Model Railroading > GP15-1 Undec project ?

Hi Guys, I'm in the midst of tackling my first undecorated locomotive project and find myself in need of some advice. I couldn't wait any longer for Athearn to announce a GP15-1 for the California Northern Railroad so I took the plunge and bought an undecorated CNW version (nose bell). Over the past few days I have got to this stage using Polly Scale (acrylics). Now a bit of a dilemma ! The first thing is I need to gloss the parts to take the decals but with what ? There's so many products out there its an absolute nightmare !! everyone has their own favourite and then you come across someone whose had bad results with that particular product - my choices are Microscale Micros Gloss, Polly Scale Gloss Cote or Humbrol Gloss Cote (Solvent based) I can't get Testors Gloss Cote that easily here in the UK. I'm also planning to airbrush the Gloss Cote on and have read many instances of where people have ended up with cloudy or milky looking results so any advice on this would be grateful. Secondly I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to glue the nose to the cab before final assembly ? sorry guys if this is a bit of a dumb question but as I said its my first undec project - structures I have no problem with !!

I know what will happen fairly soon - Athearn will announce a GP15-1 for the California Northern Railroad !!, I'm almost sure they will, as on the parts sheet that came with the undec model they list a set of handrails for ARZC - Arizona and California. I'm pretty sure ARZC never had any GP15-1's but their colour scheme is very similar to that of the California Northern. Athearn are probably going to use the same paint code for when they produced the Arizona and California GP35 in the RTR line.

Roy

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Yes, as a matter of fact, AzCal did have a few GP15-1's. I took several photos of them back in the mid 90's, but for the life of me, I can't find them. They eventually did go to the NCal Rwy.

Jim

I use poly scale overcoats for all of my models, I have only had one incident with it and that was 100% my fault: I overcoated an engine and it had small white dots all over it, turns out I didnt shake it to good.

If you decide on poly scale I highly recommend you get some thinner for it also, I have yet to get a bottle of it that didnt require thinning.

roysp - thw white on CFNR is not a dead white. I color-matched to an actual loco and my mix came out to be Pollyscale Reefer White 20/Desert Storm Sand 1. That slight tinting makes all the difference !

Walt in Sausalito

roysp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Guys, I'm in the midst of tackling my first
> undecorated locomotive project and find myself in
> need of some advice. I couldn't wait any longer
> for Athearn to announce a GP15-1 for the
> California Northern Railroad so I took the plunge
> and bought an undecorated CNW version (nose bell).
> Over the past few days I have got to this stage
> using Polly Scale (acrylics). Now a bit of a
> dilemma ! The first thing is I need to gloss the
> parts to take the decals but with what ? There's
> so many products out there its an absolute
> nightmare !! everyone has their own favourite and
> then you come across someone whose had bad results
> with that particular product - my choices are
> Microscale Micros Gloss, Polly Scale Gloss Cote or
> Humbrol Gloss Cote (Solvent based) I can't get
> Testors Gloss Cote that easily here in the UK. I'm
> also planning to airbrush the Gloss Cote on and
> have read many instances of where people have
> ended up with cloudy or milky looking results so
> any advice on this would be grateful. Secondly I'm
> not sure if it would be a good idea to glue the
> nose to the cab before final assembly ? sorry guys
> if this is a bit of a dumb question but as I said
> its my first undec project - structures I have no
> problem with !!
>
> I know what will happen fairly soon - Athearn will
> announce a GP15-1 for the California Northern
> Railroad !!, I'm almost sure they will, as on the
> parts sheet that came with the undec model they
> list a set of handrails for ARZC - Arizona and
> California. I'm pretty sure ARZC never had any
> GP15-1's but their colour scheme is very similar
> to that of the California Northern. Athearn are
> probably going to use the same paint code for when
> they produced the Arizona and California GP35 in
> the RTR line.
>
Since you got his far with acrylics, stick with them. Try Future floor wax.

Elizabeth

I used distilled water to thin the poly scale coloured paint, can you not use distilled water to thin the gloss cote ?

Roy

Walt:

I saw that before on the CFNR unofficial website:

http://www.trainweb.org/calnorthern/info.html

I printed out that info and intend to follow it when I paint my GP15-1 and a Proto2k SD9 in CFNR. (a project I'll be getting to one of these days).

Thanks for posting this useful information.

roysp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I used distilled water to thin the poly scale
> coloured paint, can you not use distilled water to
> thin the gloss cote ?
>
> Roy

Yes you can.

Mark - you are welcome. Get them done and we'll do a fleet (HO) run at my club in Point Richmond (www.gsmrm.org)! I have 2 OMI GP15-1s custom painted with 2 more to paint myself, have done Appekunny Mountain (brass) and 3 SD9s (P2Ks); also one ARZC SD45; and one ARZC GP38-2 in pure white following the Microscale decal mis-advise before I knew better:-(. Looks like Anschutz' scheme for his new high-end passenger tour set is going to look very close.

See this thread in the Passenger Car area if you have not seen before:
<http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,2206704,2206704#msg-2206704&gt;

Walt in Sausalito



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/10 20:27 by wfre.

Thanks for your advice guys. I have another one to do, so I'll take Walts advice about the 'white' on board. Will post again on completion.

Roy

Walt:

Sounds great; I also have a Tsunami equipped Proto 1K CFNR GP15-1 that I added some details to look 'semi close' to prototype. When the other two are done I'll weather it to match. I saw a couple of the old geeps in Davis a few weeks ago doing their work. I think it was 108 and 109. Awesome and classic locomotives.

I would love to come out to Point Richmond sometime for a run session.

Take care

Roy:

Definitely post upon completion; especially any tips/hints you learn as you finish the model. I'm sure it will look awesome.

Take care