Modeling/Decaling the E8 Racehorses

Terry - Came through fine!

Where'd you get Traveller? Did you decal up an E8 with a different racehorse name?

Ken

 

Re: Bowser's Frisco U-Boat

Terry -

Very nice! What decal set did you use on your renumbered/relettered E8's - Herald King? Microscale? How did you get the P2K lettering and numbers off?

I'm thinking of doing the same to my 2022 - Middleground. The name is so long to me it looks silly. Plus, it ran under that name for only a year or so, before it got clobbered by the Katy and rebuilt/renamed Champion. I'll probably redo it as Ponder, Pensive, Sea Biscuit, Truxton, or another of my favorite Racehorse names. Traveller is another really good name - Gen Robert E Lee's horse.

How cool was this railroad ????? After all those beautiful passenger steam locomotives with their doric striping, etc, they gave the replacements, beautiful E7's and E8's, individual famous horse names. Terrific!

Ken

 

Terry - What did you do to get the P2K lettering and numbers off of the P2K E8's you relettered? Thanks.

Ken

 

Re: Bowser's Frisco U-Boat

Terry
Taking that lettering off can we quite a pain, I had not thought of using a toothpick as a tool. I will try it today myself.
Great looking models! Thanks for posting the photos.
Tom

 

Re: Bowser's Frisco U-Boat

Terry -

Thanks. Did you use ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol?

Maybe vodka would work??? I have a bottle of Stoli !

I just bought a new bottle of Solvaset (my old bottle must be at least 25 years old!). I don't use it much for decal work as I believe it is too strong for thin decals like Microscale, Herald King and Oddballs. It was OK for Champ. But, I'll give the new stuff a try for removing lettering from Middleground, 2022(1st).

Ken

 

Re: Bowser's Frisco U-Boat

Ken
Which solvent do you use? Solvaset and micro scale stuff is all I know of.
Thanks
Tom

 

Re: Bowser's Frisco U-Boat

Tom - Years ago (1975) I attended a Microscale clinic at Walt's Hobby Shop in Cincinnati. I was building and decorating 1/72 scale model airplanes then - that was in-between my two model railroading lives!

The Microscale rep taught us the optimal way to apply Microscale decals using their two setting solutions - MicroSet (blue) and MicroSol (red):

- Make sure the surface is clean
- Trim the decal as close as you can to the lettering (with small scissors, not an Exacto), although Microscale decals have a fairly close border built in
- Wet the surface with MicroSet to prepare the surface, using a small, soft brush
- Wet the decal (I usually dip them in the water and then let them sit on the side in their own little bead of water until loose). Hold and move the decal with tweezers on the backing
- Slide the decal off the backing and in place on the MicroSet. I use a long pointed toothpick to position the decal (a grilled shrimp or kabob skewer)
- Wet the top of the decal with another application of MicroSet
- Position the decal correctly and then dab it with a tissue (I wet the tissue with MicroSet) to set it. I actually press it down. Be gentle!
- Let the MicroSet and the decal dry
- Apply a coating of MicroSol with a small soft brush
- Let dry and repeat three/four times with an application of MicroSol
- Let dry. If there are bubbles, or cloudy spots, more MicroSol and perhaps a needle puncture if needed
- If a decal is proving to be a problem, I sometimes coat it (only once!) with Walthers Solvaset after all the MicroSol has dried. I've ruined a few decal jobs with Solvaset, though, it's too strong for me.

Using this technique, I rarely have anything but 100% success with Microscale, Oddballs, or Herald King decals. Champ and Walthers (older) decals are a bit more difficult as their film is thicker. Usually a few more MicroSol treatments will cook the film enough that it is not a problem.

Anyway - that is what I do. I really enjoy decal work. I usually do at least two cars/locos at the same time since there is drying time required.

Ken

 

Re: Bowser's Frisco U-Boat

No problem! I bought the new bottle of Walthers Solvaset because I used some of my 25-year old stuff on a Champ decal this past weekend (on a nice Central Valley NP stock car), and that old, ancient juice gave the decal a yellow tint! Looking at the old Solvaset - about an inch still in the bottle - it has turned yellowish. After 25+ years, I thought I should get a new one! So, I did.

The second release of the Proto 2000 Frisco E8's was with two new two units - SLSF 2019, Cavalcade, and SLSF 2022(1st) Middleground. P2K didn't make near as many of the second release units as they did the first release.

As I noted in my article in the current issue of frisco.org's The Meteor, some features of the second P2K E8 release are better than the first P2K Frisco E8 release (SLSF 2016 & 2020), and some features are not as good. That is where my Middleground came from - I bought both 2019 and 2022.

SLSF 2022 is already on the workbench for its upgrade - probably will emerge as Sea Biscuit, or maybe Ponder or Pensive. Alas, my old favorite Truxton is not available on the Herald King decal set. In addition to the name & number change, I plan on giving it a few other upgrades.

Ken

 

First, thanks much to Keith for setting up this new E8 decal thread. This is a topic of great interest to me as I am, to say the least, passionate about these engines. The E7's, too.

Thanks to Terry for noting that the revised Microscale set does have the white outline around the horse names. I have not used anything off of this set yet and had not noticed that. So, my old friend Truxton (SLSF 2014) is available! Hmmm. Maybe there will be another E8 in my future.

But, I have already started on the rebuild/upgrade of SLSF 2022 Middleground. What I have decided to do is to change it into the rebuilt unit, SLSF 2022(2nd) Champion. This will involve adding some different detail to the P2K second release unit, and changing the horse name. This idea is appealing to me as I will not have to change the unit numbers, plus I saw Champion a whole lot while in Rolla.

I'll use the Herald King decal sets, and plan to also put on the blue coonskin herald on the nose. No spark arrestors, no back-up light. An unresolved issue is what to do with the steam generator - one of the problems for we Frisco Folk with the 2nd P2K E8 release is that is has one big steam generator, rather than the two smaller capacity ones on the 1st release as the SLSF used. My plan is to leave it alone for now, but try to pick up a P2K 1st release body shell somewhere and take the steam gen panel off of it for 2022. I prefer doing that rather than carving it off and replacing it with detail parts.

I removed the left side Middleground name last night. I was having no luck with any of the decal solvent solutions, even with a toothpick, and was afraid to use ethanol. I tried ethanol on the back of the pilot and the red paint comes off quickly. I don't have any isopropanol here so I don't know how that works. Will get a bottle today.

What I did was gently wet microsand the name off, with real good success. With some patience, the name came off fairly easily, and minimal damage to the red resulted. There was one red area that was a bit thin and a smear of red Accu-paint AP-69 Warbonnet Red fixed it. This paint is a good match for the P2K Frisco red, but you have to either spray it or microbrush it. If you use Accu-paint with a regular paint brush, even a small one, it does not cover well or sit well. I also thinned it a bit with Accu-paint solvent.

Tonight I'll do the right side name. I'll try the IPA - if that doesn't yield success, I'll turn on the sander again!

Ken

 

Dan -

Thanks. I have a bunch of the Herald King sets, so no need for them here.

What are the Champ freight car sets?

Ken

 

I finished up the modifications to Proto 2000 E8 SLSF 2022 last night - changing it to the as-rebuilt/as-redelivered SLSF 2022 "Champion" after the significant repairs to the wrecked original unit, SLSF 2022 "Middleground".

It turned out OK - not great, but OK. My usual multi-view pics are attached.

Whoever noted in an earlier post that the Herald King sets (white outline L-463A set plus the gold lettering L-463 set) are difficult to use is 100% correct. This was my first experience with them. The white outline is just barely bigger than the gold lettering, and it is a bear to get the gold lettering decal positioned just right over the white outline decal earlier applied. If they had made the white outline a smidge bigger, it would work much better. Plus, the gold is not quite as bright as is the P2k gold lettering. But, they went on OK I guess.

Note the following about "Champion" .....

o Frisco's final E8, totally rebuilt after being T-boned by the MKT at Ft. Scott, KS in Jan, 1951 while in the trailing position on train #106, was returned to the SLSF from EMD in April, 1951 carrying a new name but the same road number, SLSF 2022. I attempted to make this model reflect SLSF 2022, "Champion", as it looked when it came back from its EMD rebuild.

o Note it has the blue coonskin herald on the nose. This is Herald King's decal, and it is way too blue - it should be a deeper royal blue. It bothers me - I'll probably return it to the black herald P2K used.
o Note it has no spark arrestors. These came later.
o Note it carries the original Frisco-specified horns - one big Leslie forward, a smaller one to the rear. No multi-chime forward Leslie set yet.
o No back-up light on the rear. Those came later.
o Note it also carries the one, big capacity steam generator (which is what the second P2K Frisco E8 release came with). I need to replace this with the two smaller capacity s/g's the Frisco E8's used. Perhaps I can get the P2K first release panel from Walthers, but I doubt it as I think all those parts are gone.

"Champion" came through Rolla a lot on train #'s 3, 4, 9 & 10 while I was at MSM. An old friend - I feel much better having "Champion" on my HO roster than I did with "Middleground". I never saw the unit with its original name, plus the model looked strange with that very long name on it.

Ken

ps - Sorry about the blur on the nose shot. Don't know what happened there - the camera was on a tripod and the shutter clicked on via timer.

 

I just spent a few minutes running my two sets of named Racehorse E8's around the layout to see what they looked like together in two unit sets.

I had SLSF 2020 "Big Red" leading SLSF 2019 "Cavalcade", and SLSF 2016 "Citation" leading SLSF 2022 "Champion", around on opposite sides of my single track main line. They looked pretty neat - certainly not as good as the big fellows did, but pretty neat for sure!

Maybe for kicks I'll add austerity cigar band SLSF 2006 plus Texas Special E7 2003 to the mix and have a real donnybrook with three two-unit sets chasing each other. Not very prototypical for sure. If I had Keith's sound in each of these fellows, imagine what that would sound like on a 7ft x 10ft layout.

Twelve 567's chanting away!

K

 

Sherrel -

I have the pilot doors closed on 2020 and 2016 (my two best looking units) so they can run in the lead. 2019 and 2022 (the two second P2K releases) run in the trailing position, with the pilot doors removed and the coupler sticking out. Agree, the clean pilot looks much better, but you gotta be able to hook on to a train from the trailing unit!

Agree the frompy blue HK herald has to go. Maybe I can convince Tom Stolte to do a set of coonskins in a deep royal blue like they had on when they came new from EMD.

For the record, it was DuPont Duco blue # 254-34969.

Ken