Rock Island GP35 #325

One down, six to go.

I applied the finishing touches on the first of the Rock Island GP35's.  I originally did this loco a number of years ago and was not planning to redo it until I pulled it out to give it a look over.  There were several things that I did wrong back then because I wasn't very knowledgeable and I really didn't have that many images available, unlike there is today thanks to the internet and Facebook.  Not to mention what I've learned with weathering and some of the newer mediums we have to work with today.

Like I did with the U33B's recently, I painted it with TCP Rock Island Maroon, Micro Scale decals, and the numberboards by Shell Scale decals.  The weathering was done using mainly Pan Pastels and the oil and fuel leaks were done with Tamiya Black panel liner.  Plus I installed all four marker lights this time since I have enough to last me now.

The way the glazing sets (specifically the headlights) in these Atlas units are designed, I didn't have to replace them with Fiber Optics like I did on the U33B's.  In this case all I needed to was to glue the 804 LEDs directly the headlight glazing.  While it's not quite as bright as the Fiber Optics in the U33B's, it's a hell of a lot brighter than what it is with just relying on the surface mount LED on the DCC board.

If you look at the two pictures of both ends of the loco you can see how dim the rear lights are compared to the front light since I didn't add an LED to the rear.  Why didn't I add an LED to the rear light you ask?  I normally don't run my locos long hood forward so I didn't waste the time and effort.

Anyway enough rambling... 

Here's a side by side of the original on the left and the new on  the right.

The old one was painted with Floquil Rock Island Maroon which is a bit lighter.  The TCP is a much richer Maroon and closer to the factory color.

After as much research that I've done recently with the U33B's and these GP35's, along with all the new available photos that I've found online, the one thing I've come to realize about most of the Rock Island locomotives that were photographed in the final years of operations is that most weren't Rust Buckets. They were more grimey than rusty.  This is why the newer GP35 is a little darker this time around.

Several of the GP35's that I have planned will not be as dark or grimey but will hopefully look a lot more sun bleached and faded.  The weathering was quite diverse in the final years of the Rock.  This is what has drawn me to model this road.