Progress has been slow on projects for several months, but finally some progress is visible on my Shapeways Alco FA and GP20.

Progress, as in both are now ready for paint. The biggest single project was making the handrails. I opted finally to use soft 22 gauge wire for the railings and, on the GP20, to use Athearn HO handrail stanchions.

A tip being you have to use the tip of a scraper to begin the location of the hole (as you would with drilling in metal), and with my motor tool in the drill press I use the slowest speed. Another tip is pull the wire straight by putting one end in a bench vice and pulling with pliers.

Laying it all out took some time, and little compromises had to be made due to the way the bodies were made. Such as the GP20 was made with two Fireman’s sides (!), each side is a mirror image so the area behind the cab in the side in the photo is incorrect. I did make a few modifications of details that stuck out that were practical to modify, most notably to the GP20. There was an extra bulge from the middle fan and an extra knob on the hood, I got rid of the ditch lights, and most notably I modified fuel tank area and the ends of the frame near the steps. The ends of the frame had extra material not seen in the prototype photos, and I opted to use fuel tanks modified from HO TYCO fuel tanks rather than what was on the body as produced. Oh, and I wish I could lower the bottom step! It would be quite a jump down for the crew.

Another compromise to mention on the FA is that the bottom end of the handrails should be attached lower, but there was no practical way to duplicate that. On both engines I used Athearn horns.

The bottom view shows a few more details of the build. One is that the FA fuel tank was hanging too low as produced, I cut it off and have mounted it to the body higher, with screws. Also note that both engines are dummies. I was going to power the GP20, but was missing some key parts and these models are so light these make great dummy locomotives. So for now the GP20 has my last spare pair of Kemtron GP trucks (it may get switched out to Schorr trucks, depending on needs), and the FA has a pair of Schorr RS-2 trucks.

And of course I made a frame for the GP20 out of thick aluminum stock. All that is lacking right now is paint and couplers. I have some ideas to test on painting, I’m hoping to better overcome the grainy finish, and I’ll report on those in a future post. The FA came with unusable truck side frames that I’m going to use for painting experiments.