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| My two RS-3's are seen working at Bellows Crossing on the White River Division. The engines are new deliveries and have yet to see much of the railroads right-of-way grime. |
Stock Bachmann B&M RS-3's...getting some additional details
I started adding a few details to my two B&M RS-3's back in the late spring. With the early July hot weather keeping me in a cool place I finished the details and light weathering of my two units. There are more details that one could add if one wished to, I just wanted to add enough to make the engines my own creation. The RS-3's are great right out of the box, but a few easy add-on's sure makes a big difference. You can check out my Jan. 25th, 2013 post regarding their arrival at WRJ.
B&M 1536
The easiest jobs are to add wipers to the windows which are painted Floquil old silver and marker lights to the lead end. Markers are Precision Scale part #31334 which are painted black. This part of the project is very easy, just requiring drilling a few holes and painting the castings. Just these two changes really makes a big difference. The horn on my engine is wrong for a B&M engine and also in the wrong location. I broke mine off and touched up the markings with engine black. I mounted mine on the cab roof as seen in the photos. The bracket and horn are from my parts box. I also added lift rings by Detail Associates #1107 to the hood removing the cast on originals. All are touched up with Floquil engine black.
Both engines got Kadee True Scale No. 58 couplers. This is was not an easy job. The Kadee brass holder does not fit properly. I reamed out the hole in the brass to make it fit. One could also drill these out. Getting it all back together and operational took me over an hour per engine. For some reason the second engine took me longer than the first. I am glad I changed out the couplers as they do make a big difference in appearance.
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| B&M #1538 began as stock engine 1536 but had the 6 changed to an 8. |
Once I finished with all my add-on's, I gave the whole engine a coat of Floquil Flat finish. Following this I used chalks and Bragdon weathering powders to give them a lightly used appearance. I may add more weathering to the trucks at a later point but I wanted them to be more as if they where recently delivered. The marker jewels are then applied.
B&M 1538
The detailing and weathering on engine 1538 was identical to 1536. Both of my engines came numbered the same, B&M 1536. I needed a part number change on this engine. I began by touching up the number 6 on the body with Scalecoat S2123, B&M maroon. I did the same on the number boards and ends using Floquil engine black. I now needed to find a similar looking number 8. For the numbers I used Microscale B&M E & F units sheet #87909. The numbers although not an exact match are very close. This engine got a horn I still had packaged, it is Details West #AH-253, all other parts are the same as on 1536...George Dutka
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| B&M #1536 is about to depart Bellows Crossing on the White River Division. This engine got a bit more weathering that B&M #1538. Both engines look as if they arrived a few short months ago. Many of my engines have been weathered as if they have been around forever. |
