MLW RS18 Madness - Part 17

The RS18u is progressing well. Over the last few weeks, a good coat of faded Action Red was applied over the shell... then I found out installing the handrails before priming was a nightmare when the time came to mask and airbrush the black. Fortunately, with some patience and care, the result was as good as if I did it prior to installing the handrail. Lesson learned, but at least not at a far to high cost.

Ready for decals - Look how black parts are slightly weathered

Interestingly enough, I decided to continue my military weathering approach. Some slight fading and color variations were applied over the initial coat of Red Action. the reason is simple, I don't want to contaminate the white lettering with orangish colors at this point. Also, when I applied the black, I didn't airbrush a thick coat but rather several light passes to build up the color. Indeed, on the prototype it is evident the black paint was badly fading and eroding, making the red paint under neat show through. I prefered to do this effect right now rather than wait and add it. This way, I know my weathering is closer to the real effect.

Thread plate - A detail I'm glad to have added

Another thing I did was to mix some roof brown and red oxide with black paint to create a kind of faded black that I then lightly applied over the nose, the plows and pilots. Once again, I could do this later when the model is decaled, but slowly building the effect from step one is more natural to me.Later, oil paints, panpastel and fading will help to blend everything together.

Meanwhile, I've reached the point I can now spray a coat of Micro Gloss and start applying the decals. This will be done in several steps to recreate the patch NBEC put on "CP" when they took ownership of this locomotive. Once done, missing grabirons, headlights, grabirons, brakewheel and rear numberboards will be added. Then, the big fun will begin!