GP 60 B unit

Finished weathering my GP60 B units

     It's been really hot here in Melbourne this past week 44 degrees Celsius that's 115.2 degrees F for four days straight so no chance of doing anything outside even the birds have gone.
     I did manage to get the grills on my GP60 B units sprayed before the heat arrived and it sure does make them stand out. I also gave them a very small amount of weathering along the top using an airbrush and Pan Pastels I think they came out looking OK. I have decided that I will not add the wire grabs handles. I am also not sure I like the grey side frames. These might get a coat of Scalecoat silver and a touch of weathering before they enter service they just don't look quite right

Here's a snap of the two sitting in the yard at Augusta.

     The locomotives in the background are also new arrivals to the roster. I had permission from my financial controller to purchase a set of E8A & B units from BLI. This is a bit of a history trip for me as my very first loco was an Atlas E8 in the same livery.
     If you have not had a chance to listen to the sound from one of the N Scale units you sure are missing something. I have MRC. Loksound and Tsunami sound decoders fitted to many of my locomotives and they do not even come close. The fact that they have planed where the decoder and twin speakers are fitted sure makes a difference. Thank you BLI

     I have yet to put the E8's on my programing track to set the road number that will happen over the course of time. Now the next job is to find some decals so I can upgrade my existing FP45 locos from the early scheme to the Super Fleet scheme as my E8's are due to replace them at the head of my directors special.
    I am very happy that these units have arrived.

    Loco Roster.
    I thought I would start showing my locomotive roster that I have been gathering since about 1989.
    The unit below is my version of a U36 at the time of the ill fated merger between Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific. It is a Kato U28 that I cut off the original radiator section and grafted on one from a Bachmann U36. I added the RC unit, air conditioning, sun visors and the beacon. I used Accuflex acrylic paint and applied the Microscale decals. The trickiest part was forming the crescent shape behind the cab however I copied a decal and made a styrene template for it and future units that needed updating. A small amount of weathering and just last week a did some light washes around the side doors to help them stand out. This loco has a loksound decoder installed with two speakers installed in the fuel tender. It sounds OK.
   

    This locomotive has done many miles over N Track modules for days on end, on my SFRSD and still runs like a Swiss watch.
That is it for today.
 Enjoy your day.
Rod.

GP60 M update

Adding sound to my FVM GP60M
     Once I had cut away the fuel tank casting area to allow for the fitment of the speaker I gave my loco to John (one of the decoder installation guru's of our group) to finish off the installation of the Loksound decoder and speaker.
     In a couple of posts back I showed how much material I had to remove from the fuel tank area so below you can see the speaker installed. Unfortunately I do not have an image of the decoder sitting in it's place in the chassis.

Note the 10 thou styrene under the speaker it seems to help to produce more sound

A better side on view. You can also see I have weathered the side intake grills, it really makes them stand out.

     Unfortunately there is not enough space to fit the speaker into a speaker box like others have been able to do on some other N Scale models.
     I need to add some double sided sticky tape to hold the fuel tank cover in place, the clips do not have anywhere to grip now that so much material has been removed.
     I also needed to adjust the notching as this did not seem to be working as it should under it's first test. Thanks to Loksound USA they put me on the right track to get it to notch once again. A bit more tweaking of the sound and some more light weathering and Loco 129 will be ready to take it's place on the SFRSD.
     A big thanks to Vince at Top Hobby for some helpful advice and to my good friend John for completing the installation.
 
 My GP60 B unit.
     I thought I would show my new GP60 B unit masked ready for its grills to be weathered probably tomorrow as the weather it tipped to be fine and about 22 degrees C. Ideal for spraying.

My masking tape of choice is Tamiya. It is easy to use and has a nice straight edge. I use 6 mm tape for the close areas and 18 mm for the broad cover.

I will use my airbrush with a mixture of flat black with a hint of rust added with lots of thinners.

     Have a happy new year everyone.
Rod.