Athearn GP38 Rebuild - The painting process begins.

Following an afternoon with a makeshift spraybooth, I've got the first coats of paint onto 5273.

It's my first time using an airbrush in twenty years, so predictably the first attempt went disasterously wrong... with runs and blobs in the paint.

A panic moment for sure, but thanks to the miracle of acrylic paint, it was one which was quickly fixed by washing the primer off before it dried.

The second attempt went perfectly and the colour coat went on without a hitch.

I'm using Pollyscale Conrail Blue, but it's drying a very different colour from my Athearn SD50 shell and my Atlas 8-40B. This could be a problem later on as I need to partially repaint my SD50 shell... so I will need to research for a paint colour that will match the Athearn blue exactly.

Here's some shots to show how the painting for 5273 went down.


The makeshift cardboard spray booth.


The shell ready for paint.


The primed shell.


The rear details of the primed shell.


The painted handrails.


The painted fan grilles.


Rear view of the painted shell.


Side view of the painted shell.


Next I will be masking and spraying the black parts of the shell, adding the damaged sections of paint on the nose and roof, and then adding the Conrail decals prior to weathering.

The chassis is also underway, although I need to get some better reference images to help place the various fuel tank details from the Cannon kit.