Been building up a small collection of prewar Lionel 1600 series freight cars, but have not been able to get a nice prewar Lionel engine to pull them. I had modified a postwar Marx 898 and tender awhile back, but I finally finished it up and painted it. I think it looks pretty good with the old Lionel cars.
I had wanted to do some sort of gunmetal gray but couldn't find a spray paint locally that I liked. Then I found Rustoleum metallic oil rubbed bronze and thought that would a cool color. The domes are from a Marx 994 (the big loco from the 7" sets) and the running gear is Marx 999. I used Krylon gilded brass spray paint on the domes, stack, headlight trim, markers and tender badges. The trim ring around the headlight is a finish washer.
The pilot was modified with styrene to look more like a prewar Lionel or Flyer engine. Also I applied glue dot rivets to the cab and the tender to change things up a little more. The sideboards of the tender have been re-profiled for more of a Lionel or Flyer look as well.
