Union Pacific Atlanta Torch Relay Units

I recently finished up this pair of N Scale Kato SD40-2 Snoot nose locomotives painted for the Union Pacific 1996 Atlanta Olympic Torch Relay train. Road numbers are 1896 and 1996.

The pair started out as factory painted UP Armour Yellow units that were stripped and repainted with Tru Color CNW Green and UP Harbor Mist Grey. Decals were provided by MicroScale, and they were a pain to deal with. This was by far the worst set of decals I've ever come across and the sentiment is shared with other painters I know. The lettering worked perfectly as a MicroScale set should, but the multi color patterns on the front and back of the locomotive were a nightmare. They kept cracking and would not settle down into the details. I even tried multiple coats of decal film and Dull Coat to no avail.

The unit also features scratchbuilt sunshades and free standing grab irons. Other than that, the unit has stock details that were painted to help them show.

The units came out much better than I had hoped after dealing with the decals. I'm happy I got to do this set and put them on the resume, but I won't be doing another unless MicroScale reprints the decals or a custom decal supplier creates the artwork.

Enjoy the photos!

Southern Pacific SD70ACe Black Widow

Finished up this fantasy locomotive for a customer recently. The loco started as a Kato UP ACe and was painted up in the Southern Pacific Black Widow scheme to run along with UP's 1996 heritage loco.

Paint is Tru Color Black, Silver and SP Scarlet Red. Decals are from Microscale. All in all, this one was pretty easy to do and came out sharp.

Weathered Cars for the 2018 NSE Convention

I've been busy lately weathering a bunch of cars to take with me to the N Scale Convention in Salt Lake City at the end of June. Along with weathering, all of these cars have body mount couplers and FVM metal wheelsets; the wheels, trucks and couplers are also all weathered. My preferred medium is artist oil paints and pastels. I like to fade and highlight the cars with the pastels first and then add washes and rusting with the oil paints.  All of these cars have this done to varying degrees.

This will be my first convention of any kind and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll have a car in the freight car contest and my GP35's will be entered in the contest as well. I wanted to take some other cars for display, and hopefully some operating on the FreeMo layout. Below is the selection I'll be taking with me, minus the contest entry, I'll post photos of that car later.  Hope you enjoy the photos!!

Doug

First is an older Atlas/Roco 86-ft High Cube Autoparts box. The graffiti is a combination of MictroScale and Blair Line decals.

Next up is a Precision Masters FMC 3 Bay Covered Hopper. 

Next is a Fox Valley Models 4740cf 3 Bay Covered Hopper. 

This one is an Atlas 2 Bay ACF Centerflow Hopper. It's one of the very first cars I did years ago with oil paints, finally got it upgraded to body mounts and metal wheels.

A second Atlas 2 Bay ACF Centerflow.

Next is a Deluxe Innovations Smoothside Woodchip Gondola. I've since finished the interior and added some construction debris as this one is re purposed for operations on my layout.

Next is a Micro Trains 60-ft Excess Height Boxcar. This one was weathered to match a prototype photo.

This is an Atlas Thrall Gondola.

Cement cars are my favorite piece of rolling stock, so I have a lot of them. Here is a Micro Trains 2 Bay ACF Centerflow.

This is one of my favorite cars, a Roundhouse 50-ft Boxcar. This one was weathered to match a prototype photo.

This car is a factory weathered Micro Trains 3 Bay ACF Centerflow Hopper. These factory cars are great to begin with but the thing they need most is dull coat. This one received dull coat followed by an oil wash, some additional graffiti and patching. The original car had yellow conspicuous stripes that I covered with decals or patched over with paint.

Micro Trains 50-ft Ribbed Side Boxcar.

Micro Trains 56-ft General Service Tank Car.

And a few shots showing some of the cars trackside on my photo diorama.