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 Posted - February 20 2013 : 12:18:48 PM
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As some of you may recall, last fall a prospective customer handed me a crusty old diecast steamer missing parts and a tender, and drowning in some sort of mysteriously aged pseudo-camoflague paint:
The owner wanted it "restored" but was not too particular. While the Varney 4-6-2 Pacific is more influenced by a Southern Pacific prototype, he wanted it painted suitably for a local (Kentucky) connection - namely L&N, Southern, B&O or C&O. As the first tender I obtained (thanks Sean!) happened to be a Vanderbilt, that narrowed it to B&O or C&O, and the customer chose B&O and asked for the number 17, presumably in homage to his late father, who owned the loco (and supplied caboose) previously.
The loco shell had a lot of ding damage, which I decided to touch up but not eliminate, in honoring the history of the piece (the current owner conceded it was probably his doing as a lad).
So this was to be a mechanical restoration to get it running , with a cosmetic restoration using artistic license.
I rebuilt all the valve gear and and supplied the missing parts, then polished it out. Since the charm of these vintage models is arguably the materials they were made of - various metals instead of plastics - I left the running gear unpainted. Since much of it is brass, I painted the boiler trim to complement it, and then custom-designed decals and printed them in gold foil.
The paint appears a little thick but it really isn't: a combination of vintage castings that lack the sharp detailing we're accustomed to, under a coat of primer, paint, and gloss sealer for the decals. A flat finish would be more realistic, but as a display item gloss works for now. Customer gets final say, but the chassis and running gear is flat.
Again, it's not an entirely accurate B&O model... but it looks good nonetheless.
I wish I'd taken "before" pictures of the MDC truss caboose, which was a similar disaster. The platform roof ends were bent to the breaking point, all the the modeler-painted panels were chipped and flaking, and the MDC-painted side panels were filthy.
I was able to clean the MDC panels without ruining the paint, straighten the roof panels with heat, and find an appropriate color match for the yellow.
The white and red end grabs? Were painted by the owner's father - I was able to preserve them, and painted the side grabs to match.
Still needs some touch-up and tweaking, but I'm pretty pleased overall.
Edited by - spiderj76 on February 20 2013 12:20:58 PM
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Posted - February 20 2013 : 12:40:41 PM
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| hi tony,fantastic,really looks the business,ken
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Posted - February 20 2013 : 1:05:37 PM
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Just marvelous! Lovely to see a old steamer ride the rails once more!
" Heck with counting 'em rivets, TRAINS ARE FOR FUN! Not called the Mad Scientist for nothing either!"
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Posted - February 20 2013 : 1:23:30 PM
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It's alright, not better than the Chessie Sharknose!!
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Posted - February 20 2013 : 3:34:43 PM
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that MKT caboose looks like MINE! o.o
I'll hafta find it sometime 
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blaneo
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Posted - February 20 2013 : 8:33:10 PM
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WOW! That is one beautiful pacific. Very nice work.
Blane is the name,
Trains are the game.
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Posted - February 20 2013 : 9:03:02 PM
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What can I say... that's a beauty. I like how you kept some of the history. I'm sure most of us here have watched American Restoration on TV. The guy does great work but, many times the originality of the piece is completely erased. In my opinion, you did right by keeping things that the original modeler did.
Unspoken expectations are premeditated failures.
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Posted - February 20 2013 : 10:15:35 PM
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Thank you for the comments and compliments. I agree, American Restoration is a fascinating show and they probably have one of the coolest jobs in the world, but it's hard to know where to draw the line sometimes. I fully appreciate the "showroom new" classic cars at any given show, but usually find myself more drawn to the survivors and imperfect originals - they have stories and history and character behind them.
I tried to find a line between "as intended" and "as is" to keep that history, but that's a subjective line. Not saying my way was right, but I tried to find a balance.
GG-1 guy: Wow, the Chessie Shark... that's an old one but you just reminded me, as the second person to bring that up to me in as many weeks... weird! If you like Chessie keep your eyes on MRN, I just submitted an article about fantasy Chessie paint schemes; should go to print for April or May.
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Posted - February 21 2013 : 06:36:09 AM
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Nice Varney Pacific! - Erich
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Posted - February 21 2013 : 11:17:02 AM
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| Wow! Looks great. Always nice to see a "junk" engine restored.
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Posted - February 21 2013 : 1:52:39 PM
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| Beautifully done! Those Varney pacifics remind me of my favorite prototype restored loco, the #2472 at Niles Canyon.
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Posted - February 27 2013 : 09:21:41 AM
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WOW! I can't think of anything else to say.
rich p
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Posted - March 04 2013 : 11:59:02 AM
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I touched up the handrails and such on the caboose. Then painted a cab figure, added markers to the owner's supplied signal lanterns, modified the tender bolsters to drop the ride height, found and modified metal Roundhouse couplers to fit (I still need to shim the optional pilot coupler), fabricated a tender pickup connection and drawbar (for insulating purposes, the drawbar is the ONLY plastic component in the entire model. Fun fact, the drawbar pickup is courtesy the terminal plate from a dead Kader pancake motor  )...
...after a final tune and tweak, she came to life and POUNDED the nickel as few HO locos ever could.
With some final small incidental touchups, she's finally done and ready for departure. Always kind of bittersweet, but the owner is thrilled, and said some of the best compliments I ever received, so that makes me happy. 
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Posted - March 04 2013 : 12:09:30 PM
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real cool & great work
THIS is why I should someday send you the extra Tyco Soo boxcar I has & put on B&L decals & BALX on it
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Posted - March 04 2013 : 1:00:20 PM
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| beautiful,thats all i can say,ken
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