I have previous posted pictures and a video of my Lionchief Pacific after additions of detail and repainting, etc. Although it was a big improvement, I didn't like the paint - I used the Rustoleum High Temp (BBQ grill) black, which is waaaay too flat, and I definitely did not like the tender - it was a rather short four-axle tender as compared to the six axle tender that came with the Lionchief Plus Hudson I have previously converted to an ATSF Prairie. If my Prairie could have a tender with six axles, this "bigger" Pacific should have at least that many on its tender!. So I fine-tuned it a bit over the weekend and today.
I had a lot of spare tenders to choose from and selected the eight-axle tender in the photo below - it was from a PS1 Railking 2900 ATSF Northern and its a completely satisfactory tender for this loco. It was a severely a compressed version of the flat-topped ATSF long tender for its oil-fired Northerns: 21% shorter than scale, about 12% lower in max height, but very nearly scale width. Anyway, I added a coal bunker on the front half front to raise its height a bit and because I wanted a more interesting shape, and glued it a real coal load. it looks really good. The coal bunder was easy to add, as was the coal. I had to move the speaker location because I wanted to install the slightly larger Lionel speaker that came with the loco - had a magnet at least four times the size of the one the tender came with and was clearly far superior in sound. Also, I installed center pickups (like the stock tender it had none and didn't really need them) but I installed and wired these, and the tender's outer rail pickup wires, in combination with the loco to give it much better electrical better electrical pickup - its now four center pickups and twenty-eight wheels picking up power rather than two center pickups and twelve wheels.
Finally, I repainted the loco and its new tender to get rid of the too-flat black. I used the combination that works best for me: semi-gloss Rustoleum black undercoat left to harden for three days, then hit with a nice wet coat of that again, and then three light coats of the Rustoleum High-Temp (BBQ grill) super-flat black five minutes later. This combination dries to a barely satin, cast-iron looking color that is fantastic. I repainted by hand the numbers of the tender, but this time used a rubber stamp, with paint, not ink, on the loco.
Its now done for good. The tender looks good and the color and sheen are fantastic!
