Anyway, to tape stripe something large like a pickup truck or car takes some patience. To tape stripe a 3" long locomotive takes a lot more patience (and a bit of insanity). First I had to make appropriate width tape for the masking. I took some Tamiya tape I had laying around and cut it to width with a model knife and a straight edge...
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| The Easy Part |
That was the easy part. Putting the tape on the shell was a whole 'nother story. I started with the upper stripe and then discovered it was easier to do the lower stripe first. This stripe runs above the top of the radiator vent and dead straight down the side The hard part is turning the corner at the end. The stripe curves and changes direction at the same time. If I was striping a car this would be accomplished by slowly stretching the tape (it's vinyl) as I change direction. That's not possible with this tape, at least not at this scale. I was able to make it work, but not easily...
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| Lower Stripe |
Still it was easier then the upper stripe. I had to piece the ends on that one because of the molded in lights. The resulting end pieces were very short. It took quite a bit of finagling to get it reasonably straight. After the tape was applied I used a set of tweezers with rounded ends to burnish the edges of the tape into the nooks and crannies on the shell. Once all this masking was done I sprayed on a coat of clear flat to seal the edges of the tape and let it dry.
The final step was a coat of "Blue Angel" blue. I let this dry enough to be handled and very carefully used the tip of a hobby knife to pull up the tape. Things went pretty well and the shell came out better than expected...
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| CNJ Class FPSD-37 (FM H-15-44) |
While the shell might look good from a distance, it leaves a lot to be desired. For one the plastic used is some funky resin. The thing always feels a bit tacky, even without paint. The detail is not as crisp as the Atlas or Bachmann parts that are available. I think I'm going to purchase an Atlas H-15-44 body kit and trash this one.
The other CNJ shells were a LOT easier. The F units are two tone and the masking was pretty straight forward. Once again it was a bit of work to get the tape to curve, but the radius was much wider and more readily formed...
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| Masked F Unit |
The blue paint was applied the same way as the road switcher. I sealed the masking with a coat of flat clear. Once that had dried I applied the blue. When the tape was removed I had a pretty good representation of a Jersey Central class FD-42. Granted the actual locomotives were F3s instead of the F7 units I used, but it's part of "repurposing" my diesel fleet. Since many F3's eventually received F7 style grills maybe I can fudge a bit...
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| Jersey Central Class FD-42 (EMD F-3) |
One other thing I fiddled with today was this contraption...
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| Decoder Testing/Programming Station |
Believe it or not this rats nest actually does something. Many of my DCC decoders are second hand and as a result need to be tested before I permanently solder them into a perfectly good locomotive. Actually, even new decoders should be tested so anyone who uses DCC should probably have a similar gizmo. The actual tester is the circuit board in the left center of the board. Most of the other items make up an Atlas Commander system. I actually have two Commanders. One is the hub of the layout DCC system. The on shown here is a "spare" of sorts that I use for programming my locomotives. Both units are second hand and a lot less expensive than newer starter sets.
The heart of the this decoder station is a tester kit made by NCE. I got their DTK DCC decoder test kit off the web for about $20, including shipping. The kit includes the tester itself plus two wiring harnesses. One has ends for those decoders with plugs. The other has pigtails that can be used for the plugless decoders. Although alligator clips can added to the pigtails I found some info on the web that suggests using microhooks made by E-Z-Hook. They make set of hooks colored to match the standard color code of decoder wiring, Model XM. I also purchased these on line. The price was about the same as the tester kit. It took a few minutes and some soldering to install them, but it's worth it...
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| NCE DTK Test Kit With XM Hook Set |
The tester also has terminal connections for track power and motor testing. You might be able to see that I have added wires with clips to both of these. I plan to mount all of this on the board I'm using for the station and make everything oh so neat and organized. I should probably learn how to use the thing while I'm at it. I have at least a dozen decoders waiting to be tested and installed.
Regards,
Frank Musick
Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget
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The Average Eastern Railroad
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