I bought a BNSF new look ES44DC from Tower 55. It was my third GEVO unit. The other two were flawless, but this third one has missing paint specks all over the front and rear handrails such that the brass color comes shining through. I might not mind one or two chips, but several is too much. I was stunned to see this on such a high priced model. Has any one else encountered this? I don’t want to paint over it as I am sure it will look crappy. I have written Tower 55 to see if they’ll take it back and repair it somehow.
Many people report this issue.
Return it where you bought it and get your money back.
It is damaged why pay top money for that?
I would probably return the engine or make it look like and old engine or add new parts to the engine. I’m pretty sure these things might help.
Holy-shake-and-baker batman.
Sounds like an adhesion problem between the top coat or primer and the brass substrate.
It’s unfortunate to hear that you’re having this problem with any product that’s in this price range.
The real question is - Why would any manufacturer go back to the days of having a separate railing and stanchions? For years now, new locomotives have had one-piece plastic molds with evertying in a single part. Even the Kato units, with their separate pieces for the ends were a big improvement.
I saw my first Tower 55 engine a while ago and sure enough, a number of the stanchions were misaligned on the railing. I thought we got rid of this nonsense years ago.
Ever look closely at a real 1:1 locomotive? They cost many times more than our models and the paint doesn’t stay on their handrails either.
If you can do seperate stanchions right, then it’s more realistic then one-piece plastic. One advantage of doing it that way is that the railing won’t be made too short, causing it to look warped. I found that on a lot of my higher quality engines (Kato SD80, Genesis SD75…) the molded stanchions aren’t spaced far enough apart, so they bend in toward each other, warping the railing. I’d rather have seperate pieces then one unfixable warped railing. All it takes to keep the seperate stanchions in place is some glue.[:D]
It just seems that the manufacturers can’t win here with the handrails. Either the plastic ones are too thick or if scale thickness they break or bend too easily. The metal ones won’t stay straight are too hard to install or the paint chips off. Again I say look at the real units in road service. They have chipped paint, rubbed off paint and places where they have been touched up. Unless it’s in a museum out of reach from the public the railings will show the most wear as that’s where we humans touch them the most.