Is it me? The HMLX GP20…
I rescued this model from second hand purgatory. I didn’t really need it, per se, but I thought it might be useful for skills practice, pushing myself in my quest to apply larger scale details to these small N scale models…
…that and the fact it was painted in Santa Fe - oh and it’s a GP20, the first ‘quality’ model I bought in the 90s was a Proto2000 HO scale example, more recently donating its chassis to the GP9RM project, but I digress…
Carving off the grabs is made easier with a short sharp blade - smoothing made difficult with the existing paint finish needing to remain largely intact on this model. BLMA now owned by Atlas offer grabs and a drilling template which make this a bit easier - but the template is flat and the nose isn’t, and has things like headlights in the way! Certainly a challenge… pilot mods were easier, removing and smoothing moulded detail to replace with an etched overlay, but this needed modification to allow the Lifelike handrails to still fit…
Finishing was a case of blending the ends in with yellow, renumbering and lettering. Weathering included the usual washes but also a Humbrol 28 mist to bleach the paintwork out a touch - the result, posed on the fledgling Mosslanda has all the character and promise of the prototype, and more, I can carry the confidence with these parts forwards for my more involved Canadian Pacific GP38-2 make over.
So inspired by the examples operating on the Napoleon Defiance and Western (see below) I set about upgrading details and giving it a ‘post BNSF’ make over…
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| Ethan Hooper photo, Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/2m9LNRk) |
I didn’t go the whole hog and replace the front windscreen with the Santa Fe two piece conversion (yet, I may yet revisit that), nor did I add an air conditioning unit on the roof (again, something I might come back to - depending on what period I settle on for Defiance) but I did re-work the pilots and added grab irons… yes, in N!
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| Up front, BLMA (pilot, couple cut lever and nose grabs) along with Kato air hoses… |
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| …same at the rear - grab irons really set things off, but the pilot, cut bar and hoses are supporting actors. |
. The result isn’t what you see here, it is me…
Working on yet another locomotive, re-working it and deciding which features to finesse, allowing it to share its unique character - I pause and recognise that this is about practising a set of comfortable skills that allow me to focus upon the task, settle my mind and breathing and find some peace. The result isn’t what you see here, it is me…
Priceless.
Until next time, more soon…
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Morning James,
ReplyDeleteYou have turned a model into a workhorse, it tells a story just sat there in the photos. I've always felt that US locos look better with more detail, dynamic brake blisters on the roof and sun visors on the cabs, brake hoses, ditch lights and snow ploughs (where appropriate) seem to just add something , some grit to a model. I've always fancied a torpedo boat Geep 9 with those big tubes on the roof.
Take care.