Athearn Genesis SDP45

[Deleted]

May 29, 2014 20:14:35 GMT -5 conrail45dash2 said:

I was thinking about stripping it and repainting it but decided a patch job and some filthy weathering would do better and I can wait for the 2nd release.
Speaking of tearing a new loco apart, I horrified my LHS owner when he brought over a brand new Kato CSX painted SD80MAC, which I immediately disassembled and tossed it in alcohol to do Demo 8001

it's so fun to see the look on their faces when you do something like that to a brand new unit

[tankertoad70]

I was not going to purchase any more lokeys, then Athearn announced this puppy.

My local LHS, Hobby Smith, ordered me one up (GN of course) and she is a beaut!  I ordered the non-sound version.  First thing was to install a Digitrax DH165 and whilst doing that, I noted a bad wire on the installed wiring harness.  Fortunately, I keep an extra Genesis harness on hand and plunked the puppy in.  I always remove the hood first thing when getting a new lokey to check things out as it is nice to see what the internal workings are and any fixin' that needs doin' prior to running the puppy.

Once the decoder was installed and programmed, I found the humperdill to be a sweet and trouble free runner and am most pleased with it.  She pulled a friends 11 car BSB EB around the club layout without any issues.  I am used to tweaking the good ol' Uncle Irv blue boxes and no tweaking was necessary with this lokey.

[Deleted]

This week I finally pulled my EL unit out of the box for a much closer look. Standing back the model looks good. Up close it is a train wreck.

Athearn tools all new beautiful brake cylinders just to have them slathered in glue to hide it all.

So I completely disassembled the model down to the frame. Stripped the frame and removed all the detail lugs. I'll rebuild the underframe. I then disassembled the shell and removed all the detail parts and into the 91% it went. Last night I finished cleaning all the glue blobs off and I have a full undec model now. Everything is ready for the rebuild program. I think I picked Conrail 6690 for this model.

[iomalley]

There should be no shock to stripping factory-painted models. Custom painted models will always trump any factory-painted version bar none. The problem is, is that you're stuck with the model after that. For some strange reason, people in this hobby think that HO RTR models are collectable...they sure are...if you like losing money!

Of course there are exceptions, like Kato CP SD90s, VIA P42s, UP turbines etc, that garner slight increases in value, but the lot of what's offered, you'll get pennies on the dollar of what you paid. And unless you are a model-building rockstar, no matter how good your custom work is, collectors will steer clear of prototypical stuff cuz they don't understand it. "It has custom details, and won't fit in the original box" "What, no box? I'll give you $5 for it then!"

So that's why I custom paint my stuff, no one's gonna give me what I paid for it, so I may as well do it right and to my liking, the h^ll with you when you buy my stuff when I'm dead and gone!