Hey Jerry, Like the tip/mod on the smoke box cover (headlight/Mars light), Nice! I've been "going through" an AC-5 I picked up recently. Kind of an "involved" project, LOL. Appreciate the "mention" earlier, good to bounce ideas off each other. Just imagine if Kato actually "stepped up" and released a de-skirted GS! BTW, 5 years for me as well regarding retirement....
Or, playing with our trains! Nice builds of some great steam. Just imagine what the free time in retirement will allow.........
I own one ConCor GS4 in SP Daylight scheme with full skirts. I have several Kato GS4 in the fully skirted Daylight scheme and the most recent release of the GS6 War Baby scheme. For some reason the ConCor model looks oversized compared to all the Kato versions. Is it that the Kato is too small or the ConCor is too large?? Its noticable but not by a lot.
Here’s an engineers side look at Kato model. There was some comments about the blackened rods on steam locomotives in the BLI BigBoy thread. I ‘blackened’/toned down the Kato rods by applying Tamiya Panel lines to them. Made a 100% difference in giving it the look I wanted!