Hi all,
I was excited to see that Athearn is doing another run of their "Old Timers" 2-8-0s, but it seems like they'll only be offering coal tenders on Union Pacific, Rio Grande, and Southern, which are all locomotive schemes that have very bold colors.
My prototype used these earlier-style consolidations, but in a very standard black paint scheme.
While I have relettered and renumbered steam before, and done some repainting on diesels in the past, I haven't ever repainted a modernly produced steam locomotive kit, nor have I seen any articles or videos on such a thing in recent memory. I am mostly concerned about the amount of detail and risk to said detail, and internal mechanisms, in disassembling modern steam locomotives. I've only disassembled older IHC and similar models, which are definitely on a different level.
Anyone have any guidance/resources for if I were to take this path?
Hi there. If you look closely, the Athearn engine is pretty spartan when it comes to details. I own one and repainted the engine without disassembling it. I gave it a coat of grimy black. So, there was no big worry about contrast with the original paint. I covered the drivers and painted these with a paint brush, but a quick pass with an airbrush should not cause too much problems. The V&T model is black, so it might be a good candidate.
Simon
Thanks for the advice! I was more concerned about the underlying painting showing through the layer, though I suspect that with weather that could be minimized. I also likely want to replace the headlight as well, so some disassembly may be required. But I will definitely consider that option as a fallback if the disassembly ends up being daunting.
snjroy The V&T model is black, so it might be a good candidate.
The V&T model is black, so it might be a good candidate.
The V&T has an oil tender, not a coal tender, unfortunately. While I definitely need to make some modifications to the coal tender to match the prototypes, I believe that the oil tender would be a lot more work to get looking like a coal tender than it is to modify the coal tender to my specifications. That said, I am not sure if this would be outweighed by the better starting scheme.
Athearn bought the MDC/Roundhouse line about 20 years ago. The Athearn 2-8-0 was originally offered by MDC as a kit that was around for a very long time. As I recall, in the 1980s-90s you could buy the kit for maybe $50-75.
If you check around at railroad flea markets or online, you might be able to find one of the undec kits (or a kit for a 'basic black' paint scheme) for a decent price and use the parts on your engine. Otherwise, you might find someone with a kit who is splitting it up and selling the parts separately on ebay.
MDC also sold the tenders for their engines as separate undec kits for maybe $15-20 back in the day. IIRC both the full loco kits and the separate tender kits came with the tender parts to model the tender for either a coal or oil burner.
p.s. You might want to see if you can track down a copy of the old MDC 2-8-0 instructions / parts diagrams online. I believe some of the "old timer" MDC engines shared parts (boiler, cab, etc.) with the MDC narrow-gauge loco kits, so you might find someone selling a 'narrow gauge' engine part that would actually be the same part as your standard gauge engine.
https://www.athearn.com/by-type/steam/?cgid=ath-by-type-steam&prefn1=scale&prefv1=HO&srule=best-matches&sz=24
I see some mostly black 2-8-0s. All the old timers are preorder when I posted this.
Lee
I just wish they would do the Rio Grande in black rather than the bumblebee all the time. There was only one engine in that scheme. Seems like they cant do more common stuff. While they were at it it would be nice to have them reissue the HOn3 engines that used the same boiler. Supposedly tooling was damaged but it would have been two sets of tooling.
wjstix Athearn bought the MDC/Roundhouse line about 20 years ago. The Athearn 2-8-0 was originally offered by MDC as a kit that was around for a very long time. As I recall, in the 1980s-90s you could buy the kit for maybe $50-75. If you check around at railroad flea markets or online, you might be able to find one of the undec kits (or a kit for a 'basic black' paint scheme) for a decent price and use the parts on your engine. p.s. You might want to see if you can track down a copy of the old MDC 2-8-0 instructions / parts diagrams online. I believe some of the "old timer" MDC engines shared parts (boiler, cab, etc.) with the MDC narrow-gauge loco kits, so you might find someone selling a 'narrow gauge' engine part that would actually be the same part as your standard gauge engine.
If you check around at railroad flea markets or online, you might be able to find one of the undec kits (or a kit for a 'basic black' paint scheme) for a decent price and use the parts on your engine.
Thanks for the advice, I was able to track down an exploded parts diagram that shows the base tender components- the oil tender just covers the details of the coal tender and replaces the coal load, which I would have to do anyways to match the modified tenders on my prototype, so using the oil tender V&T model is probably a good option.
THe limited repainting I'll have to do on the V&T model will probably be hideable with weathering - I model the depression era and even the best of railroads were in rough shape then, and my prototype was probably worse off than most.
I have had difficulty in striping the more modern Roundhouse engines (green box), the paint is very sturdy. The biggest problem is the engine headlight which pretty much have to be disconnected. If the engine has a rear light you can, with great care and little work, get it out of the tender headlight. The paint has been thick enough that striping and lettering will be seen if you just paint over it.
It can be done, it just takes a lot of soaking and scrubbing with cotton swabs.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
allegedlynerdyI was more concerned about the underlying painting showing through the layer.
That concern is minimal with modern models where the lettering and striping is usually very thin. It usually barely shows through, and in outline only, not in color.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
If you look at prototype repaints. You can see the lettering and such show under 5e new paint so it wouldn't be out of he ordinary
shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Check Shapeways, the are many oil tanks to choose from.
https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace?type=product&q=ho+scale+oil+tank+tender
I bought one for my 2-8-0 years ago it fit perfectly.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the advice everyone!
Has definitely given me a lot to think about, but definitely feel more confident giving it a go - after all, it's pretty much the only way to get small 2-8-0s in this day and age!