Athearn B Unit

 

An Athearn B unit that was detailed back in the 1970's or early 1980's from my father in laws collection.

My father in law passed about a year and a half ago. Now that my mother in law passed also we are cleaning out the house. I was to take all his railroad collection which I did. He had some equipment that I already had but nice and some that is dated. 

I showed a bit of what he had to Peter Mumby mentioning I was thinking of selling off some of his older Athearn engines. He suggested I hang onto the B unit as it was well detailed but not well painted and decaled. I then thought it could make a good candidate to practice some weathering on.

The decals were not set well on the engine which I covered again with setting solution. There was a gloss coat applied, but so light and uneven that the setting solution did work on the decals. There was a couple small spots that one can still see if you look closely.

I added a flat finish then a coat of alcohol and India ink to the roof. From there I used acrylics to add a flaking edges followed by a dusting of PanPastel raw umber shade and Bragdon rust and soot. Some of the shades were lightly dusted on the sides. 

I should mention that the wheels are painted cinnamon brown and the trucks and lower frame area has AK rust wash and Vallejo rust texture applied before a light dusting of PanPastel colorless blender.

I think it looks a lot better than when I first pulled the engine out of the box...George Dutka

The engine before I began.

MIG polished metal was dusted on the grill while PanPastel colorless blender went on the trucks. The roof is well worn looking.

A well worn looking B unit. One can see there was a lot of details originally applied to the model.