Alco PA and FA 2023

[E7]

Might be time to clean up the workbench to not make the same mistake again. I lose tools on my bench that I just used minutes before. I blame the losses on the Bench Monster stealing them.

Mitch, There are 2 kinds of things in my life: Those that are lost and those soon to go missing! Really!

Rich

[bob turner]

Oh, it has been time to clean up for decades now.

I don't wanna be OCD, but I would sure love to have a teeny piece of the neatness gene.

[E7]

It's Mr. Hog to you!!!!

[bob turner]

So here's the deal - Alclad II is not a great base for top coats. The Alclad will hold with masking tape, but not the top coat.

I am going to stare at it for a while, and then I shall bead blast, prime, and paint yellow. Then I will mask for Warbonnet, with the red over yellow. Red over yellow makes the red "pop!"

Then fine line tape for the yellow up against the red, and a coat of black, followed by Alclad Stainless. Then regular silver on roof and underbody, and if all goes well, a coat of Future Floor Wax.

But not right away - I still haven't painted the A-6 Atlantic.

[bob turner]

Got the Doorstop PA/PB set painted and decalled this week. I note that the latest Microscale ATSF decals have only right-handed winged logos - they are checking on that for me.

So, photos soon.

And yesterday I bead-blasted the nickel-silver PA (thanks, Dennis) and am going to use Alclad “chrome” on the stainless parts. Cast nickel polishes to a high silver, but it then begins to tarnish. I got tired of polishing. Stainless has a dark tone to it - chrome is brighter, and probably closer to the way ATSF imports are coming in - nice and shiny.

You can see the nickel silver PA in apost on page 3 of this thread.

Also bead-blasted and primed is another “semi-doorstop” E7A. Not sure what colors it will suffer.

[E7]

Splain a "semi-doorstop" please!

[Nortonville Phil]

Splain a "semi-doorstop" please!

Only adequate for holding open screen doors?

[steamaheadstephen59]

" Only adequate for holding open screen doors " Okay so that made me laugh, ha ha! thanks for that. I think what Bob is refering to , is a combination of cast nose and end with etched sheet brass in-between. This was typical of Central Locomotive works later offerings.

[bob turner]

Not quite. My “Semi-doorstop” is half Adams, and the other half credibly done brass sheet with rivet batts. Some of the sand cast details have been replaced with lost wax.

The CLW efforts have never really thrilled me - the rivets are between etched lines. Jan Lorenzen partially cured that by double etching.

But fine - just heavy enough to hold a screen door.

[bob turner]

This one. Since the photo, I have added some vertical batts and straightened a few kinks. Not a perfect model, but way better than the typical Adams slab side E6/E7 models out there.



A little off-topic for a PA/FA thread. I shall fix that later.

[De Bruin]

Interesting E unit Bob, is the cab casting from a different manufacturer than the rest of the car body? Arthur Hambrick used to do that; substituting a CLW or A&S F cab for the original casting in order to match a specific road prototype he wanted to model.

[bob turner]

This one came from Jim. Nose and roof (and probably rear bulkhead and truck sideframes) are Adams. Sides are built up and soldered -rather well, in my opinion. I removed the handrails, added some vertical batts, straightened a few areas on the rivet strips, bead-blasted, and painted it. I am thinking maybe C of G, and repainting the other Adams unit with orange stripes to maybe B & O.

[bob turner]

Changed my mind. It will be GM&O. Red and maroon.

[bob turner]

Yep. see the old Doorstop thread, from which almost all my photos have been stripped.

Here are my Doorstop PAs with new Micro decals. The sides are Alclad II stainless; the rest not red or decalled is Duplicolor silver. Very happy.



My nickel silver MTH PA is now in silver primer with warbonnet red, and will get chrome (probably Alclad) sides. The decals are neat, but only have right side winged logos. Theoretically, Microscale is looking in to it.

[De Bruin]

Looks great! Kudos on successfully applying the Alclad, that stuff confounds me. That warbonnet decal set isn't exactly "easy-peezy" either.
Well done!