The yin and yang of weathered locomotives

I recently completed weathering on a pair of locomotives; a CN SD40-2W for myself and a CPR H-16-44 for the CPR Boundary Subdivision. These were an interesting pair and represent the 1st and 2nd generation diesel locomotive fleets of their respective railways.

The SD40-2W was purchased by CN in 1980 and was a new mainline locomotive in my era (1981-1983) so would have fairly light weathering as CN maintained their road power in good condition. To represent this I used Tamiya Black Panel Liner on the doors, louvers and latches to pop them a bit. After this was cleaned up I masked the windows and applied Tamiya matt clear finish to seal the body. After this I used oil washes to give the body a light grime coat.  I used oil paint and black PanPastel powders around the exhaust stack to get the oily gritty appearance often seen on these locomotives. 

The wheels were painted black followed by Vallejo Game Effects dry rust which gives a nice look to the wheelsets. I sprayed a matt finish on the fuel tank and sideframes with the wheelsets removed. This was followed by oil paints that were cleaned up with turpenoid to get the gritty grimy look that the underframes often displayed. Some PanPastel was applied selectively to even out the oil paints.  I also applied oil washes to the pilots to get road grime on them.  The couplers were swapped for Kadee 158's that had Vallejo Game Effects dry rust painted on them. 

                                         




The CPR H-16-44 had similar weathering effects used to the SD40-2W. The H Liner got more exhaust applied with oils and PanPastel to blend everything together.  The Boundary Sub is set in the late 1950's/early 1960's so the H Liners were fairly new (1955-57) but saw hard service on the mountainous subdivisions of BC. As such they were dirtier than road power used on the Prairies. 

with a challenge being painting the wheelsets due to challenges in figuring out how Rapido attached the sideframes to the trucks. I kludged out a way to get the sideframes off using flat screwdrivers inserted between the gear tower and gear cover. The wheels were painted the same way as the SD40-2W. 




When I visited the CPR Boundary Sub I grabbed a shot of the weathered and unweathered locomotives. I know which one I prefer...


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