Customised Equipment Purchases.

[Chessie1973]

I was curious if any of you out there have ever bought anything from our LHS that was a non standard item such as a locomotive redone in a different railroad or the like.

I just purchased an IHC 4-4-0 relettered to be Clinchfield #32. The LHS owner knows a person who occasionally will do relattering or custom paint schemes for him and he will offer up things like this for sale from time to time.

Do any of you out there have a similar LHS or person who offers such services.

I Paid $89.00 USD for this locomotive (pic to follow) and I must admit I would not have been able to do such a fine job on the redecallign as this person did and it si modeled after an actual Clinchfield Locomotive too boot.

 

[Chessie1973]

Clinchfield #32 rounds the bend

 

[brakie]

I have 2 custom painted Athearn GP7s for R.J.Corman..Sadly R.J.Corman does not have any GP7s.However, I overlooked that fact and bought them anyway..They do make excellent "show off" locomotives that draws a lot of oohs and ahhs from visitors at the club including visiting club members from other clubs.

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Actually I do that for the LHS. Mainly commemoratives for the Lionel Museum that is part of the LHS. Never have bought one from someone else but I would if it was something I liked or needed.

 

[RioGrande]

I got a custom special run Intermountain Chessie CF4750 3-bay hopper last year.

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

I used to know this fellow that painted so beautiful CN diesels that I could never be able to afford, so I taught myself to paint them myself:

 

[pdt]

I used to know this fellow that painted so beautiful CN diesels that I could never be able to afford, so I taught myself to paint them myself:

I think we have a winner!

Johnnie, tell him what he's won...

That's exactly the attitude to have! I bought a pair of custom painted Mopac U Boats at a train show when I was a kid and they weren't cheap. I used months of saved money to buy them. After I had a chance to look at them for awhile I decided to paint my own models. They looked pretty bad the first few tries, but I eventually got the hang of it. After awhile, even those sacred Mopac diesels weren't up to par, so they got stripped, redetailed and repainted. These days it's more uncommon to find a factory-painted model among my collection than a custom painted one.

Nice models, by the way!

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

Thanks, I'm working on a set of Geeps to match:

They've since been all stripped,detailed and painted but I haven't yet decaled them

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

Before I learned to detail and paint my own, I bought a custom built PC SD-38 and a Conrail B23-7.
Can't wait to see those Geeps Glen. :thumb:

 

[petey]

Chessie,
The back of the RMC and MR have ads from people who do painting/building.
The drawbacks are: you may get old and die before you ever see it again;
you may pay more than its worth, and much more than the purchase price.
I have accomplished both these unenviable results.
As others have stated, try you own painting. However, start with the simplest paint and decal scheme.
Apply your paint in thin coats. That way you can stop before you get to much paint on the model, and multiple thin coats look better than one or two thick applications.