After a lot of prodding, fellow forum member Driline allowed me to detail and weather his Athearn RTR Soo GP35 #724. This was a true leap of faith since Driline and I had never met, and had only briefly PM’d each other because he had to believe not only would I do a respectable job on the engine, but actually return it to him. Well, the project was completed earlier in the week and the loco was returned to its right owner on Friday.
This project was a not superdetailing project, but was meant to add the distinctive details of 724. Out of the box the Athearn RTR locos are very nice. They now have separate fans and grills for the radiator fans, grab irons have been installed and the factory paint is clean and crisp. With that as a starting point, a search of the internet found a few pics of the prototype #724 to use a guides for detailing and weathering.
Both these sites are excellent sources for reference photos when working on a modeling project. Time on either site is time well spent.
Here’s the starting point of the project. Driline had already added a working rotary beacon.
The first radiator fan was popped out to be able to mount the winterization hatch.
The handrails were removed to be able to weather the walkways. Also the truck sideframes were removed for detailing. Air brake lines were formed from .012 brass wire and added between the brake cylinders. Per the proto photos, a speed recorder was added to the front fireman’s side wheel journal. The sideframes were lat
I’ve done some super detailing like that on my WC locomotives. With the all weather windows. Hard thing about the WC ones is they had the 3 windows ones, and to my knowledge no one makes the 3 window ones.
Thanks for listing the reference site for the photo’s. I was able to retrieve several photo’s of the Davenport Rock Island & Northwestern that I previously did not have.
When we last left our little engine, the basic detail parts had been added, but it still looked way too clean. The few more detail parts need to be added and then its weathering time.
The front and rear pilot had detail associates MU and trainline hoses added. Another distinguishing feature of #724 was its snowplow. The best match my LHS had in stock was DW #257. To mount snowplows, first remove any molded on protrusions from the pilot. I take the template included with the plow and spray adhesive it to a thin piece of styrene. Drill out of the mounting hole locators. I then tape the template to the pilot with the loco sitting a piece of track and with the recommend drill bit mark the locating holes. This usually works just fine, except in this case. When done and the plow mount it was way too high. When I inserted the plow into the template, the bottom of the plow was a 1/4" above the bottom of the template. Time to fill the holes and go to plan B, or was it plan C? Remove the mounting pins and CA it onto the front of the pilot. Before doing so, the MU hoses were installed and DA drop step grab irons were trimmed and CA’ed to the plow (another distinguishing feature).
The trip pin on the front coupler had to be cut of to clear the plow. Also note that a coupler lift bar was not installed, though it could have been as part of a more detailed project. In one late dated pic the bar was very visible while in another it was not visible.
Now the fun begins -Weathering.
The air intakes the model are light discolored out of the box. To my eye, it needed a darker, dirtier look. Each separate screen was masked off and airbrushed with a very thin mix of Floquil weathered black. On a side note, I like Floquil paint - it thins nicely, airbrushing well, dries fast since it is
Excellent job! The SOO (or any scheme that has a lot of white paint, such as the ICG) is a hard scheme to weather correctly. I’ve seen it way overdone and they just look odd when they are not done at all. Again, beautiful work.
I’d like to give a big thank-you to Jerry for taking on this labor intensive project. Yes, I was a little hesitant about sending a new engine to someone I’ve only conversed with via email, but after getting it back I was convinced [:)]
I too was concerned about “over doing” the weathering on the Soo Line engine afraid that everything white would become too dull or gray in appearance. This was not the case. It actually looks better on the layout than in the pictures. You may also recall I replaced the existing Athearn motor with a mashima can motor I had on hand. Not only does it run smooth now, it looks as good as it runs. This has become my favorite loco now on my layout. It takes someone with skill to pull this off convincingly and Jerry has done that.
awesome job Jerry. With a little practice from my new double action badger airbrush I too hope to be able to detail stuff like you do.
Everyone, I have met Jerry and he is a first class guy with a true love of trains. I have seen some of his work first hand and it amazes me. I consider myself lucky to have a friend in the hobby that lives close by that is enthused to help out a new guy in the hobby. He has many years of experience and is very willing to show me what he has learned over the years when he builds his layout. He was even kind enough to help me out on my layout after I get settled into the new house.
