I need some input on where I should go from here or do I just leave it alone. Here are some photos of my HO Kato SD70Mac that I took outside (no layout yet). I painted the grills black and then rubbed it off so only the in the grooves would the paint stay. Then I did a wash with a brownish color to give it the dirty look. Finished with some black chalk on the body to get in the gooves of the engine doors and on the roof top. My plan is to add a little detail around the nose and pass it by once with my airbrush along the bottom to resemble more dust kickup.
So my question is: Am I on the right track? (pun intended) and what input do you have to help me more?
Yep, here I pay $150 bucks for this sucker which is a BIG deal to me, and then, scared as hell, try my first real attempt at weathering a high-end engine.
I agree, this engine was the first expensive engine that I bought. I got it at my LHS and now 2 years later, I will never do that again. I don’t pay over $100 bucks for engine, because if you look hard enough, you can find the deals.
Take a look at the bottom picture, if you look close enough at the windows you can see that they are fogged, that was from the dullcoat. I’m thinking of finding a way to scrape some of it off so that it looks like the whipers had clean the windows. I think that would it a very real look.
See, that is what my next step in this hobby is to take an undecorated engine and paint it. I’m looking to do some MRLs in SD45 and 45-2 and maybe GP35. I think that would be a great level of model railroading to achieve.
The Executive paint was one of the best even on diesels for my money. It looks very good from the track level view, but could use some diesel dark gray soot or black on the top as they get dirty real fast near the exhaust and fans. You may already have done this, but the picture is not close so I can’t tell.
Good point. I did apply some and that is what kind of looks like dust on the top. I think it is just the way the sunlight was hitting it. I used chalk up there but when I get out my airbrush and feel comforable using it, I will add more soot. My plan up there is to make it look like it was hit by the washers by leaving a line down the middle
Here is an example for the Prototype:
That line down the middle in the photo you are referring to is special anti skip material or paint for maintenance crews to walk on, and not caused by washing. Some of the most recent models offered have this already, but I can not remember if the Kato had it or not.
I believe some of the Genesis units had this applied and maybe the Tower 55 units got the anti skid paint.
I am not sure that EMD used the anti skip paint on the SD70Mac, but the GE units have the material applied to them.
Maybe someone can post a picture of a SD70Mac from the top close up. You may not need that detail.
You have the correct look for the unit in service for a few months, and they do look good…
Really, Skid Paint. Wow, I really didn’t know that they put that stuff on the engines. You see, you learn something new everyday. I really thought that it was due to the washers missing the middle of the top of the engine. Well, if EMD didn’
That sounds like a good idea, in fact it is, it looks great on my dash 9. But dont go scraping the windows, they will scratch way too easily. Take some good quality masking tape, the kind you would use for painting an engine, and cut a couple pieces to the size of the window. Then carefully cut a couple of arcs where the wipers would go and stick the tape on the window. Then you can get a little bit of acetone on a q-tip and carefully wipe away the dullcote in the arcs. But be careful not to get the acetone anywhere you dont want paint or dullcote removed.
I like your thoughts. I just might have to give it a try. If you look closely at that bottom picture on the left side you can kind of see that I started scraping the window with my fingernail, that is when I came up with the idea for the whiper look. Honestly, I didn’t know how I was going to remove the dullcoat off of the windows to make it look like a prototype. So Joe, thanks for the tip.
