Neo is The One (or 1/87)

I was introduced to the Neo range of high-detail 1/87 vehicles by a fellow modeller a few months ago.  These German models are resin replicas that are finished to an incredible level of detail, these are easily the most high quality HO scale models on the market and the detail level is on a par with much larger scales.

I picked up this Ford F100 pickup on ebay for a good price, this is an older model now so I guess the price reflects the demand for it.  Certainly the more recent models in the range are over £10 more expensive!

I will be using this model as a detail for photos on my layout, its too detailed and fragile to risk using at public shows. 

Rock Island Geep - Update

The final detail parts for my Rock Island Geep project arrived in the post this week so I was able to finish the body shell and begin the painting process.

As per the prototype this GP7 is fitted with tall MU cable stands and spark arrestors, as well as the usual handrails and other details.

I had to trim the exhaust stacks from the shell in order to fit the spark arrestors.

The Atlas cab has slightly different positions for the handrails so I drilled new holes and filled the old ones with squadron putty.

I hit a few snags with the painting, it took me three attempts to get the primer onto the shell, the paint kept clogging the airbrush and I was getting really uneven coverage.  I use Vallejo acrylic primer which I have always got good results with in the past but this was a new bottle and I'm not convinced it has not been affected by something in storage.  I will need to order a new one.

For the maroon I'm using Scalecoat acrylic Rock Island Maroon, but I'm not entirely happy with the colour, it's probably a closer match to the earlier units, I think I needed more of a scarlet shade for the unit I'm modelling.

I also ran into a lot of problems getting even coverage on the shell, especially in the corners of the hood and cab, where I just couldn't seem to get a decent even coat.   I do plan to heavily distress and weather this engine so the maroon colour and patchy coverage probably won't matter too much but I definitely need to work on my airbrush technique for next time!

Norfolk Southern GP60 Build Update

I finally managed to get some workbench time on these two units today and got the Q-Fans fitted to the RPP shell, the grabirons fitted and then spent time hunting through my parts collection for the various bits and pieces I will need to finish them.

I've got almost everything I need but I realised I still haven't sourced any suitable handrails for these units, and ebay seems to be empty for Athearn sets so I will need to order some stanchions and bend my own (first time I will have to do that).

I have a set of Railflyer treads for the RPP unit, the Athearn one will recieve decal treadplate.

First Geep for Godinez

I finally started work on the first Rock Island locomotive for my Godinez roster.  The model is a vintage 1990's Front Range GP7 kit which I will be superdetailing and painting in the late sixties Rock Island maroon and yellow paint scheme.

I started with a non-dynamic front range shell which was partially painted for Burlington Northern by the previous owner but never finished. 

The Front Range kit is the same tooling that formed the basis for the new Athearn Genesis geeps, so I knew that the cab roof was the wrong angle.  I decided to try and address that by replacing the original kit cab with an Atlas one.

The Atlas cab is slightly longer than the front range one so I had the do some trimming and filing to get it to fit, I also needed to shim the cab with styrene to raise it slightly as there is clearly a difference between the hood heights on the front range and Atlas bodies.

I also separated the nose from the long hood to make it easier to add the longer cab in between, otherwise I would have needed to file away the rivet detail on the roof.

I've added grab irons and prepared the shell for further detailing.  I've got several bags of Details West parts ready to add to the locomotive and will be giving it MU stands, air hoses and drop steps as well as adding brass horns.

Next step will be filling the gaps with milliput and sanding to give a smooth surface ready for priming.

Modelling Season Again

It's Autumn again and modelling season is well under way.  I've been to a couple of shows over the past few weeks and today I was at the annual Croydon MRS show at the John Ruskin College in Addington.

This show is usually very good value and normally takes over most of the college with various layouts spread through the different rooms and a steam ride-on railroad out in the car park.  This years show seemed to be much smaller than usual so I'm not sure what happened, but it was certainly not as well stocked as previous years.

There was only a single US outline layout year in "13th Street Yard" a short end-to-end switching layout owned by John Baggaley.

There were a few second hand traders at the show and I picked up a couple of cheap unboxed high-nose Southern units from the bargain box at Brian's Trains.  I suspect these may be the same locomotives I saw on his stand last year!

There was a massive display of Triang for sale, including the old battle space rocket train and missile car various other rarities.

The two engines I bought have both been 'weathered' by the previous owner using some rather heavy drybrushing and they really don't look any better for it.  I will dry to remove the weathering and start from scratch, otherwise it will be a trip to the dunk tank and a repaint for these locomotives.

Atlas SD35 #3008 in Southern livery. 

This model is from the Master series and is very nicely detailed with the usual Atlas quality and wire grab irons, pilot details, crew figures and underframe piping.  A very nice model indeed.

Athearn RTR SD40-2 in Southern livery. 

This is the re-tooled model based on the Railpower tooling, with factory thinwall cab and genesis style fuel tanks, wire grab irons, see-through fans and very crisp printing.  The brass horns are a nice touch on this model.