Post by timberley on Oct 29, 2014 11:14:28 GMT -5
I've been hard at work over the last little while with another AMT Montreal project. This time, it's an ex-Amtrak F40PH. AMT had a bunch of these on the roster for several years, though I believe they're all out of service now. I saw a string of them sitting in what appeared to be a deadline by the AMT shops when I was coming in to Montreal on VIA's "Ocean" almost 2 weeks ago. It's sad if they are in fact done, because they were good looking units!
AMT had these units on lease, but they actually repainted them fully in a new scheme that has since been applied to some of the ex-GO Transit F59PHs as well. It's essentially a modified version of Amtrak's Phase 3 scheme, but with the red stripe replaced with light blue, and the silver going all the way up to the roof on the sides.
I had figured a while back that this would be an easy conversion to do from a Kato F40PH, particularly their modern one (with ditchlights), as it's a pretty close match for the AMT units. I recently found one at the right price, and here we are!
Instead of stripping and repainted, I figured that I could do a reasonable job of modifying the paint scheme. Starting with the Phase 3 Amtrak unit, I removed the Amtrak logos (as best I could...darn Kato printing doesn't come off easily!). I then masked off the upper part of the body, and sprayed it first with white primer, and then with silver. Matching one silver to another is darn near impossible. I suspect "platinum mist" would have been ideal, but I had no source for that here and decided to try to find a good alternative. In the long run I used Modelflex BNSF silver, which worked quite well. The only place it really shows as visibly different is where I had to paint down to cover where the Amtrak logos had been on the side, but it only stands out in certain light from certain angles.
For the striping, I mixed up a custom light blue to match the AMT colour, then masked off the red stripe and carefully painted over it. I then touched up the bits of the white and dark blue stripes where the Amtrak logos and numbers had been, and voila! Just about perfect. I then added number decals and did all the little detail painting, and then applied AMT logos that were graciously supplied to me by forum member Deandremouse (thanks again!), who had them printed up by Highball.
All in all, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I have loved the look of these units ever since I saw one for the first time outside Montreal's Gare Central, and it's really cool to now have one in 1:87!
Some photos, of course:
P.S. Fun train bonus fact - If you look really close at the paper the loco is staged on for the photos, you can see some writing showing through from the other side (which I didn't realize until well after taking these...of course!). Well that paper is actually a print-at-home VIA Rail boarding pass from the aforementioned trip on board The Ocean from Halifax to Montreal....during which I spotted a bunch of these locos! Funny little connection :-P
AMT had these units on lease, but they actually repainted them fully in a new scheme that has since been applied to some of the ex-GO Transit F59PHs as well. It's essentially a modified version of Amtrak's Phase 3 scheme, but with the red stripe replaced with light blue, and the silver going all the way up to the roof on the sides.
I had figured a while back that this would be an easy conversion to do from a Kato F40PH, particularly their modern one (with ditchlights), as it's a pretty close match for the AMT units. I recently found one at the right price, and here we are!
Instead of stripping and repainted, I figured that I could do a reasonable job of modifying the paint scheme. Starting with the Phase 3 Amtrak unit, I removed the Amtrak logos (as best I could...darn Kato printing doesn't come off easily!). I then masked off the upper part of the body, and sprayed it first with white primer, and then with silver. Matching one silver to another is darn near impossible. I suspect "platinum mist" would have been ideal, but I had no source for that here and decided to try to find a good alternative. In the long run I used Modelflex BNSF silver, which worked quite well. The only place it really shows as visibly different is where I had to paint down to cover where the Amtrak logos had been on the side, but it only stands out in certain light from certain angles.
For the striping, I mixed up a custom light blue to match the AMT colour, then masked off the red stripe and carefully painted over it. I then touched up the bits of the white and dark blue stripes where the Amtrak logos and numbers had been, and voila! Just about perfect. I then added number decals and did all the little detail painting, and then applied AMT logos that were graciously supplied to me by forum member Deandremouse (thanks again!), who had them printed up by Highball.
All in all, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I have loved the look of these units ever since I saw one for the first time outside Montreal's Gare Central, and it's really cool to now have one in 1:87!
Some photos, of course:
P.S. Fun train bonus fact - If you look really close at the paper the loco is staged on for the photos, you can see some writing showing through from the other side (which I didn't realize until well after taking these...of course!). Well that paper is actually a print-at-home VIA Rail boarding pass from the aforementioned trip on board The Ocean from Halifax to Montreal....during which I spotted a bunch of these locos! Funny little connection :-P
