuff from a R/C model shop, that caused me to hover with the iron a little longer than I would have liked. Anyway, I think they'll just about pass muster and hope that you agree. The next step will be to apply some pipes, tubes and gauges from some bits and off its of wire and tubing on my modelling desk, together with drilling out some appropriately sized fuel caps - but I'll wait for the descent solder and flux to arrive before attempting ! Once completed, I'll rinse it out to remove any residue and then spray it with the same acrylic car spray as the body work.

Btw, before I forget, some photos of the C420 show oil type spillage marks running down both rear quarters of the body work which I think I'm right in saying is possibly go do with a blown turbo? Anyway, this will be attempted using an airbrush as I think the edges of paint applied by brush will be too defined for this purpose. I suppose I could several coats of dry brushing- or perhaps a mixture of both. Perhaps.

I hope I haven't served to bore you so far, and in the remote possibility that somebody might be the least bit interested in my first venture, please don't hesitate to pose any questions.

Thanks for reading,

Jonte

[jonte]

Sorry about the disorganisation. Still feeling my way round.

Jonte

[emd16645]

Happy I could help. Looks like you're off to a good start.

[jonte]

Thanks again, Chris, and for your kind words of encouragement.

Jonte

[jonte]

Oh dear!

just noticed my piccies have gone AWOL.

Will try and put them back on. Sincerest apologies.

jonte

[pacbelt]

Looks like a great start! I look forward to following your build.
I would also be very interested in seeing how you made the tank out of brass.

Carmine

[jonte]

Oct 14, 2015 12:04:29 GMT -5 pacbelt said:

Looks like a great start! I look forward to following your build.
I would also be very interested in seeing how you made the tank out of brass.

Carmine

Hi Carmine, and thank you for your interest and encouragement. Both are sincerely appreciated.

Unfortunately, work hasn't progressed since my last post due to one thing or another, and is unlikely to do so any time soon. However, I promise to do so once a suitable opportunity arises.

in the meantime, here's a summary of how I fabricated the fuel tank, which is far easier than it sounds; believe me, if I can do it ANYONE  can.

First off ( I sincerely trust I'm not teaching my granny to suck the proverbial eggs here - please accept my humblest apologies if I do so, but I only discovered it by trial and error!), brass sheet is notoriously difficult to draw on - pencil and ink rubs off far too easily, and felt tip pens are generally far too thick for the task). So, cover the area of sheet you intend to use with common or garden masking tape which not only makes the surface easier to mark, but also makes the line easier to see. Also, it also makes it easier to grip a drill bit should you ever need to drill.

Then, remove the tank from the model - a simple task which generally only involves removing a retaining screw or two, although a modeller's set of scre drivers (or jewelers' screw drivers) might prove useful here - and use it as a template to draw round each end of the fuel tank using a sharp pencil or fine tipped fibre pen (you need to make sure that the outline is drawn as close to the fuel tank as possible to prevent it being oversize, which might prove troublesome when trying to fit it between the frames!).

once you have your template or outline of each end (which are in point of fact identical, so in essence you could just use one end for the purpose), drawn onto the brass sheet, use a piercing saw with a fine jeweller's blade ( these are available for cents on any of the on-line bidding places such as e-bay) to cut roughly round the edge of each the templates. Once the templates of each end of the fuel tank are cut from the main brass sheet as described, finish off by filing up to the drawn lines on the masking tape - this is easier than it sounds using a small Swiss file, which will leave you with the two ends of the 'new' brass fuel tank.

Next, measure the length of the fuel tank AND the height or depth of the sides - don't worry too much about the height or depth, just an approximate will suffice, as the sides of mine are separate to make the fettling easier so don't meet under neath as it's just a facade. Then draw the rectangles of each side onto the brass sheet, and cut out and finish as per the ends.

Once you have the sides cut out, turn on the burner of your gas cooker as we are going to anneal the brass - heating the brass  to make it softer and more malleable, by wafting it in and out of a flame in the jaws of an old pair of pliers, watching it turn to a sort of purpleycolour which only takes a minute or two at most. Depending on the type of brass used, it may, in effect, only go bright orange which will do for our purposes. Once this point is reached, run the hot brass under a running tap or drop it into a bowl of cold water. When cool enough to handle, it will bend as easily as lead. Practise on a scrap piece first to experiment. It really is easy to do.

Now to bend the brass to shape. First of all, take one of the side pieces and place one of the ends flat down on top of it so the tops of each are level. Make a mark on the side piece at the point where the first bend will be I.e. Where the tank flares outwards starting from the top, so that if you were looking at it with the side facing you, the bend woud be made towards you, if that makes sense. Don't loose sleep over where to make this mark precisely: near enough to where it flares on your cut out end piece will do. Now, extend this Mark level with the top of the side along its length by either scratching with a reamer or drawing the line  with a pencil - it's only a temporary measure so doesn't matter if it rubs off with handling, just do long as we can use it to place a piece of two by one along it or a steel rule or place it in a vice, in order to bend it to the approximate angle required.

once we've reached this point, we're cooking!

All I did next, was to place this softened brass side on top of the original plastic tank of the model, lining up the bend in it with the corresponding bend in the plastic fuel tank, and then using the fuel tank as a 'mould', started to rub downwards along the length of the brass side from this bend, so that it took up the shape of the original. What you are left with is a brass replication of one side of the fuel tank. Then repeat for the othe side.

Now we are ready to solder the newly formed sides to the end profiles or templates we cut earlier.

Using a hot iron and plenty of flux - I used a liquid flux obtainable over here in theUK - join each side in turn to the end pieces starting from the top of the tank. Just tack it for now (blobs of solder applied at different points to hold it in position then follow up by soldering along the length to join them permanently). If the tops of the tank sides are level with the tops of the ends, they can be placed flat on the bench for soldering. If not, a block of two by one can be screwed to a base of ply and the end piece fastened to it with either blu-tack or a drawing pin to hold it at ninety degrees to the side piece. Once the top is secured, it can be removed from the wood support and pressed firmly against each point along the curve of the tank, using the ply base as a support, to ensure that there are no gaps as the end is soldered to the side. By the way, the ends are placed inside the sides for soldering not the other way round. Continue until you have a square shaped fuel tank. hope I've made this clear enough for you; apologies if it's gibberish!

it really is easier done than said.

to distress the tank I.e. putting in the dents, just press it with a screw driver or the jaws of a small pair of pliers as the brass is still soft enough to mark, but as this softness is a hindrance as well as a help, make sure that the rear of the side being distressed is supported with a suitable piece of material such as a sliver of wood.

Fortuitously, the plastic tank was a tight fit inside the brass one so Zi could bash away yo my heart's content. However, the larger dents necessitated the removal of some of the plastic from the sides of the original tank using a knife or slitting disc in a modelling drill, so that the metal could be depressed further.

and that was it, Carmine.

I can only reiterate that it was much easier to do than describe.

I hope I've encouraged you to have a bash. Apologies if I've put you off!

Best regards,

jonte

[pacbelt]

Thx.

[pacbelt]

JUST KIDDING, Mate!!!

Lord, don't you hate it when you deliver a long, thought out explanation for someone - and then THEY reply with "k" or "thx"??

I've been kitbashing and scratchbuilding for over 30 years, but I've never worked with brass....
It seems easy enough. You've basically just made a wrap for the stock plastic tank!
However, being metal, it has a look, that plastic can't completely replicate.
Well done! Thank you.

[jonte]

Oct 15, 2015 12:14:50 GMT -5 pacbelt said:

JUST KIDDING, Mate!!!

Lord, don't you hate it when you deliver a long, thought out explanation for someone - and then THEY reply with "k" or "thx"??

I've been kitbashing and scratchbuilding for over 30 years, but I've never worked with brass....
It seems easy enough. You've basically just made a wrap for the stock plastic tank!
However, being metal, it has a look, that plastic can't completely replicate.
Well done! Thank you.

Hi Carmine, and thank you for your acknowledgement.

I've even seen some examples where the individual making the query doesn't even bother to say thanks, so I suppose even a 'K' is not so bad!,

You're obviously way more xperienced than me so please forgive me for over-egging the pudding. I prefer your more concise explanation: it's a brass wrap. Wish I'd thought of that?

As you're probably aware, some have 'coaxed' plastic - especially ore carrying type cars - using hot screw drivers and such, but knowing my luck It would probably end in tears!

Glad you found my waffling useful, and I look forward to seeing you doing it properly ?

jonte

[pacbelt]

jonte,

Experience doesn't always count in...
This was an earlier attempt at plastic distressing:

I nearly RUINED it!

... but, if you never try, you'll never know. It did eventually get better, but everything's a learning process, regardless of experience!

[ironstef70]

Oct 15, 2015 14:09:15 GMT -5 pacbelt said:

jonte,

Experience doesn't always count in...
This was an earlier attempt at plastic distressing:

I nearly RUINED it!

... but, if you never try, you'll never know. It did eventually get better, but everything's a learning process, regardless of experience!

[ironstef70]

Ruined it Nah, just weathered it...
Gondolas are always trashy rolling stock. Looks much better this way than out of the box. Even that bottom part of the frame looks like deep rust spots. You did much better than you think.

Jonte, sounds like a good start. I'm curious to see that new livery once completed.

Stephane

[pacbelt]

Thanks Stephane,
The crane driver should be fired - at least!!

[jonte]

Hi again, Carmine and thanks for your input.

Now, I'm just a bog standard modeller, but to my nascent eye, that looks the part. In fact, if some of that excellent replication of rust was applied in spots tothe area, I doubt I'd even know it was 'melted' plastic. You are obviously very good at exercising restraint; I definitely would have ruined it!!!
P.S. My emoticons have been appearing as question barks for some reason, so I've given up on them!).

Regards,

jonte

[jonte]

Hi, Stephane, and thank you too for your kind words of encouragement.

A little busy at present, I'm afraid, but both you and Carmine have inspired me to hasten the process, so hopefully will get back to it in the not-too-distant-future.

Just hope I don't disappoint.

Kind regards,

jonte