Thanks. The commonwealth trucks were two flat backed castings. I had to file down t he plastic Kato truck until it was smooth, then glue the casting in place. Taking the file to the plastic Kato truck was definitely the most risky part of this conversion, but I overcame it.
Interesting. I'd have to doe the same to the Bachmann truck....now, is it worth the $20 of extra steam detail parts? Probably, since I might need them to make my steamer more correct anyway.
By far! The kit does not include any of the brass rod, but other than that, its been the most rewarding 20 bucks I've spent in the hobby so far! I've had so much fun putting the details on. Heck, if I had another Mikado to do, I'd pick up the kit and give you the commonwealth parts, since I'd do the Elesco version next, which did not have those trucks.
Here are the final build shots! This was an extremely fun project and I recommend it to anyone interested in detailing steamers!
Got a new project started... The Vernon district of the Los Angeles Junction railway. This section is 2' x 6'. I'm using Atlas code 55 track and looking forward to modeling industrial trackage!
Looks great Mark. With alll those details, I'd take an extra five minutes and remove the oversized tender ladder and replace it with a brass one. It'll make everything just pefect! Clearance from the household CFO was granted for some train purchases. Looks like I'll be ordering this set!
You'll be very pleased with it! I just finished reassembling mine after painting!! I'm still going to paint the top of the cab red, re-number the cab and if I feel really ambitious, I'll paint the smoke box and fire box gray to match the GHQ example. Then comes weathering. I cant wait! I give this kit 10 out of 10!!
Beautiful work on that steamer, I hope my builds look half as good. EDIT; may as well share current projects; Attempting to strip/paint/decal a mess of hoppers for the C&O, scratchbuilding the Lochgelly tipple (need materials to finish) and working on completing my first ever loco kitbash, a LL 0-8-0 into a C&O C-16. Seeing the mike above reeealy makes me want to get this done, and get to my Kato mike to K3 project. But, I try and make sure i dont get too much going at once, especially steamer projects; I would mix parts up and be done forever.
I shared this earlier today in the Weekend Photo Fun, but I'll repeat since I've been posting the progress here. I have completed all painting on my Burlington O-4 Class Mikado!! All that is left is to re-number the cab and then I get to weather it (the fun part)!! This simple Mikado plus a $20 GHQ kit has made this model a priceless addition to my roster.
Rio Grande mountain howlers w.i.p here are the pics of some of my soon to be DRGW power as i used to model csx 1986-88 era was just a bit much for me now doing the DRGW 1986-88 era first up is a pairof gp30's the soon to be 3003 & 3021 and then follows with a pair of late model gp40-2s is the 3129 & 3130 and here is the soon top be 3123 with the early grills thats all the pics for this post will have some more picsc posted here real quick so let me know what you think as some of these units still show signs of them being csx feel free to let me know what you think and thanks for having me here
more DRGW units and a couple of freelanced home road units here are 2 csoon to be Rio Grande SD50 howlers the 5502 & 5505 and then here are a pair of SD45's the 5223 & 5329 these wer both going to my freelanced road but the bug bit and now i'm going prototype with very little frelance and then here are the last of my freelanced road units a pair of 60's a standard and a wide cab here is the 9055 & the 9298 thanks for looking and let me know what you think and as for the 2 indian rock units they are going to become more howlers for the Grande
IR&W when i was freelancing the IR&W was my version of the bn but now since i'm going prototype my freelance will be restricted to a contract switching company that way i can have my early gp7/9's:tb-biggrin:
