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Today, I put everything together for my GN Crane project, finishing the cable rigging and attaching the cabin to the chassis. First, after I discovered that my old Polly Scale acrylics of GN orange and Empire Green were way past their shelf life (despite valiant efforts to rescue them), I turned to my familiar Walmart spray paint shelves and found these two colors, which appeared to very closely match photos and many of my other RTR painted GN models: The orange is called "Gloss Mandarin" and is a few shades darker than the "pumpkin orange" Krylon I previously purchased and orginally intended to use for GN Omaha Orange. The green is called "Dark Hunter Green". The silver is Krylon Metallic "Matte Aluminum". All were were gloss (even the "matte Aluminum"- easy to work the decaling with- and when covered with Testor's Dull cote, toned down excellently! I did the green first, then the orange. The silver roof and boom, as well as the original inspiration for the "empire builder" overall scheme came from this image I found online- I believe it's an O scale model from MTH (?): I was considering using some Microscale striping that I had on hand, but I was afraid of breaking the delicate and very long decals, as well as the GN gold color not being "quite right" in my opinion. I found some "Washi" tape (a brand/type of tape from Japan used for crafting) in plain colors- all of the colors on one dispenser for under $8.00 at Staples office supplies. After applying the tape (cut thinner for a 2 inch equivalent band), I dullcoated the cabin- this fixed the tape very well. I plan to use this stuff (in other colors as shown) again and again, on many more paint projects. In reality, GN painted their railroad cranes red, as well as their boom cars- this is from the world of what if, not actually was. While I think I showed the circuit layout for the LEDs constant lighting before, here is a final shot of the cabin interior and the circuit board: I tested the circuit on my test track before installing- and it was quite a light show: Here are some various views of the completed project: This has been the longest project I have done- mostly because I wasn't in a hurry. Now I look at my workbench and see at least five current (in plastic shoeboxes) partially-completed projects and, while I want to get to all of them at once, I realize it's a hobby, not a business. Originally posted by siouxlake - March 29 2014 :  4:51:46 PM

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Stephen, that is one fine piece of work and also a great photo story. I very much enjoyed hearing how you did the lettering with the tape. That night shot of the lights coming from the crane to the work car is pretty cool, too. Originally posted by Barry - March 29 2014 :  9:57:03 PM