Locomotive - FINAL REVEAL

[DRUMS01]

MANUFACTURER: MPC
SCALE: 1/25
AGE: Kit Molded in 1982

MODIFICATIONS:

- display base modified with ballast. scale rock, and vegetation
- all gold plated plastic (80%) discarded and replaced with real brass
- cab interior scratch built plumbing, gages, and and controls
- various operating rods added from scratch
- drive wheel yellow stripes added
- tool box created and tools added
- oil can, lantern, wrench, and jack added in or around cab
- hinges added to tender floor plate
- gas filament added to drive light
- over 100 nut and/or bolt heads added throughout
- scratchbuilt valve rods, water valve controls, and steam bleeders

PAINTS and COLOR:

- Tamiya, Testors, Vallejo colors
- pastels, pigment, and water colors used for wear and aging

REFERENCES:

- Wikipedia - The General 4-4-0 Stem Locomotive
- Federal Railroad Commission
- Library of Congress
- Baldwin Locomotive Works
- The Southern Museum (location of actual locomotive)

PRO's:

- great modeling subject
- interesting war story behind real locomotive
- nice scale makes impressive display piece when finished

CON's:

- very poor mold quality (out of register, flash, ejection pin marks)
- right and left angles on parts were not square making correct fit difficult
- soft detail on chassis and cab details
- some parts molded incorrectly, incomplete, or not at all
- terrible decals (most likely due to age)

NOTE: The kit is not in the configuration or colors of the locomotive as it was during the civil war's "Great Train Race".



The kit is similar to the train currently sitting in the Southern Museum. In the 1870s, the General was completely rebuilt, it had received a new pilot, boiler, and other components. Most notably, its three dome configuration was reduced to two domes, and its Radley-Hunter style balloon stack was replaced with a diamond stack, as the engine had been converted to burn coal. Indeed, the rebuilt engine had little resemblance to its original form. The locomotive was originally built to the southern states standard rail gauge of 5 ft (1,524 mm). After a change to the northern states gauge was mandated by June 1, 1886, the General was converted to be compatible with the U.S. Standard Gauge of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm).

The kit was built my me and my special needs son over a span of several months (July 24th till October 9th). After many ups and downs we present our version of the "General" Steam Locomotive.

























To the thousands looking in and following along, thanks for checking in. For the modeling support team, thanks for your responses, interest, and input. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Ben and Jarrod

[aur0ra145]

Excellent result! Ya'll should be proud!

[digger303]

Come out as expected....excellent.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Fantastic work guys

[BigWall]

Exceptional work once again you two!

[Mpfiend]

Stunning result, well done the pair of you.

[smokeriderdon]

Absolutely awesome!

[RangerNeil]

An amazing job - you and Jarrod must be congratulated on your perseverance with this build. The final result is worthy of those efforts!

[DRUMS01]

THANKS EVERYONE! I read your responses to Jarrod and he was glowing and happy to hear them. Initially we were going to start on the 1/25 Tarhe helicopter but now I'm not sure. Car, boat, aircraft, armor, figure, space, ... heck we will figure out something.

Ben and Jarrod

[Stokesy44]

Beautiful work!

[Garion77]

Well it is actually finish !! Just responded on the building thread as I'm catching up on the forum. Jarrod as every reasons to be glowing and happy because this is stunning work.

[LudvigN]

Wow, that's something different! Looks very nice!

[DRUMS01]

Thanks Francis, Stokesy, and Ludvig; I know when I read your replies to Jarrod he will be delighted.

I cannot believe the difference from that period of molding technology (over 40 years ago) versus the new technology and quality we see today. After completing this old booger we can say we are indeed grateful for the new stuff. I would even say we are spoiled today with the quality of kits being produced. When this kit was made there was no such thing as "after market suppliers, no photo etch, resin details, we're talking about nothing. And we are not kidding when we said that every 90 degree corner of a part was actually more like 95 - 105 degrees, making it time consuming, labor intensive, and difficult to square up almost any part or assembly of this build.

Even with all this, we enjoyed the research, challenge, and work it took to get it to the level shown. It's far from perfect, as every model gets to a point where the builder calls it "d-o-n-e". We are satisfied with the result, when comparing it against what we had to start with.

Thanks once again for checking it out and your very kind remarks.

[NoelSmith]

Lovely model build. Is it from an AMT kit?

Reminds me of the little HO/OO Rosebud Kitmaster model I built way back.
Dapol took over the Kitmaster range but never ever issued the General kit as well as some of the other European and American railway locos Kitmaster produced.

[DRUMS01]

Thank you NoelSmith. It was a difficult kit that was molded poorly even by 1982 standards.

AMT, I don't think so. As far as I know it has always been a kit from MPC