Halifax and South Western Railway GP15-1...

Please excuse the flight of fancy, my Canadian Project centres around Halifax, and the concept of a stub of the old Halifax and South Western, Chester subdivision remaining open for industrial traffic...

I've always had a soft spot for the GP15, a dash 2 GP7/9 really, and non made it to Canada with CN or CP, however short lines have brought them north of the border, and so my fledgling short line has patch painted an ex-Norfolk Southern unit. The model is the one that had the dull-cote disaster the other week, and I'm pleased to share these 'finished' (for now) images of it.

The approach broadly followed my usual techniques - observe the prototype and try to recreate what you see, in a sympathetic and restrained manner. Because the base model was black I was keen to relieve some of the detail with a panel line wash, so used a dark grey around some of the doors and panel lines. I also used a dark grey, rather than black, for the patch painting over the old NS logos. The yellow sole bar is a nod to both the Trillium Railway and CN - and differentiates this from just a simple patch job. 

I used a rusty dirty wash technique on the walk ways, and a slightly thicker wash along the edges of these, wiped down and some micro painting to suggest streaks from panel edges and rust marks. On the roof I used a sponge and some rusty dark brown on the edges of the cab roof and along the centre of the hood.

The under frame was also painted with a mix of matt black and matt orange with a touch of satin grey. The whole lot was then blended together with the airbrush using a mix of 2 parts Humbrol metalcote 27004 gunmetal with 1 part each of 245 and 133. The exhausts were treated to a 1 part 27004 1 part 245 mix. She looks a clean unit really, and one that will perform well on my layout when I get the chance to built it - in the meantime I've got the GP40 to weather, along with some more rolling stock to tackle. More soon...