Well, I voted yes. The cars that I would like to see are the Superliners, Amfleets, Horizons, 73’ Budd Baggage Cars, and the 1700 Series Baggage Cars.
Sean
Amtrk14,
Walthers will most likely make the paint scheme available IF the sales potential exists. Looks like it does.
From my limited observations it does seem that modeling Amtrak has grown in popularity as our younger modelers move into their late teens/early adulthood, are earning money from part time jobs or new careers, and can afford the hobby.
One good thing to do would be to send Walthers intelligent, well thought out input. Get other modelers and LHS shop owners involved to do the same.
It could very well be that Walthers may already be planning on Phase IV paint schemes in future releases, however, it helps to let them know you’re interested. The more modelers the better.
Just my 2 cents!
Cheers!
I have written Walthers on two occasions about updating their Amtrak releases–Superliners, Horizons, Amfleet. I usually get a “we’ll forward that on to our marketing department” response.
It doesn’t make much sense that they’ve put out these great Amtrak cars and stopped at Phase IV. I’m afraid at this point, they might be waiting to see if Amtrak survives before releasing any more cars. Though you would always have “historical” layouts, they probably figure that sales would be way down if Amtrak does not survive.
My layout is 2005 up to the minute–as much as I can make it. But I’m stuck with Phase IV. From what I see of the California Zephyr and Coast Starlight, you still have Phase IV rolling stock but when I visited Chicago in May, most of the trainsets I saw were in Phase IVb.
I have about 10 of these bad boys that I have worked on over the last year.
There are more pictures of these cars on my website and additional photos of them will be made available within the next few weeks.
Kyle
Wow! That’s awesome! Do tell how you did it.
Thanks BNSF4ever!
I painted over a phase IV Amfleet I while masking off the red and white pin stripes and all other parts of the car except the blue band.
I then took a mixture of mostly D&H Blue, a touch of CSX Blue (to darken the blue), and a dab of Penn Central Green. I tried to match the hue found on Walthers Phase V AMD-103s.
I then airbrushed the paint onto the model. Decal set P-107 from Highball Graphics Decals (www.mgdecals.com) provided the red stripe and the other decals were custom made.
All of the windows were taken out except for the windows in the vestibules and slot adjacent to the vestibule on all four sides as the masking tape will cover them up anyway.
I would really like to see that, I think it is a cool phase.
Kyle
Walthers needs to hire you as project manager for a Phase IVb Amtrak car release!
I’ve seen on other posts that we’re spoiled in that there are more offerings than ever. But this is supposed to be a market-driven society, not a communist one. It seems to me the market wants Phase IVb cars. It’s time for the manufacturers to step up.
I’d be buying a few Amfleet I & II, some Viewliners and a couple MHCs. As would most other people modeling the modern east