08/08/05

Today I took delivery of the new MTH GS-4 Daylight.

 

07/22/07

Removed the white-wall paint on the wheels and drivers.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________

Photos from MTH's website:

__________________________________________________________________________________

Photos of Dave H's Daylight (from MLS):

__________________________________________________________________________________

MTH Daylight Colorization:  

Immediately upon opening the box, I got my first glimpse at the colorization of the engine...  the red is more of a florescent pink color.  The yellow is bright, but think it's not too bad.  This picture illustrates the difference of the color between the MTH vs. the Accucraft version of the 4449 Daylight. 

The below picture is from MTH's 2004 catalog.

 

In doing some research it appears the colorization on the Daylight I received is one that has been used on the MTH O gauge line.  While I think the chosen O gauge colors(red) might have been acceptable for trains run indoors, it doesn't look good outside in bright sunlight where our G gauge is typically ran.(In my opinion.)

 

For additional discussion, see www.mylargescale.com:   

http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32552 

and

http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31219&whichpage=3

 

One more picture (slightly overexposed) highlighting it's florescence:  (this is about what the engine looks like in bright sunlight.)

 

A few more photos showing the colors of the engine.

__________________________________________________________________________________

 MTH Daylight Videos:  

 

Note: if the video skips, right click on the link and select "save target as" and save it to your local drive, then play it.

                                              Select the version / quality you want to download:

   -  Test Run #1 - 3:09 mins  -  Basement line test run

                   - 47MB/2100kbs - 23MB/1000kbs - 3MB/150kbs

  

   -  Test Run #2 - 2:01 mins  -  Night-time running outside

                  - 30MB/2100kbs - 15MB/1000kbs - 2MB/150kbs

                                         

                                            -  Test Run #3 - 6:35 mins  - GS-4 & Challenger double-headed on feeder line

                                                            - 102MB/2100kbs - 49MB/1000kbs - 7MB/150kbs

 

                                     -  Test Run #4  - 10:23 mins  - Inside basement test with Challenger

                                                            - 166MB/2100kbs - 79MB/1000kbs - 12MB/150kbs 

 

__________________________________________________________________________________

08/17/05

Here is what the engine looks like disassembled.  Because of my dissatisfaction with the red color, I'm going to attempt a repaint of that first.  With any luck that will achieve the look I want.  I want a Daylight running on my layout and figure it is unlikely MTH will change the color, so a repaint it is.   

One thing I noticed upon disassembly, the Protosound 2 board assembly was not screwed into it's mount in the top of the boiler.  (No screw anywhere in the boiler or shipping box so it must have been missed.)  I don't think there was any risk to the electronics shorting against the smoke unit, but one may want to be sure.  This engine was very well designed as it was simple to take apart.  The hand rails from the cab steps to the top of the cab are brass.  The cab steps are plastic.

(Click on the picture to see additional photos)

 

08/27/05

Research continues into finding a proper color of paint.  Anyways, I ordered Floquil's SP Daylight Red and Orange and boy are they WAY off.  Don't look good at all in my opinion.  As a result, I've started looking at the color charts first of all the model paint manufacturers to see what they have.  I've found one chart for Testors line of enamel paints, but wonder if there are other charts.   What I've found so far is the Badger line of paints has some colors that I think is a decent match to the eye. 

I'm looking at: 16-159 CP Action Red and 16-158 CP Action Yellow

Realizing that the color they've chosen on the computer may not be a perfect match, I may still get a bottle of their SP Daylight red just to see.

The below chart can be found here:  http://badger-airbrush.com/images/RailRoadChart.jpg

 

The next color chart is of the Scalecoat model paints:  http://www.weavermodels.com/index.html

 

 

Other charts have I have found are as follows:

http://www.hiawathahobbies.com/Badger%20Paint/badger%20paint.htm - Model Flex: A different line of Badger paints

http://www.rayman4449.dynip.com/1100_Testors_(Enamel).pdf

http://www.rayman4449.dynip.com/Floquil_RR_(Enamel).pdf

http://www.rayman4449.dynip.com/PScale_RR_Acryl.pdf

 

Still trying to decide what/which to get.  I still have several inquiries out on various model train forums looking for someone who's done a repaint and looked for a good matching set of colors.

__________________________________________________________________________________

10/29/05

A month ago I painted the smokebox with Floquil engine black and felt there was too much grey in the color, but after taking the masking tape off, it seems to look better and darker blended with the surrounding black of the engine.  If I was to do it over again, I might have gone with the Tamiya Acrylic flat black I found, but this should do nicely. 

With the smokebox painted black, the engine has a totally different look in my opinion.  The cab ladders and cab deflector windows have been painted with Tamiya Acrylic semi-gloss black and matches the original MTH finish perfectly.

(Click on the picture below to see additional repaint photos)

 

__________________________________________________________________________________

Return to the Garden Railroad 2004 page.

Return to the Garden Railroad 2005 page.