I have been completely busy for the last 6 or 7 years with mostly sailing ships & some steel warships, like this & I loved them.
But I needed a break & here is where I went.
This is the 1/25, about 24" long old MPC General kit of a locomotive that still exists down in Kene
saw, Ga. in a museum. It stil looks just like this. I had so much fun with this, & NO rigging, & I saw a post by a man named Frank Leimbek who used this same kit to build the 2 loco's from the 1869 Meeting of the Rails in Promontory, Utah. His were Beautiful & spurred me on to build them too.
There were a lot of changes to make on the General kit & I got 2 of them on ebay.Here is my start with the changes.
I always get some wood inside my models & in this case it was a big piece of wood dowel & I used it to nail the 1/8" x 1/64" brass bands because they were springy. I had to get this size from England & wished they were thinner & easier to work, but they do make the model. I had bought some 1/8" plastic strips & sprayed the with M&M brass lacquer, but the real brass looked beter. The kits fit perfect in everything & even the flash on these old kits was very light. The kits are from the 1980's. & I paid about $60 shipped for each one. They vary up over $100. Mine were all in great sha pe & all there except the glass & light lens in the last one.
I had to make an extension for the Union Pacific 119 as she was a coal burner. I carefully cut 3 round discs sized to fit the existing smoke box & cut the General name plate backing off & fill the hole. This took some time. I also filled the spoked front wheels & this was another time spender.
I luckily found a wooden thread roll that just about fit the wheels & used it to cut around my circle & cut the center out.
I mixed all my colors up with all Tamiya paint. At my age, 89, I am not changing my paint. I have had great luck with Tamiya.
I will post 2 pictures of my finished models to keep you interested. It took me about 5 months to finish all 3 locos & I am pretty fast.
The paint colors are pretty correct as they just refinished the2 engines in 2015 & Walt Disney helped with finally getting the correct colors. The front smoke box was a dull black, The Boiler was all Russian Iron Blue & the 119 was a deep maroon Tender Cowcatcher ,light & sand dome. It had a red brown cab. & gold trim & bands. I used M&M Brass lacquer on all that I painted & reworked the kit brass castings.
The Central Pacific, from Sacremento , Ca. , was the Jupiter. & it was a wood burner & all the wood came from my front yard & 2 Oak trees.They were really proud of there engines so they were trimmed up to a super degree. I saw them back in 1980 & they were painted in Red because they did not have the correct colors then.
Here are a few of the 2 & I love them.
I will be back as I did take pictures as I built for anyone that is interested. Hope you like them as much as me. I would like to leave them posted here because this is where I have posted on ships for years. Best to you all,, Gene
I forgot this one of the coal & wood tenders. They were a lot of work.