Post by ednadolski on Oct 30, 2011 22:26:30 GMT -5
With Halloween almost here, what could be more fun than a "Ghost Pumpkin"? 
The BNSF has a fair number of these GE C44-9W locomotives in the Heritage II paint scheme, where the orange paint has faded to a pale orange or almost a peach color, thus earning nicknames like "Ghost Pumpkin", "Faded Pumpkin", or even "Peachbonnet". To try to capture this look, I started out with an undecorated Kato shell, and spliced in the radiator section from a Kato AC4400 in order to obtain the alternating height long/short grill panels on the rear section of the hood.
Other shell modifications included the use of Squadron putty to fill in the sand filler hatch area on the back end of the body, to make it more like the prototype. I then airbrushed the model using Tru-Color paints, with the faded orange color custom mixed from BNSF Orange and White. The air conditioner and the one unfaded sun shade were painted with ModelFlex BNSF Orange, as I felt that the unfaded Tru-Color BNSF orange looked a little too dark to my eye. I used Microscale decals for the striping, numbering, and various warning labels commonly seen on these types of locos.
Detailing consists of a number of aftermarket and scratchbuilt parts. I fabricated all grabirons and cut levers from 0.005" stainless steel wire, and the handrails are made from 0.008" phosphor bronze wire soldered to Gold Medal etched brass stanchions. The traction motor cables are scratchbuilt from 0.008" brass wire, soldered together and formed to fit. Other scratchbuilt parts include the MU cable made from a single strand of solid 30 gauge wire, and door handles formed from small pieces of PB wire. I also used a number of BLMA parts, including sunshades, cab mirrors, air hoses, MU hoses, plow, and lift tabs. I also installed a Digitrax DCC decoder.
To get rid of the cast-on windshield wipers, I first shaved them down carefully using a curved scalpel blade, then wet-sanded the windshields starting with 1000 grit automotive sandpaper and worked my way up to 2000 grit. I then polished them using an ordinary toothpaste, and finally gave them a spray of Glosscoat from the rattle can.
For weathering, I started with a fade overspray using Polly Scale Aged White. This was followed up with a couple of grime washes using acrylic paints and gouache. The rust on the one sunshade used acrylic burnt umber. The rest of the weathering was an airbrush spray of Polly Scale Dirt across the pilots, steps, trucks, and air/fuel tanks, plus another airbrush of flat black on the roof, focusing around the exhaust stack.
The pics include a few shots next to a straight OOTB Kato BNSF Dash-9, for comparison. Hope y'all like this one, it was a lot of fun to build.
Best,
Ed
Links to some proto pics:
www.locophotos.com/pix/119/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Denver%20CO_Derek%20Brown_2011-08-01_119406.jpg
www.locophotos.com/pix/108/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Seattle%20WA_Stan%20Lytle_2010-02-20_108098.jpg
www.locophotos.com/pix/104/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Seattle%20WA_Stan%20Lytle_2009-07-25_104959.jpg
www.locophotos.com/pix/84/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Minneapolis%20MN_Larry%20Larson_2008-04-05_84818.jpg
www.locophotos.com/pix/36/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Cajon%20Pass%20CA_Scott%20Barr_2006-08-26_36703.jpg
The BNSF has a fair number of these GE C44-9W locomotives in the Heritage II paint scheme, where the orange paint has faded to a pale orange or almost a peach color, thus earning nicknames like "Ghost Pumpkin", "Faded Pumpkin", or even "Peachbonnet". To try to capture this look, I started out with an undecorated Kato shell, and spliced in the radiator section from a Kato AC4400 in order to obtain the alternating height long/short grill panels on the rear section of the hood.
Other shell modifications included the use of Squadron putty to fill in the sand filler hatch area on the back end of the body, to make it more like the prototype. I then airbrushed the model using Tru-Color paints, with the faded orange color custom mixed from BNSF Orange and White. The air conditioner and the one unfaded sun shade were painted with ModelFlex BNSF Orange, as I felt that the unfaded Tru-Color BNSF orange looked a little too dark to my eye. I used Microscale decals for the striping, numbering, and various warning labels commonly seen on these types of locos.
Detailing consists of a number of aftermarket and scratchbuilt parts. I fabricated all grabirons and cut levers from 0.005" stainless steel wire, and the handrails are made from 0.008" phosphor bronze wire soldered to Gold Medal etched brass stanchions. The traction motor cables are scratchbuilt from 0.008" brass wire, soldered together and formed to fit. Other scratchbuilt parts include the MU cable made from a single strand of solid 30 gauge wire, and door handles formed from small pieces of PB wire. I also used a number of BLMA parts, including sunshades, cab mirrors, air hoses, MU hoses, plow, and lift tabs. I also installed a Digitrax DCC decoder.
To get rid of the cast-on windshield wipers, I first shaved them down carefully using a curved scalpel blade, then wet-sanded the windshields starting with 1000 grit automotive sandpaper and worked my way up to 2000 grit. I then polished them using an ordinary toothpaste, and finally gave them a spray of Glosscoat from the rattle can.
For weathering, I started with a fade overspray using Polly Scale Aged White. This was followed up with a couple of grime washes using acrylic paints and gouache. The rust on the one sunshade used acrylic burnt umber. The rest of the weathering was an airbrush spray of Polly Scale Dirt across the pilots, steps, trucks, and air/fuel tanks, plus another airbrush of flat black on the roof, focusing around the exhaust stack.
The pics include a few shots next to a straight OOTB Kato BNSF Dash-9, for comparison. Hope y'all like this one, it was a lot of fun to build.
Best,
Ed
Links to some proto pics:
www.locophotos.com/pix/119/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Denver%20CO_Derek%20Brown_2011-08-01_119406.jpg
www.locophotos.com/pix/108/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Seattle%20WA_Stan%20Lytle_2010-02-20_108098.jpg
www.locophotos.com/pix/104/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Seattle%20WA_Stan%20Lytle_2009-07-25_104959.jpg
www.locophotos.com/pix/84/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Minneapolis%20MN_Larry%20Larson_2008-04-05_84818.jpg
www.locophotos.com/pix/36/BNSF%20Railway%20BNSF%205383_Cajon%20Pass%20CA_Scott%20Barr_2006-08-26_36703.jpg
