TheRailwire
General Discussion => Product Discussion => Topic started by: rapidotrains on September 08, 2019, 02:56:50 PM
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Hi all,
Our latest Rapido News is online and it includes a Dash 8 update. We're reopening the order desk for another month because the factory STILL hasn't made them, much to our frustration.
Here's the link: https://conta.cc/2LCnGbw (https://conta.cc/2LCnGbw)
A couple of photos below.
Mohan and I are at the airport, about to board a plane to China. I'll be reviewing the latest samples of the N scale Canadian while there and no doubt posting photos to our Facebook page.
Best regards,
Jason
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
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Hand painted I guess. Why are the handrails on the front thicker than the hand rails (white) on the nose?
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Mohan and I are at the airport, about to board a plane to China. I'll be reviewing the latest samples of the N scale Canadian while there and no doubt posting photos to our Facebook page.
@rapidotrains,
Thanks for the update and have a great trip, Jason. Oh, and on your way back from China, please bring the HO scale Seaboard System B36-7s with you. :D
DFF
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Hand painted I guess. Why are the handrails on the front thicker than the hand rails (white) on the nose?
My guess is that the handrails on the body are from wire, while the front handrails are molded plastic. Hey, modelers asked for super-detailing - this request creates a whole new set of problems. :)
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I think Rapido knows about the thickness on the handrails. In the email newsletter I got they said to please ignore it. So I assume it's been handled or will be when actual production begins.
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I think Rapido knows about the thickness on the handrails. In the email newsletter I got they said to please ignore it. So I assume it's been handled or will be when actual production begins.
Yeah, they'll use thicker wire handrails to match the plastic ones. :trollface: :trollface:
Yes, I'm joking - relax everybody. :)
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Those are looking very nice! But please, don't tempt me. I already have two on order and now I'm wanting a couple more!
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Is that nose door window..... Painted On ?!?!?!?!?.. *Gasp*...
;)
Since its. Nose headlight model, that is a good move to minimize light bleed through.. (also good if the windows got plated over in later years.. or omitted on some versions.)
Looks great!!.. hopefully the handrail thickness can be evened out a bit in production painting..
I like the roof detail on the cab..
~ian
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Is that nose door window..... Painted On ?!?!?!?!?.. *Gasp*...
;)
Same with the markers/classification lights.
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My guess is that the handrails on the body are from wire, while the front handrails are molded plastic. Hey, modelers asked for super-detailing - this request creates a whole new set of problems. :)
This is correct. It is accentuated in the sample because the handrails are painted by hand, which is a thicker application of paint.
But there is no way to avoid it. The plastic handrails will be thicker than the wire handrails. I'm sure some customers will snip off the plastic ones and replace them with wire, which would be amazing. But to do that in mass production would result in a lot of models arriving with loose handrails floating around the box. It's such a challenge keeping front wire handrails attached in HO that we're actually switching back to plastic for HO models. It would be impossible in N.
The door window - a BC Rail only feature - was painted on in HO also. :D
The N model has more detail than the HO, including the correct BCR rear light.
Regards from Hong Kong airport,
Jason
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Regards from Hong Kong airport,
Jason
Watch out for the tear gas and demonstrations!
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That makes sense... (on the nose door..)
I was going to ask how wide spread are the issues in Hong Kong.. but one area they have protested was the airport.. so.. Yeah, Be careful.. ~Ian
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again. In N scale, the whisker thin nature of actual scale grabs makes any added on detail just stand out like a sore thumb. I know it's not as "Gee Whiz" as having zillions of separate castings to worry about, but I think in person and (when lightly weathered) in photos, molded on grabs are fine in most applications. But maybe that's just me.
Lee
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I'll just say the photo is disappointing and leave it to Jason and crew to recitfy matters on their visit to the factory.
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again. In N scale, the whisker thin nature of actual scale grabs makes any added on detail just stand out like a sore thumb. I know it's not as "Gee Whiz" as having zillions of separate castings to worry about, but I think in person and (when lightly weathered) in photos, molded on grabs are fine in most applications. But maybe that's just me.
Lee
Nope. Not alone.
I'm also quite happy with molded-in details like Kato does. Like I mentioned earlier, the mismatch in thickness is a price to pay for requesting manufacturers to use all the separately-added thin wire grab irons on the shell.
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Watch out for the tear gas and demonstrations!
N-scalers do tend to get a bit feisty over grab rails and other details.
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Jason,
Thanks for the response!
Mark
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Watch out for the tear gas and demonstrations!
N-scalers do tend to get a bit feisty over grab rails and other details.
So that's what them protests are about! :D :trollface:
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I'll just say the photo is disappointing and leave it to Jason and crew to recitfy matters on their visit to the factory.
For a hand-painted sample I think it looks great. If there are decoration errors beyond the termination of the white stripe on the side and the thick handrail paint, please send an email to the team - trains AT rapidotrains.com - and we will check whatever you point out.
-Jason
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For a hand-painted sample I think it looks great. If there are decoration errors beyond the termination of the white stripe on the side and the thick handrail paint, please send an email to the team - trains AT rapidotrains.com - and we will check whatever you point out.
-Jason
Double check the angle of the bell. Maybe its the low photo angle, but it looks crooked to me. The body looks awesome, the cab and nose, not so much.
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Looks pretty good to me. I'm sure my three zebra units will look awesome.
Three minor things that need to be addressed though, imo:
1) N scale SW1200RS
2) N scale C630M/M630/M636
3) N scale 3800cf cylindrical.
Otherwise, great stuff ;)
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Hi there,
Firstly, a big thanks for making this loco in N scale, and aiming high in terms of detail. I have one of these pre-ordered already :)
I’ve had a long look at the photos of the hand painted sample posted on TheRailWire, and I have some feedback:
- the cab window glazing looks messy (I’m hoping this is just because of the hand decorating/gluing). It looks like the window gaskets are painted silver (or maybe this is just glue). It would be great if the window gaskets could be black like the prototype, or worst-case unpainted.
- the holes drilled for the separate grabs are all of a significantly larger diameter than the wire grabs themselves, and to me this is really noticeable and detracts from the separately applied details.
- for this road number, the grabs on the top if the nose should be black to match the black antireflective panel (although other CN locos look to be red)
- two grabs on top of the nose (directly above the door) have been omitted — I assume this is a deliberate choice?
- the windscreen wipers on this road number should also be black (perhaps these could be moulded in black plastic or chemically treated if they are wire)
- the front handrail stanchions look bent, so hopefully this isn’t an issue on the final models
- the left MU receptacle box below the left porch-mounted ditch light has an incorrectly sized square panel (it should be much smaller and located upwards — the same size and proportion as the right-hand MU receptacle)
- the cab-mounted bell looks significantly over-scale (even allowing for the thick paint), given that this is so prominent, it needs to look right.
- the nose-mounted number boards look too prominent. In N scale I don’t think that it is a good choice to have a clear plastic “glass” layer over the numberboards. This is barely visible on the prototype and it makes the numberboards look too thick and “squinty” in N. I would go for thinner printed numberboards without the extra layer of plastic on top, with a printed representation of the black gasket around the numberboard. To me this would look a lot finer scale and ironically more detailed. Also, for this paint scheme the road numbers on the nose-mounted number boards should be reversed (i.e. white numbers on black background)
- for this ex-BCOL road number, the CN logo on the nose is too small and not correctly located (the C should intersect the left numberboard on the prototype)
- the rain strip above the cab windows should be painted black so that there is a continuous black surface from the cab roof to the sunshades
- the Sinclair “ice-skate” antenna is incorrectly located — it should be centred at the rear of the cab roof, with two smaller antennae forward (I’m assuming that this is a compromise of tooling the cab for the CN units, not the BCOL ones).
- the BCOL porch-mounted ditch lights are a very different (more bulky) design than the later CN versions — are you tooling finer/slope-fronted porch-mounted ditch lights for the CN ones?
Overall the shell looks good, and the underframe detail (especially the trucks, air tanks, and cabling on the sill) look excellent.
The challenge is that I think these units have a very distinctive “face” and if some of the above could be rectified, it would make this face look more accurate.
Thanks for all you time and effort.
Kind Regards
Tim Benson
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Not knowing much about the prototype to go over the details, I'm always drawn to the boat anchor chain. I have to believe that could have been a bit finer.
Jason
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again. In N scale, the whisker thin nature of actual scale grabs makes any added on detail just stand out like a sore thumb... ...but I think in person and (when lightly weathered) in photos, molded on grabs are fine in most applications. But maybe that's just me.
Lee
Totally agree. as I've also said a number of times. Sometimes less is more, and just because you 'can' add an extra detail doesn't always mean you should.
Cheers,
Kev
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I'm buying some!! How Many??? Good Question!
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Not knowing much about the prototype to go over the details, I'm always drawn to the boat anchor chain. I have to believe that could have been a bit finer.
Jason
That one stands out to me to... One would think it should be possible to make it at least as fine as Kato and Atlas have tooled their chains since 1983... :|
At least it's easier to fix then some past models I have sitting on my shelf. (I won't mention which ones)
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Watch out for the tear gas and demonstrations!
Are you referring to Hong Kong or what happens here at Railwire?
:trollface:
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Are you referring to Hong Kong or what happens here at Railwire?
:trollface:
YES!