Painting a Great Northern 2-8-8-0


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Espeefan

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone. So the current project is one of the big GN articulateds. This particular type hauled ore trains. For reference only courtesy of Brasstrains.com, here is a pic of the model. There are several things wrong with the paint job, specifically:
Wheels not painted.
Crosshead hangers and related structure should be black, not plated.
All of that piping that is either green or smokebox silver should be black
All appliances on the boiler or smokebox should be black.
The cylinders and related piping should be black, only the jackets should be green.
I'm not too sure about that cab roof color either.
The artist's painting skills were good enough. He either didn't do his research, or he got lazy and didn't want to do all of that detail painting.
This model will get the black boiler, as it appeared in the early fifties. They were all gone or on the deadline by 1955.
This particular model is a masterpiece. Tenshodo at the height of their craft!. I'll have a lot to do with the 00 and 000 brushes on this one even with the black boiler!
As of today. the old clear coat has been removed, blasting and ultrasonic cleaning are complete, and tomorrow we'll be going to the paint booth!
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Got a fair amount done this weekend. The black paint. The cleanup and removal of paint from where electricity has to go (wheel treads, journals, bolsters, axle bearing slots, etc. etc.) Tedious! Especially on an articulated. It's essentially doing two engines at the same time. Seven out of eight of the driver tires on the insulated side popped off the drivers. A hazard of baking. They got ACC'd back into position. That's always fun. You have to get it right the first time. if the glue grabs when it's out of position, back to square one! Got all of that done, mounted the driver springs and got the drivers back in the frames. Tender is reassembled. I decided to quit there before I got too tired. The running gear is next, and that's where the swear jar generally gets filled up. Gotta be fresh for that part!
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I'm not very familiar with GN steam, but have a question about the correct paint scheme for a light 2-6-6-2, which Mantua made not too long ago. They have it in the Glacier green with silver smokebox and firebox. Is that correct, or should it be black, and if black, what about the smokebox and firebox?
 
You could keep it green if you wanted to. You’d need to be modeling in the WW 1 era for that. They were all gone by 1925. No color photos exist for that era but the black & whites do show a lighter boiler shade. Smokebox and firebox should be a gray color. I am going to tint Scalecoat smokebox gray darker to match the color photos I have. No red cab roofs!
 
Tonight's work: Running gear re-assembled. Most of it was of medium difficulty. The valve gear and lubricator linkage was a challenge. How much of a challenge? There is $897.00 in the swear jar and I used words I hadn't used since my Navy days. It's all back together and passes the roll test! I find that I'm out of GN steam loco decals, so there will be a short break while paint cures and the decals get here!
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Whoaa! :D Now I have to debate with myself whether to repaint my Mantua model. (While it is recent, having DCC factory-installed, I haven't seen any advertised anywhere lately, and wonder if it will be a collector's item some day.) If I did that, I might decal it in Burlington decor, as the Q inherited a few from GN, classifying them as T-1's. Of course, the T-1's, like the above model had slide valve steam chests (square), whereas the Mantua model has the rounded chests of piston valves, and I doubt I'd undertake to modify my model. Thanks for posting the photo!
Reckon I'll keep it as is. True, even the Q would have retired them, but my Grashhook, Galesburg & Western Division of the Burlington Route has kept it around for MOW trains. ;)
 
Patrick said:
Makes me want to get one to try....But plastic is cheaper to learn on....lol
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Think so? Don’t be so sure! That 0-6-0 and 4-8-4 over on the Upcoming Projects thread I just started...got them both for less than $300. A plastic Bachmann GS-4 with sound on board will cost you that, and last 10% as long as these models. You CAN pay a lot for brass. You don’t HAVE to. ;)
 
I agree that a quality finished model requires a quality base. And you don't need to pay top dollar to get quality if you know what your looking for.

Right now I have 3 engines, my 2 Proto 2000 E7's done in GM orange and Omaha green, and my 20+ year old Mantua 0-6-0 switcher. I don't count my Grandson's Thomas models or the the track running maintenance car. As I add to my livery, I will look at models I can correct for myself.

Where on Brasstrains do you look for these?
 
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Detail painting on the N-3 is complete. Lettering is complete. Some fun things: Note the data under the road number. There is no N-3 data in the decal set. This decal had to be pieced together. It's three pieces. Even more fun was the road number. two pieces. This was a bit of a stinker even wearing a magnifier.
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Fun little things. See that lower universal joint? It was probably originally a piece of tubing like the upper motor coupling. Someone somewhere decided a universal joint would be better. Technically correct but whoever it was (not the current owner) didn’t do a very good job. Interference with the frame caused a bind which stopped the rear engine but let the front one go merrily in its way. Lots of hand filing has given me the clearance it needs to work properly. I probably should have just put a piece of tubing in there but why not try? If it fails the test run I’ll go back and do that.
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