Got my GP, Starting a Cuttin'

Oh happy day! So, 10 minutes ago, the postman delievers them, in all
their black glory!

I got the shell off easy enough, the spread with 4 toothpick method,
and put the mech on my test loop to verify operation. Was jerky so I
sanded the loop with 220, Brighboy's it, and Rail-Ziped then wipe off
with 50/50 water alcohol.

Runs just fine at 3 volts, any less than that, and it finds places to
stall on my track, which is the MTL Starter Set loop, running on an
MRC 1300 without the sparker. Leaving it run a while, while I write.

I discovered something important, if you plan on re-painting. The glue
that holds the etched steel railing on is contact cement, and mine is
less than a couple weeks old, so it is still somewhat rubbery.

Yes, I used a brand new #11 exacto blade to carefully slice through
the contact cement holding the side rails on. No funny bends, although
it did scrape a little paint off the undersides of the rails exposing
shiny silver metal. Probably stainless steel.

How to do it? Start at the cab steps, and ever so carefully seperate
the railings from the sidesills, moving quickly in one quick fluid
movement. I bet after several weeks the glue will harden enough that
you might bend the thin etched metal trying to do this, so if
repainting and superdetailing is in the cards, remove the railings
quickly after purchase.

Front and rear endrails present a different challenge, which was
solved by a quick slice from the deck in fromt of the stairs straight
down, first one side then the other, leaving the middle still tacked.
Next move is hold the body upside down, then slice from underneath
across the pilot openings to get those railings off.

The horns pry up, and off, ever so gently with a jewelers screwdriver.
First a little pry up front, nexe in back, next left, then right, and
repeat until it comes up. This part is so small it will vaporize, so
be careful!

The tank comes off by just pulling it down and off.

The rear lighted numberboards pop out easily by gently pushing them
inwards, left side a bit, then right side a bit, repeated until they
pop out.

The cab comes off by using a larger jewelers screwdriver with an approximate .100"
blade, inserted in the shell, inside the battery boxes, which are just
under the cab. Twist the screwdriver a bit to spread the batterybox
sides and pull up on one side of the cab. It lifts up a little. Do the
same thing on the other side and gently rock the cab side to side while
pulling up and off the shell.

Use some smooth jaw jewelers pliers and easily pull the black cab LED
shroud out of the cab (must be to block LED light from illuminating
everything inside the cab, but it also helps hold the cab glazing
parts in place.)

The cab side windows come out only by pushing in and towards the
center of the cab. Start by pushing on the tiny front and rear door windows
to release them from their snap lock, then push the side windows in, Just like a Kato N Scale loco cab.

Front Windshield just needs to be pushed backwards to come out, and
the same with the cab numberboards.

That's it, completely disassembled, and ready for painting. Oh, by the
way, the plastic is black too. The black paint is so thin that I won't
try to strip it.

As I write this, I have been doing these tasks, so i'm 40 minutes from
the postman's delievery, and my loco mechanism is still running, so I
will run it in the other direction for a while for even burn in.

I just brushed a little Polly S Easy Lift Off stripper, or ELO for
short, on the cab sides to get the car numbers off and let sit. I also
just brushed on some ELO over all 5 of the Pennsy Keystones. Oh, guess
what... the ELO don't attack the plastic at all, and the paint comes
right off! Oh Joy! The paint actually comes off WAY WAY easier than
the Pennsy Keystones!

I used a fairly stiff hobby paintbrush for no more than 5-10 minutes,
and then took the ELO drenched parts in to the kitchen sink, where I
poured full strength dish washing liquid over the ELO covered shell and cab, then used the same brush to scrub the
dishwashing liquid into the ELO, and just rinsed with warm water. I
now have a perfectly stripped shell, oil free, and ready for painting!

Total time as of now since I started typing... About 1 hour to completely disassemble and strip the model!

Standard Disclaimer....
If you ruin your model while doing any of the above procedures, don't
cry to me, just offer the mechanism for sale to the Nn3 guys, or
convince Allan Borg to sell you one of his resin GP shells. They look
good, as I seen them at the Z Scale Convention, and I am very sure
that this mechanism fit, as it is so very very tiny!

-Robert ;


***had to fix a bunch of typo's from typing real quick while doing this work***

[ September 07, 2005, 10:36 PM: Message edited by: pray59 ]

 

My first 2 are going to be BN. The only question is do I want to build a GP35, or a GP39E.

I cut the front truck mounted coupler off with a fine blade saw in my dremel. It came off very easy, yet the truck still looks correct, so I get to make a pilot mounted coupler and plow during my modifications.

-Robert

 

I don't know about how to make the plow yet, but for the pilot it looks easy enough to cut from sign plastic. It looks so far to just be a kitbash project, but if I can make it reproducable... I will let you all know.

I already cut the truck mounted coupler off, and now I have to build a pilot to fit, then a coupler mount, then the MU hoses need to be formed from wire, then I have to figure out what to do for a plow. Sounds fairly easy so far.

-Robert

 

Well, I disassembled the loco yesterday when it arrived, and tonight after taking care of Covered Hopper orders, I started on my GP mod.

It shouldn't be too difficult to whip up something like the GP39E out of a GP35, but the version I wanted to build was as rebuilt from a GP30, so I needed that art deco thing going on.
Here is my progress, 3 days into the game:


I cut off the 36" fan between the rear 48" fans, but left just enough of a nub to represent the plate welded over the original fan hole. I also had to modify the roofline from the dynamic brakes forward.

-Robert

[ September 11, 2005, 12:11 PM: Message edited by: pray59 ]

 

As you can see, I got rid of the dark photo above, editing my post, and here are a few more pics of progress as of today:

As you can see, I have the bodywork done. I filed off the 36" fan from between the larger rear fans, but left enough remaining to hint at a plate welded over the original hole left from the GP 30. I also relocated the horns to the back.
I cut all the mod parts from sign acrylic, and turned a piece of brass wire to make the firecracker antenna.


I also fashioned a Pilot, and Snow Plow out of Acrylic, then used brass wire to form the MU hoses.



Overall, the model, although not perfect, catches the flavor of the prototype so far. More to come.


-Robert

 

Boxcab E50

 

Well, you are in luck if you want GP39E decals. I made a 1/4 sheet, and it has enough for 18 locomotives.

9 are as rebuilt from GP30's and 9 are as rebuilt from GP35's, all with the tiger stripe nose. The loco I'm doing now is an as rebuilt from GP30, but you can tell that.

What's a GP39E? just a rebuilt by EMD 30/35 for BN, with a new 645 engine, which gives these units a reason to be seen on modern BNSF. Yup, they still have them.

-Robert

 

Well, I have been at it all day, so I'm done for now.
I have not DCC's it yet, and will probably wait until after the GATS in 2 weeks, as I have to get my module ballasted first.


Side by side, you can see there is quite a bit different than the Pennsy GP35 it started out as.


I had made decals before, but without a model to measure, they were the wrong size, so I made new decals today.


I still need to put the numbers on the number boards, but I ran out of time this weekend, so that will be another day.


-Robert

 

I would have loved to just use a GP30 shell, however, there are only 4 plastic North American diesels made, Marklin and MTL make an F7, AZL makes an F59PHI, and MTL just released this GP35 a couple days ago!

-Robert

 

Robert-

I thought there were a few others available? E8/9, SD45, SD40-2? Didn't AZL make some of these?



Boxcab E50

 

They were made of brass.

 

OK.



Boxcab E50