Another Trip to Pennsy Fantasy Land

If you thought my last paint job got the rivet counters' shorts in a knot, this one will have them foaming at the mouth and going into palpitations. The Pennsy at least owned Alco FAs. The same cannot be said for the EMD BL2. But come on, it was only $20 at the local hobby shop.

Anyway, when I got the engine, it was unpainted black plastic. I gave it a quick coat of Floquil "PRR Brunswick Green" applied the decals (Microscale for the lettering and keystones, Woodland Scenics for the numbers), and painted the ends of the handrails Floquil "Bright Gold."

I have a few more motive power projects waiting in the wings. But as soon as turkey day passes, it's back to benchwork.

Meanwhile, Back at the Paint Shop...

With the holidays rapidly approaching, work on the layout is on hiatus for now. With that being the case, I've turned may attention back to painting locomotives.

I spent the better part of two weeks on re-painting and decaling this set of Lifelike Alco FA-1s. I started out by stripping off the the original paint and weathering with denatured alcohol. With the factory paint removed, I repainted the unit with Floquil "Tuscan Red." I know, the Pennsy never had a Tuscan red FA, but I thought it would look cool, so I went ahead with it.

I painted the truck side frames and fuel tank Floquil "Grimy Black." I also painted the back of the power pickups Floquil "Engine Black" to conceal their appearance.

The decals are from Microscale with the exception of the numbers. Those are Woodland Scenics dry transfers. Let me tell you, those stripe decals are a huge pain-in-the-ass to deal with. They're almost impossible to get straight. In fact, up close, this engine looks like it was painted by a bunch of drunks!

I finished things up with some Dulcote to seal the decals. The B Unit is still a work in progress, but its the same basic procedure there.

So all in all, not a bad project but definitly not my best work either.