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In this blog post, I will be repainting an old locomotive built by a Spanish company called "Ibertren".
The reason I choose this locomotive was because it has 3 axles to a bogie which is very common on a NZR locomotive, it also looks very similar to the NZR dg locomotive.
Photo Credits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_DG_and_DH_class_locomotive#/media/File:Dg_770_on_the_Weka_Pass_Railway.jpg
The first job on the list is to strip this locomotive down and get the moving parts cleaned and oiled. Cleaning of electrical pick-ups is simply done with some ATF fluid and a cotton swab. Once done, I oiled the gears. Most motors in n scale trains are self oiling, however overtime it can be best if a squirt of oil is placed in side the motor.
Once the motor bogie and pick-up bogie had been reassembled, the train was given a test run before receiving some additional items.
I wanted to add lights to this locomotive. This locomotive had a hole in the front and a small bulb from an older loco fitted inside perfectly. I wired the light up to the wires leading to the motor, I made sure that the wires from the bulb did not conflict with the movement of the bogie.
The next part of this build was to repaint the locomotive. I started off by applying a white base coat to allow the acrylic paint to have something to adhere to when it was airbrushed on. I choose a dull red for the main bodywork colour of the locomotive and thinned it down with water, so it would flow nicely through the airbrush. A couple of coats of the red, and it looked good, I then choose to paint the roof a darker grey to look as if it is quite grimy. I then went round with some black and highlighted the air intakes, exhausts of the locomotive and created streaking on the roof. The last part that completes all diesel NZR locomotives is the yellow/white lines that protruded from the front of the locomotive. These lines were hand painted with the finest brush I had.
And there you have it. A locomotive repainted in to NZR livery, ready to run on any NZ themed layout.
This locomotive will be up for sale on trade me in the coming week, so look out for it!!
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