Its done, Its done, Its finnally done!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Well, after about 5 weeks of filing, building, tweaking, painting and detailing, I have finnally finished my MDC 4-6-0 kit. I painted it up for pennsylvania rr in the beautiful brunswick green. I painted all the piping and fixtures a brass color. Don't know what they are on the prototype but it sure does look nice on the model. Spacemouse, if you read this, dont worry about your engine. If you spend some time tweaking these things will c-r-a-w-l. One of the best running engines I have. Any questions/comments/criticizm are requested and appreciated[:D]


Here is the side of the engine with less piping, etc.


Here is the more detailed side of the loco. I have to figure out how to hide all the wires to the decoder though. Any suggestions on that?

[ereimer]

paint the wires black

edit: oops ! forgot to say , the loco looks GREAT !

[jwar]

Great Job...well done...John

[selector]

Joe, excellent, truly excellent!!! [^] I like your brassy touch, too. May that little feller give you many pleasant hours of rail time.

-Crandell

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the great comments[:D]. I might try painting the wires black, I would rather bundle them into a larger single strand. Heat shrink and electrical tape I dont think are flexible enough. hmmm Ill sleep on it...

[Anonymous]

LOL, I just clicked on the pictures to enlarge them. Looks like my camera decided to focus on my computer rather than the engine. sorry about that....

[Anonymous]

Well done. Is that the old school version with brass drivers? Or am I just seeing things.

[Anonymous]

Hi

I think it looks good with the Gold pipes!

How did you paint it?

Pavariangoo

[rrinker]

Looks good! Looks like you used a good Brusnwick Green too, it looks black. Some model Brunswick Greens are WAY too green.

As for the wires - the easiest is painting them black. Then it will look like the tender-loco water hoses. You could also try bundling them in pairs, one on each cise of the loco, using heat shrink that ISN'T shrunk - it's more flexible that way. If they get too stiff it will likely cause derailments.

--Randy

[davekelly]

Great job!!! Although the brass piping might not be prototypical, it looks great and if you're happy (which you obviously are) that's all that matters!

[Anonymous]

Spacemouse Is gonna kill you.

[Anonymous]

Nice job on the kit! I feel inspired... Where did you purchase the kit?

[Anonymous]

That does look great! I'm impressed. I second petejung's feelings. Where did you purchase it, I would be interested in one.

Darrin

[davekelly]

Looks like MDC owes you a commission on two sales!

[SpaceMouse]

I think it's great, except there's something wrong with it. The front wheels sit all the way down on the track.

I hear if you grab ahold of them with a pair of vise grips and whack it with an 8 lb sledge, it'll fix that..[:o)]

Seriously, it gives me hope. And since it my son is now getting a Bachman Spectrum 2-8-0, I get this one for me. [:)]

[canazar]

Wow, looks great JPM . I admire the work and patience.

Best Regards
John k

[siberianmo]

Great looking loco! Nicely done .......[tup]

[fec153]

Beautimos. I am jealeous. Great job.
Flip

[Anonymous]

Very nice! But wouldn't it look better if all the brass parts were painted black?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BoRockhard

Well done. Is that the old school version with brass drivers? Or am I just seeing things.

Yep, brass drivers, Metal everything else. I think the kit is 40 or 50 years old. As for where I bought it, it was on Ebay. I picked it up for about $40. I got a 2-8-0 kit as well but havent built it yet. Thanks for all the great comments. Im going to take it to the club tommorow and see how much it will pull. I thought about painting the drivers black, but do you think that would bind up the siderods?

BTW: Im entering this in a modelling contest in an upcoming show along with some Southcross & Western stuff I painted.

Painting: I used modelflex Brunswick green and airbrushed it on the cleaned and primed metal. The brass piping took a little while. I did it all very carefully with a tiny brush. Dont remember what kind of paint it was..... The siderods i painted Ceramcoat grey being careful to avoid bearings but still not show any of the underlying brass. Overall I am very happy with the results. You will be too spacemouse when you get yours running[:D]

[locomutt]

Nice job,
I would imagine that will be a centerpiece for conversation with fellow railfans.

[Anonymous]

I envy you. Great job.

[Anonymous]

She looks great, who cares if the brass is painted or not.

[cefinkjr]

Good job. [:)]

Sorry it only took you five weeks. I can usually stretch out assembly time on a kit like that to about 6 months. (Or is that procrastination???) [}:)]

Chuck

[Anonymous]

I did about an hour on it every night for a little more than 5 weeks.

[twhite]

Really nice job--I like the brass piping. I agree with the wires, just paint them black and they'll look like connector hoses. You're right about those MDC locos, with enough tweaking and adjusting, they're smooth runners and they certainly can be made to crawl. They also get better with time. I doubt that yours is 40 or 50 years old, though, I'd say about 20 or so, that's when MDC was putting them out big time. I've got an MDC Harriman 2-8-0 about that age, and a couple of 'old timer' Rio Grande prototype 2-8-0's that came out about the same time. Nice locos. I think you'll enjoy yours, and it should give you lots of years of good service. Again--REALLY nice job!
Tom [^][^][:D]

[davekelly]

I agree, excellent job! I don't think there would be this much comment if you had posted "here's my new RTR loco, after a couple of minutes I figured out how to open the box and put it on the track." I also don't think you would have been as happy and as proud. There is something to be said about kits.

[Anonymous]

It likes to die on insulated frogs... I guess its because one polarity is picked up only through the tender. How hard would it be to add some wipers to the drivers?