Historical Overview

These locomotives were purchased from the Defunct New York, Ontario and Western (units 501-503) two of which found their home on the Western Pacific subsidiary, the Sacramento Northern. The other becoming the WP’s only other F3A.  The SN units were numbered 301-A and 301-D and featured a distinctive stacked “SN” on the nose instead of the traditional feather logo on the nose with along with the usual WP orange nose and black wings. These were used by the Sacramento Northern primarily for to serve the massive steel mill in Pittsburg, California. They ran as a pair over Santa Fe trackage rights east from Stockton to serve the mill, typically hauling steel coil in WP’s distinctive ‘shorty’ steel gondolas. They survived into the 1970′s in their SN paint scheme before being traded back to EMD as payment for a pair of GP-40′s. If you wish to learn more about these unusual locomotives, read this great article.

The Model

The New York, Ontario and Western units were pretty much stock late model F3′s with single headlights and no unusual road-specific details. Unlike the model I was given for this project, you want to use the Kato F3A units with the low-mounted fans.  I used the micro-scale decal sheet of WP diesel decals (set 60-26) with success. For paint, it was a simple choice, Floquil “railroad” color spray paint. (Primer and Reefer Orange) and Testor’s metallic Silver spraypaint.

Painting

You can airbrush these colors, but these go on smooth enough that you lost absolutely no detail by spray painting these onto the model as long as you spray 6-8 inches away from the model in slow, even passes to get a nice coat.  I first obviously covered over the dark Brunswick green of this former PRR model with a nice even coat of primer and then followed with a layer of silver paint. I let that dry overnight.

Masking and Painting.

I thought this would be an extremely difficult process, but it’s actually pretty easy. Using some blue painter’s tape, mask an arc from the access hole in the side of the car body to just behind the pilot. Then gently remove the tape, and using an exacto knife, cut out the arc on a flat surface that won’t ruin the tack of the tape. Re-apply the tape to the model, also masking the upper grills and the top of the locomotive.

Do note that the rivet lines below the grills and above the side panels were painted orange. Make sure to tightly push the masking tape onto the model so you don’t have problems with the orange paint leaking all over the model and ruining the stripe. Floquil Orange is notoriously thin, and may require multiple coats to reach complete opacity. I also discovered it has a lot of inert propellant in the can, more than other colors, so it may look like you’re flooding the model with paint when in fact 90 percent of the liquid ends up evaporating leaving a thin layer of orange paint. I’d actually suggest airbrushing the orange on instead.

Make sure to refer to reference photographs when masking the nose of this locomotive. In addition to paying attention to the location of the stripe on the car body and the angle of the arc on the nose, also note the small upward “arrow” that’s made with the orange and black paint on the center beam between the two pieces of front windshield glass. This is a neat detail that shouldn’t be overlooked, it adds a nice detail to the model. Finally, paint the roof a weathered, sun-faded black, even if you don’t want to weather this locomotive, black paint fades fast in the harsh California sun.

Decals

I tried a variety of techniques over the years, but this has given me the most success. Start with a layer of Testor’s Gloss cote. Then brush a light layer of future floor wax (acrylic liquid) over the model. Seal that with another layer of gloss cote so the water soluble (and super glossy) future floor wax doesn’t react with water slide decals. Brush some of the micro-sol “red” brand solvent onto the area to be decaled. Slip the decal onto the model, and gently position the lettering in place with a toothpick. After about a minute, gently dab the entire decal softly with a cotton swab perpendicular to the surface of the model so you don’t move the decal before it dries. Once it’s dry, seal with a layer of Gloss Cote. Then come in with a thick layer of Dull Cote to give it a more realistic finish and a good surface for weathering, our final step.

Weathering

Weathering was fairly light on these locomotives, even towards the end. I modeled mine with realistic medium dirt and grime. The main thing you must do with nearly any locomotive is to properly weather their trucks. I typically use Bradgon’s “Dark Rust” and “dirt” and apply it to the model with “dark burnt Sienna” paint by Delta Craft Paints. I mix the powders with the paints for better adhesion and for a more complex finished product than a mono-colored wash. I also did a light wash of the same color of craft acrylics over most of the car body as per prototype photos. I pulled the dirt downwards in vertical streaks for maximum realism. I then sealed the weathering with a copious amount of Dull coat.