Rocking it with Athearn

I picked up this neat little 1950's Ford F100 truck on ebay fairly cheap.  Manufactured by Athearn, it comes factory decorated for Rock Island and fits in nicely on Godinez as part of the rural station detailing.

These vehicles are very nicely detailed and feature crisp panel lines and fine printing, the moulded plastic parts aren't as fine as the etched details on my Neo resin models but for the price you cant complain!

Here it is parked on the layout, a little on the fresh side for a Rock Island truck, I think I will need to give it a heavy weathering to make it more authentic.

We have the technology... we can rebuild it.

I noticed this SD50 shell going cheap on ebay and picked it up for less than a tenner, it's an Athearn RTR and perfect as a replacement for the parted out Conrail 50 I have sitting on the 'to do' pile.  The shell has clearly had a major collision with the floor at some point, but its in good shape apart from the walkways which have disintegrated.  I already have a Conrail walkway and handrails, the long hood and other parts are the pieces I needed.

I really should get around to completing some of these rebuilds soon, it's getting crowded in the parts box!  :)

High Nose GP40 - Rescue Build - Part 5

Time for a long overdue update on progress with the GP40 rescue build.  I want to have this locomotive finished in time for the NMRA convention at Kegworth, I'm hoping to pick up some credit for my locomotives AP certificate.

Some clear weather this week and I managed to shoot the shell with gloss black and get the decals placed.

The fans are fitted and the top grilles will be on soon, I discovered I had made a rookie error in fitting the all weather windows before they were glazed, but luckily I managed to figure a method to fit the glazing in situ!

Next come the fibre optics and the handrails, my deadline for getting the model finished is friday and I still plan to weather the shell so I'm banking on a clear dry day before the end of the week.

 

 

Here is a shot of the shell with stage one weathering.  The dullcote and an initial grime pass.  Next stage will be localised dirt and streaking.

 



 

It's looking more like a hard working workhorse now.  :)

High Nose GP40 - Rescue Build - Part 4

I finally got some time to finish the remaining details on the GP40 rescue build, adding the high nose bell, all weather windows and the MU cables and pilot steps.

I filled the small gaps on the nose and gave the shell a shot of primer ahead of its trip to the RPM table at this weekend Holbrook show.

I've been brushing up on my airbrushing skills (airbrushing up?)  and the process was a lot less wasteful this time, previously I've ended up with a lot of overspray as a result of being a bit too heavy on the flow.

I'm pretty pleased with how it has turned out, aside from a small gap along the treadplate edge it is looking good and ready for painting.  Easily my fastest ever build, and although it's not going to be a contest winner, it's definitely a real improvement from how it looked when I bought it.

Next comes the paint and decals.  Watch this space.

High Nose GP40 - Rescue Build

I found this high nose Athearn GP40 going cheap on ebay and picked it up as a quick project.  The model has been fitted with a high-nose, which turned out to be a Cannon & Co part, but not much else has been done to the model.

It had one of the worst paint jobs I have seen in a long time, with really, really thick paint brushed on, followed by an extra generous layer of dullcoat.  A real mess!

 

 

I have an idea I might be able to spruce the model up in time to put it on the display table at the club show, this won't be a concourse model but I will add some basic details and
grabirons to make it more presentable.

First port of call is the dip tank, I sat the model in 91% alcohol overnight then scrubbed with a toothbrush, I couldn't prise the handrails off because of all the paint, so I left them on until the paint had softened enough.

I don't know what brand of paint the model has been painted with, but the thick N&W blue comes off fairly easily when scrubbed with a toothbrush, the original paint is underneath, revealing this was a Conrail unit when it left the factory.

The Cannon high-nose has been fitted in an unusual way, with the previous owner keeping the original Athearn hatches at the base instead of cutting flush with the deck making it apparent that the nose itself is very slightly out of place. 

There is a chance that it might need replacing but I will wait until all the paint is off before deciding.

The Athearn paint is proving harder to shift than the top coat, so I will leave the shell soaking for the rest of the day.

Cheap Athearn 85ft Flatcar

I found this Athearn 'Transport Leasing' 85' flatcar going cheap on ebay, the auction picture was a bit blurry, but I thought I'd take a chance on it.  I'm glad I did, the model arrived today and it is in mint condition, with only some superficial wear to the outer box to reveal that it is not brand new.

The model is very nicely detailed, with separately applied wire grab-irons, detailed loading ramps, separate trailer hitches and very fine printing.

The model also comes complete with two 40ft trailers, one decorated for B&O and the other for Great Northern, these seem to be the old A-Line trailers with modern printing and very detailed wheels and chassis, they certainly look great.

A great model, and one I'm glad I picked up, it's certainly whetted my appetite for more of these.

Another Cheap Geep

I spotted this Athearn RTR GP35 on ebay with a very low buy-it-now, I'm guessing the seller based the price on the going rate for a wide-body blue box model.

This one is in better shape than the Western Pacific one I bought a few weeks ago.  The handrails are a bit loose and will need a spot of glue to hold them in place, the pilot steps are missing on the long hood end and slightly bent on the front, and there is no front coupler (the previous owner has chosen to superglue a stack of black plasticard to hold the shell on - a bit random, but easily fixable).

It's a nice model, but as I already have the WP one, and the Kato shell as projects, I will most likely fix this one and add it to the 'for sale' pile to go on the club table at the show in September.

Genesis Geep Rebuild

This week I picked up an Athearn Genesis GP15 on ebay, it was in pieces so I won it for £35 which seemed like a reasonable price provided I could get it back together.
It turned up today and sure enough, the model was in a very sorry state, with a large collection of loose pieces rattling around in the box.

It appears to be brand new, the wheels show little sign of wear, suggesting the previous owner had taken it apart to fit a DCC chip and then started losing parts, no doubt getting ever more frustrated as the model continued to shed parts until finally giving up in frustration and sending it to ebay. 

I have to say the construction for these Genesis models leaves more than a little to be desired, it seems like most of the parts are push-fit, with tiny details like the frame bell, tank piping and radiator grilles coming loose at the slightest touch.

The first order of business was a test run, which revealed that the engine wasn't moving at all, this turned out to be down to the 8-pin dummy plug being loose and once it was pushed home the locomotive proved to be a very, very smooth runner indeed.

I fitted a Digitrax DH123 decoder and then assembled the locomotive and replaced the various loose parts, there didn't seem to be any missing pieces, so the end result looks very impressive.

Damage to blower duct - (small hole at the walkway edge)

The only real damage to the model are the usual handrail problems (one of the supports is broken) and there is a small hole drilled into the blower duct.  This is a strange bit of damage , and it appears to be cause by the body mounting screws being accidentally pushed through the shell, or possibly the original owner attempting to drill out the chassis screw from the top.  A bit of putty and some black paint should fix the hole.

So I'm very pleased with this one, it comes fully boxed and it proved to be a very quick job to get it back on the rails, with these models retailing for £88 currently, that means I got it for well under half price.

Athearn RTR GP35 - Project Locomotive

Another cheap geep for the Peoria project.  This one is an Athearn RTR GP35 in Western Pacific silver and orange livery. 

The ebay listing advertised it as a basket-case but this locomotive is actually in very good shape.  This is a reissue of the old Rail Power Products shell, with some extra detailing and see-through fans.  The chassis is DCC ready and it's a nice little model.  The only issues with this one are missing coupler pockets, snapped handrails and a front truck with damaged sideframes.

The previous owner has broken the sideframe mounting pins and then attempted to fix the problem by drilling holes through the plastic and using plastruct tube to refit the frames.  It's a bit of a mess of glue and plastic, so the easiest way to fix it will be a replacement truck (any Athearn GP7 or F7 truck will fit).  So it needs a little work, but for the price it was a steal.

Photograph of High Hood N&W #1309 from http://www.nwhs.org/

I plan to turn this loco into a high-hood N&W unit, the handrails will either be glued back together or replaced with brass wire and I will fit a Cannon high nose.

Thinning out the collection.

I've been avidly buying up locomotives for the past year and a half, and this weekend I did an inventory of the many (many, many, many) boxes piled up in my modeling space.  It was starting to look like that warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark!

I quickly decided it was time for a clearout.

I have a number of locomotives from 'other' roads including CSX, Chessie, Union Pacific, Canadian National, Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and a few others, which I purchased either because they were cheap, or because I planned to repaint them.

Most of them are modern locomotives (post nineties) and would not be suitable for my planned 1980's layout, and others are basket cases that simply need to be repaired and then sold on.

So I spent a few hours taking photographs this afternoon and listing them on ebay.  It's definitely against the grain for my 'hoarders instinct' but I reckon it makes sense to thin out the collection, not least of all so I can raise some funds to buy the new engines I need.

There are around a dozen assorted RTR SD50's, SD60's and SD70's to be listed, plus a whole load of spare bodyshells, random boxcars and other oddities.  So if you are on the lookout for a bargain then check out the buy-it-now section of ebay :)

In the meantime, I will keep hunting for cheap geeps...

Chatham Show - June 2012

I drove over to Chatham today to attend the annual show at the historic dockyard.  This was the first time I'd been to this show and I was pleasantly surprised by how large and well attended it was.

The show was held in a large covered shed, a former shipbuilding shelter, and despite being open to the elements at one end, the venue was comfortable and easy to get around.

There were over thirty layouts and fifty traders, with a few US outline dealers in attendance including Signal Box, Kent Garden Railways and Penguin.

I spent an enjoyable hour or so trawling through the various second-hand dealers and picked up a slightly tired but running Rivarossi E8 in Union Pacific.

I bought a brand new Athearn bulkhead flatcar from Signal Box for £11, it's in Canadian livery but I will patch it for a private owner.

The majority of the layouts attending were British outline, but there were several US layouts as well as a number of European themed layouts.


Galatia Texas - Dan Spalding HO

Railroad Crossing - Bernard Reid HO

Rock Ridge - Chris White O Gauge

CDMRC - S Gauge Display Layout

I arrived home to find I also recieved my first Exactrail model in the post today.  This is a 60ft waffle sided hi-cube boxcar in Norfolk and Western livery.  The model is secondhand from a seller in Europe, but it is in mint condition.

The detail on this model is incredible, including etched metal coupler platforms and even seperate locking bars on the doors.

I'm very pleased with this model, and I will certainly be looking to pick up a few more of these Exactrail cars, the detail is superb.