A Little SD9 Progress

Work continues on my ex-SP ex-Willamette & Pacific SD9 that the JSSX acquired.  Being an undecorated kit locomotive, I'm finding it a bit tricky doing the painting and installing the parts, but as I chip away at it progress is made.  Here's the inspiration photo of the prototype.

I know my model will not turn out exactly like the prototype (Richard Gibson photo), but hopefully it will at the least be an interesting and plausible, well-worn addition to the JSSX fleet.

Here's a few photos of my progress:

I've painted the area including the grilles in white, similar to what the W&P did. I know it looks quite stark here, but the eventual weathering will take care of that.

I tried putting the wide white stripe below the dynamic brake where the Willamette & Pacific lettering is located, but thought it looked horrible, so the JSSX has painted over the stripe with black. Maybe a shade of grey different from the body colour would be better.

As for the parts, on the roof so far I've installed 6 fans, 2 horns, the cooling piping assembly, and 13 eyebolts.

I've got the SP "wings" on the nose.  I used Microscale decals for those.  I carefully cut them out, lightly sprayed them with the grey paint that I used on the shell, and then sprayed with the same SP Scarlet that I used on the nose, and yet the colour doesn't quite match the nose.  I'll still need to paint the trucks and fuel tank in grey.

That's about it so far on the SD9.  I did some switching on the layout this week, so I thought I'd show this one picture from that.

Moscow, Camden & San Augustine boxcar spotted at the rail dock.  I don't know what they make or do in this place, but it gets kind of tricky to get the boxcar in there with a run around in the street followed by a switch back that involves pulling cars out from the neighboring industry.

Happy March Break everybody !