Back when I was painting locomotives for the Western Pacific Railroad Museum
(back then it was called the Portola Railroad Museum) we had the luck of
some period photos and someone found the original pattern for nose wings. By
following that pattern, and photographs that showed where the wings passed
through the nose vent louvers (which are on backwards ( or I should say the
left louvers are on the right side & vice-versa) from a wreck rebuild back
in the 1950s or 1960s--someone didn't realize there is/was a left and a
right to those panels--if you didn't know it, the noses of these locomotives
are made up of smaller pieces welded together). The roof black "point"
(which, if I recall rightly, is wrong on the SHS version) had been repainted
a few times by the railroad, who wasn't real particular about laying out the
point curve--there was a 6" difference from side to side. Back to the photos
and looking for bolt heads and rivets to be more precise. Since the WP805A
had had a lot of repaint by other railroads, some "buried" paint clues
weren't there anymore, but the WP 918 was handy to take some rubbings of the
orange band curve below the cab windows--the current curve is one done by
the railroad just before donating the Fs to various museums, and does not
follow the earlier curve!
Yes, I am noted for being particular when it comes to restoration work!
The WP2001 was another mystery, as the previous work done on it had stripped
the noses down to the bare metal. Back to the books, which gave the width of
the tiger stripes, but not the angle nor where one should start. Back to
photographs! Fortunately there are lots of hints on the nose--number board
boxes, ladders, marker light housings--and in our case, the cover for the
deck light in the bottom center of the nose. We found one photograph in
service where someone put the cover on upside-down, which established the
exact point of one stripe's edge--just enough information for me to lay out
the striping!
The lettering on the side of the WP2001 was another vexing problem, but we
lucked out in that not all of the paint had been sanded away. We found a
computer font that matched the WP lettering closely and had vinyl masks
made. Where there were variations from the original, I was able to modify
the masks to match. For those of you painting your models, here's how I did
the prototype. Very first is to open access doors and paint the openings
and inside edges of the doors--for this I went with silver, as the
predominant color. with the doors slightly ajar, now start the outside
painting process. First black in the lettering areas, nose areas, and the
cab roof, then apply masks. Now orange where orange should be ( at this
point, I became known as "Orange Man"--BTW, wearing protective clothing and
respirator the whole time--it gets hot in that thing!). When the orange has
set a few hours, carefully remove the lettering masking. This is tedious
work, as the paint sometimes wants to pull with the masking--razor blades
and unmasking techniques (like pulling the masking over itself so it cuts
the paint edge and doesn't pull the paint off the surface) help a lot
here--and would apply to model painting too. Now mask off the orange, sand
the areas with orange "overspray" into the silver area, and now Start
painting the silver metallic early in the morning starting from the roof
down, change thinner temperatures as the day warms up, and as the day cools
down. I didn't paint all day, as there was some "between coats" time but
mostly ten hours of spraying paint. Because of the large surfaces, one needs
to utilize the edges of the car body to have start/stop points where
overspray will not happen, or will be less noticed--like the cab edges. The
next day, carefully remove the masking! Now the painted railings can go back
on, and it begins to look like a locomotive!
Oh, I forgot to mention that radiator louvers are removed and painted as
units, so that both sides of the operating louvers are painted, then put
back on the locomotive, with louvers shut for the overall paint job. After a
few days, one can close all the access doors and touch up with a brush any
chips or misses. Unlike the model, few folks get within 30 feet of these
areas, and the brush marks aren't visible. Oh, yeah, the next week you dig
out the NOS cab WP logo decals and tediously apply them so there aren't air
bubbles underneath!!
As we used an HVLP Turbine paint system (that paid for itself in the paint
savings on the first locomotive!), we would paint the trucks and fuel tanks
last--very little masking required because of the small amount of overspray
from that painting system--one advantage of the 1:1 scale!.
Well, I hope this wasn't a complete bore for y'all, thought you might get a
kick out of the process. Somewhere I may even have some pics of the process.
BTW, on the F units, I would have to paint the roofs first--lots of fun
walking around all the stuff on the roofs and avoiding falling off, stepping
on the fresh paint, etc. We did paint the fan grills on the ground, and
bolted them on afterwards. Once again, the savings grace is the 30 foot
rule! Not like an automobile where folks can get their eyeballs right next
to the finish and see orange peel, overspray, etc.!
And, no, I did this 20 years ago, and I don't believe I could do it
today--arthritis, etc. (don't say "OLD"!!!!)
Oh, one reason I did the letters first, is that they would be recessed from
the rest of the paint, and would last longer that way. The nose wings on the
WP805A were painted over the orange, white first, than the red (red is so
hard to cover--that was an easy decision!)
Run 'em if ya got 'em!
S'
David Dewey
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