A&C Alco Units

I finished up this pair of HO scale Alco units for a good friend that used to work for the railroad.  The A&C never had Alco's on the roster, but his favorite locomotive is the FA and I thought the paint scheme would look great on the body.

The models are Life-Like Proto 2000 units that came decorated for the Missouri Pacific.  After disassembly, they took an overnight bath in 91% alcohol to strip the paint.  I sprayed a base coat of Tru Color white and then it was off to masking.  The most difficult mask was across the cab doors and the curves on the nose.  I found inspiration for the nose curves from MKT Alco PA's. I shot the green next, Tru Color Reading Green, then unmasked and gave them a Future gloss clearcoat.  Decals came next, MicroScale produces a set for A&C units and I used the lettering, numbers and striping. I had to scrounge my decal box for the curved stripes on the nose as it's impossible to get a straight decal to curve more than a little.  Luckily I came across an N scale set for Lehigh Valley F units that had the same color and width of the A&C stripes and the curves were a fairly close match.  Lot's of MicroSol got the curves to massage into the perfect shape.  Another coat of clear came next to protect the decals and then it was time to reassemble. The last thing to do was detail paint for all the grab irons.  I also painted the cab interior that comes with the locomotives.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. These were fun locomotives to do and I think the scheme looks really sharp on the Alco bodies.

Thanks for looking!
Doug