Champlain Valley Custom Models

As seen at NERPM!

I finally got around to getting my Rapido Trains Inc. Boston & Maine SW9 in the photo booth for some glamour shots. The goal was to replicate 1231's 1969/70 appearance with a decent amount of paint failure and grime. I don't know if they painted the truck sideframes silver on this unit at some point or if the black paint peeled off, but to start I essentially dry brushed silver paint on the sideframes. From there I used MEC Harvest Gold to replicate the maroon paint failure. To make it look more natural and streaked, I brushed some paint thinner over top of it. From there, the usual paints, powders, and pan pastels were used for weathering.

From a detailing perspective, as we all know by now, Rapido messed up the rear handrail situation. Their customer service was gracious enough to send parts to correct the issues, however I didn't feel like waiting so I made my own solution using the handrails off of a Proto 2000 SW9 and a Gotham Rail & Marine MU plug box. The one part from Rapido that I did use was the additional step to bridge the gap in height between the back of the cab and the drop step. I also swapped the horn for a Cal Scale M3, moved the cab vent to the proper position, swapped the bell for a Gotham Rail & Marine one, added the missing grab iron on the hood, and made my own spark arrestors from a piece of round styrene.

Internally, I completely redid the factory DCC installation. There is now a NixTrainz decoder buddy mini, a larger sugarcube speaker, and an ESU PowerPack.

Lots of work for a factory model that was meant to be prototypical as delivered, but hey that's what modeling is all about! The manufacturers do their best and leave the rest for us rivet counters. But it is now ready to go into service so I can make Alex Formanek swoon by replicating the VTR/B&M interchange in Bennington.

Hello from NERPM! I'll be here tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday with models on display. Please feel free to come say hi!