Southern F3 in tuxedo black

Awesome,brilliant,excellent,what else can anyone say, ;)(as he turns green with envy) ;) ;)just a question,,,where will you scource your decals?
 
Thanks for that Gav..
I have been made aware of the Tamiya tapes, and will get some when I drum up courage to have a go!
First I have to strip some paint someone else applied, but that is a story for a different thread..

I also understand about lines being proud of a surface, having added 5mph to the top speed of my old bangers by adding a stripe! - This when I was a 'yoof' of course!
;) :D ;D ;D
 
Thanks for the kind words folks! :)

For the decals I asked Stan Cederleaf to do them again as he did a really lovely job making the custom decals for my N&W GP18 project. He is a really nice guy and pleasure to deal with, plus the decals he produces are excellent. I could probably do some myself but it does save a bit time and hard work.

I also get all the small detail decals from Microscale. Luckily they still produce a pack of sheets in 1:29 for all the extra info like builders plates, warning signs, labels and other bits of info found on US diesels. I bought a whole handful a while back as I was terrified they would stop producing them like so many manufacturers, but fortunately it is still on all their lists and website!

Thanks again,
G
 
Hi folks,

Another quick update on things.

After a bit of work I finally got the gold lining done. It was a bit of a pain to be honest, but it does look better and is much closer to the prototype. Again it isn`t perfect but this loco will get a decent dose of weathering so any slight blemishes will be long forgotten :)

Here it is so far:

1.jpg

I just need to put some gloss varnish on now to make a base for the decals. I also removed the builder`s plates from beneath the cab side windows with some more T-Cut. I have the older style plates ready on a sheet of diesel detail decals from Microscale, so they can go on with the rest of the numbers and lettering.

Work still continues on the chassis, with a little more detail to add to the fuel tanks and pilots.

Thanks again,]
Gavin
 
Thanks for decal info,,,,,,,and this just gets better every time i view it ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
 
Thanks :)

Another quick update on progress...

I started putting things back together at last such as the fans and doors, when I arrived at the glazing. I started test fitting the pieces back in but the more I looked at them the more I wasn`t happy with the stock USAT windows. On closer inspection you begin to see that they are quite crude, chunky and thick, plus they have a large grey ring around the outside.

I used some T-Cut to carefully remove the paint from most of the pieces like the side portholes and the door windows. I used a black sharpie to colour round the outside edges as this helps prevent what they call the "prism" effect. It`s basically when the light bounces in and around the inside edges causing an almost kaleidoscopic light effect, often showing how thick and over scale our model glazing can be.

The main windscreen pieces sadly didn`t come out so well :( In the end I just decided to fabricate my own from clear styrene sheet I kept for a rainy day project such as this! Here are a few shots to show things so far with the right hand side window completed. There are also a couple of photos showing my new glazing compared alongside the old USAT piece. This is still a work in progress so apologies for the dust and dirty finger prints!

6 Resized.jpg

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The left pane is the original, and the right is the new one cut from clear styrene:

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3 Resized.jpg

I also stripped the number boards of the previous numbering so now they are ready for the decals when I get to that stage.

Thanks for keeping up with all this!

G
 
Just a few more photos...

I finished up all the windows today so here are a couple of shots showing the front windscreen panes of the F3:

8 Resized.jpg

9 Resized.jpg

Thanks,
G
 
Yet another job on the list completed,excellent work(as usual) :) :) :) :) :) ;)
 
Hi,

Just another quick update on progress...

I made a big push over the last few days to get on with this and try and get things rounded off!

I started by re-installing all the electronics and connecting things back up to the DCC chip and sound board. I wanted to get this step finished off so that I can get the body all sealed up and screwed back in place before moving on with the last of the details.

In the process I completed the new headlight in the nose of the loco. I was going to use a mini MAG light reflector as I had done on a previous kit bash, but after a bit more research it seemed that this unit had a twin beam headlight installed later in its life. Luckily I had some spare pieces from Ozark miniatures which included a twin sealed beam reflector, and this turned out to be a good fit. I used it and two warm white LEDs, and finishing the headlight off with a AAA sized mini MAG light clear lens. I secured the lens in place with some ClearFix from Humbrol which is a thick, colourless glue that dries completely clear and is ideal for glazing such as model windows and aircraft cockpits.

I`ve also begun the last of the details with the rear brake hoses and painting the rear coupler:

1 Resized.jpg

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Here is a prototype photo of the loco I`m modelling, #6706, which clearly has two bulbs in the headlight reflector:

EatontonGANov1972 Resized.jpg

Thanks again,
G
 
Hi folks,

First things first, Merry Xmas & Happy New Year!

I apologise for the lack of any updates on this thread as progress on the loco sort of ground to a halt recently. My attention was caught up with a lot of other things, Christmas, work, and my other new hobby, exploring and photographing with our new-ish DSLR which my partner and I recently bought together!

It`s not train-related, but I recently started a photo blog over on Tumblr if anyone is interested and has too much time on their hands:

www.viewfromtheoutside.tumblr.com

Anyway, back to the loco!

I decided to push on and get this finished at last! All that was really needed was a few more details like the front pilot brake and air lines, as well as to finish up the decaling and lastly a good coat of weathering. I have all the pieces, decals and other bits all ready to go so there really isn`t any excuse!

I started today with the MU air hoses on the front pilot:

F3_1.jpg

A few more evenings work and this loco should be ready to leave the shops and get out into revenue service!

Thanks again for keeping up with progress, and all the best!
G
 
Excellent ,just excellent,,,,as usual ;) :) :)
 
Thanks folks :)

I hope so too! I finished up all the detail on the front pilot and touched it up with a little flat black. Now just to get the front Kadee coupler put back on then I can call all the detailing finished at last! Then on to the decals...

I'll take some good photos as soon as I get a chance.

Thanks again,
G
 
Hi,

Apologies for the lack of updates on this thread. Progress took a bit of back seat position due to work and family commitments of late, but I`m now back with renewed enthusiasm to get this loco out on the line earning its keep!

I masked up all the glazing and got a few coats of gloss varnish on so I`m now ready to start applying the decals!

I also made one last modification as I had found in the past that these locos occasionally tend to stick on some of the frogs of our points due to their slightly shorter size. The USAT GP9 is just a little larger so it doesn`t have this issue, but there was something about the wheel spacing on the F units that seems to cause the odd problem here and there. Anyway I decided to try swapping out the wheel sets that have traction tires for just normal standard wheel sets. Due to the presence of the traction tire, these wheels do not really make contact with rail head so this means that effectively there are two less axles making electrical pickup.

I borrowed a pair of plain, tire-less wheel sets from another F3B unit just to experiment, and this seems to make a really big difference! Now all four axles are making constant electrical contact, plus the four pickup skates, so the loco is extremely smooth without the need for anything else like a capacitor. Fortunately these wheel sets are available as spare parts from Charles Ro (USA Trains spare parts dept.) so I think I`m going to do the same modification for all of our F units in the future.

I guess obviously there would be a certain loss in pulling power, but we don`t run excessively long trains on our line, plus this is a good reason for justifying the need for an added B unit behind!

I will post some photos of progress as soon as I can.

Thanks,
G

Here is a quick photo (not mine!) of a USA Trains motor block. As you can see, the wheel at the front has a traction tire and the wheel at the back is just a normal wheel set. As the thicker rubber traction tire is making contact with the railhead and not the actual wheel face, it can sometimes mean that this axle is not picking up power as it should:

motor-block.jpg
 
Ok, so after the gloss varnish has dried and cured, I was able to begin the decals!

I can finally feel myself getting somewhere with this :)

Here is a shot of the side lettering so far: the large road name, loco number and small builders plate beneath the cab window:

decals.jpg

I think I will make another light brush of Micro-Sol setting solution, which gently softens the decal all helps it settle snuggly into all the nooks, bumps and crannies. I then just need to wait for these to dry before I can flip it over and start on the other side. The windows are all masked out to make sure they stay clear when I apply the two layers of varnish.

I made a slight blip with the number boards on the front. I originally asked for just white numbers, thinking I could apply them over a pre-painted black background. Stupid me, what happens when you apply black paint over a clear surface? It doesn`t let the light shine through! So......back to the drawing board on that one! In the end I decided to ask for some new number board decals, this time with the background printed in black and the numbers in white, so that when I put this over the clear surface, the black will kill the light but it will still shine through the numbers as it should!

Anyway, thanks for keeping up with progress and I will post more as soon as I can.

Thanks,
G
 
I finished up all the decaling on the sides today, the numbers, lettering and builders plates. Now I just need to wait for the new number board decals to arrive. The windows are still masked up as I will put a final coat of matt varnish to seal all the decals before I start adding a bit of weathering.

Apologies for the poor photo, it`s taken in a dark room at around 2am when I got back from work!

decal_progress.jpg

Thanks,
G
 
Thanks for the kind words! It's only been about a year now, on and off, that it's been lying on the workbench, definitely one of my shorter projects! ;)
 
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