[moc] ATSF 4-6-4 #3460 Blue Goose

[LordsofMedieval]

 

• Some chroming and stickers would be necessary (the white would need to be chromed/stickered).
• There’s no piping (as usual) because stud.io is the most user-unfriendly program imaginable and I am simply unwilling to mess with pipe-bending therein. Please, for the love of God, Lego: revive Lego Digital Designer. It was fun, functional, and simple enough that a child could master it. Stud.io is a cluttered, buggy mess.
• The lower portion of the front fender is part of the lead bogie, rather than the frame… so there is no limitation to the bogie’s play.
• There is no good answer to the tender’s bogies, however. They have about 6 degrees of play either way (so roughly 12° total). This likely isn’t enough for running except at some show layouts. Honestly… I kind of don’t care. Like with NYC tenders on their Mercury and 20^th Century Limited (the early incarnations of the latter), the frame of the real tender overlapped the top of the bogies. So I could either a) replicate the design accurately, b) introduce frame gaps so that portions of the frame could rotate with the bogies, or c) lift the frame so much that the bogies had more play… and I chose a). None of the solutions were strong. It’s a limitation of the hobby.
• The model sports 2x XL PF motors and 2x battery packs. The rear-4 drivers are powered; the lead two would be moved via the rods.
• Interestingly enough, these engines (the streamlined one and the other 3460s) wandered the entire ATSF system, including into California [both on east-west service with the Chief, and north-south through the Central Valley up to San Francisco]). There was never a Blue Goose trainset – just the locomotive (and it was the only streamlined engine the ATSF ever owned [it also retained its streamlining until it was scrapped in the early 50s]). One engine of the class survives and is (hopefully) in the process of being restored to service.

[Jeffinslaw]

That's pretty well done! Proportions look pretty good. Unfortunately, I think the coloring is pretty far off... the top half of the engine was not a grey color like you have. Looks almost like a "grey goose" 

I'd encourage you to re-do the top half in a closer matched color. This engine is on my list to do as a personal build so I'm happy to see someone has attempted it. 

As for the hose bending in studio: it has gotten better. With the large amount of clips you have on the model, it makes it easier as it allows you to rotate and move nodes in the hose using arrow keys and WASD, respectively. 

[LordsofMedieval]

1 hour ago, Jeffinslaw said:

That's pretty well done! Proportions look pretty good. Unfortunately, I think the coloring is pretty far off... the top half of the engine was not a grey color like you have. Looks almost like a "grey goose" 

I'd encourage you to re-do the top half in a closer matched color. This engine is on my list to do as a personal build so I'm happy to see someone has attempted it. 

As for the hose bending in studio: it has gotten better. With the large amount of clips you have on the model, it makes it easier as it allows you to rotate and move nodes in the hose using arrow keys and WASD, respectively. 

There's no point in creating a model in colors it can't be built in. And this one is already stretching that notion to its absolute limits, what with the necessary dying, and heavy use of a lighter blue color. When you're talking about a color like, say, bright light blue, you've got a few hundred pieces to work with (many of which are obscure... or DUPLO... or Bionicle, etc.). 

I don't think there is a really good Lego color to match the lightest shade on the real locomotive. Plus the iteration I am modeling is at the very end of the 3460's career, when most of the side-skirting had been removed, and the paint would have naturally faded in the western sun. So LBG might not be a good fit, but it's what I would go with because otherwise I'd have nothing but a digital model. 

[Feuer Zug]

Good looking Hudson type locomotive. You've matched the source material really well.

[Merlict]

Absolutely excellent. 

And I agree with you about the color choice; this is a fine compromise as the only 'light aqua' tone that matches is quite new and only comes in a handful of simple pieces. 

[LordsofMedieval]

3 hours ago, Merlict said:

Absolutely excellent. 

And I agree with you about the color choice; this is a fine compromise as the only 'light aqua' tone that matches is quite new and only comes in a handful of simple pieces. 

Thanks. I'm working on a 2.0 version with a lifted skylining, slightly slimmer silver banding, and reworked front end. I'll try to remember to do some renders after I'm done. 

[Shiva]

Looks nice. How well would it handle R40 curves?