First, I tried to tack this on an old thread
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/fm-erie-builts
But it is locked, due to old age. I have had some sand-cast parts for the Erie-Built for maybe two decades. The roof is labeled "F-V Shops", and the trucks are the fabricated style - more interesting to me than the PA style. I just kept one eye open for the sides and nose, which never turned up.
So last year I got a body and detail parts from Atlas. I told them of my intention to use them as masters for a metal version, and they helped me get the right parts. Jay C helped me cast a nose in brass, using the lost plastic technique. And I used candle wax to modify the windshield to the early "B-17" configuration.
Good thing, because unbenownst to me, the Atlas roof contour is shallower than my sand cast "F-V" roof. And some early F-Ms had a snowplow-like coaming to blend a shallow windshield roof into the high arch main engine compartment roof.
Finally, the sides. My friend Bob Keyser hooked me up with a sand foundry, and a year later I received two sand cast sides. They are in bronze, a quarter-inch thick, and the detail is the best I have ever seen! I am going to do more sand casting! (My next project will be E-7 sides, unless somehow the Jack Raymus patterns surface).
So one week after the sides arrived I have the thing standing on trucks, almost ready for solder.
Next post will start the photos.
So the next question: even though this one will look more like the UP unit (Milwaukee never had fabricated trucks) I want it to look like the original Olympian Hiawatha locomotive. I am considering a plastic overlay, painted with simulated stainless paint and glued on. I suppose I will have to make my own decals. Suggestions as to how best to do that corrugated applique are solicited. Oh, and paint colors. I want vibrant maroon and orange, not those dead K-Line colors.
