Will Athearn or Kato ever make an HO SD70ACe?
Thanks,Allan.
Last time I saw SD70ACe Kato that person made them with some part kato SD70MAC and SD9043MAC body too I think look great
Give it time. Some company will do SD70ACe’s and SD70M-2s, along with GEVOs. The Tower55’s are just too darn expensive, someone else is bound to jump in. My money’s on Athearn and Kato, but I could see Atlas doing one as well.
I know I am looking foward to it. I do like the 70Aces and 70-2. Hopefully, by the summer… Well, I am hopeing.
Somebody will make them for sure. So far they are pure vapor and in demand
Maybe Kato or Atlas?
I do not recall just where, but, somewhere I read that either Athearn or Kato, or possibly both, had requested plans from EMD
Go to www.katousa.com and " customer photo gallery " , 3 page and name : " Mike Ventura " I think he made it
It is possible for Athearn or Atlas or Kato to produce a model of the SD70ACe, but most of their previous releases are for diesels that have been on the rails for ten years or so and models that are not available from what I would call first class producers.
The fact that Tower 55 is producing the SD70ACe makes it hard for someone else to risk a saturated market. Now if Athearn could make the model in the RTR line and offer it for about $99 list, they would sell all the models they could build. It would not be in direct competition with the Tower 55 since it would cost about one thirds the amount and have less detail. This model would sell to many of us not wanting every option or sound for each model.
The first plastic SD60’s were about fifteen years after the real ones hit the rails. A good plastic model of the GE Dash 8-40CW’s only came along last year, but the real ones are almost fourteen years old. Most of the builders seem to watch each other until they realize a model is needed and no one is selling it. The Kato Dash9’s were one of the first on the spot after the real ones and Athearn came along with Dash 9’s also. They were not really in competition as each offered some phase and equipment that the other one was missing and both had a market in different price ranges.
Lets hope we get some model competition with the SD70ACe prototype since they are selling to many more roads than previous EMD late models.
Just buy a Overland brass one for about $800. They look pretty good too Forget about Athearn or Kato!
I can’t afford that USD $800 ( NZD $1600 ) I know Overland brass are good and super detail too
I’m sorry to say but I think for at least the near future Overland/Tower 55 are your only choices. KATO seems to be concentrating solely on N scale for now (that’s a whole other thread). Athearn seem content on releasing 1970s locomotives as does Atlas.
The other posters are correct–there is usually huge lag between implementation in the real world and in HO scale. It’s gotten much since I’ve returned to the hobby. It could be better though. I also collect die-cast aircraft and especially for commercial aircraft, the time between a new paint scheme and a 1/400 model seems to be a matter of months.