All,
I'm attempting to get back into this hobby after having sort of drifted out of it over the past 10-15 years or so. When I was younger I was never really concerned with accuracy, but as I get older I'm becoming much more of a perfectionist.
My wife and I just took Amtrak across country and I figured it'd be a fun project to try to replicate the two trains that we took as my first foray back in (well, four trains, but same basic consists in both directions) - this has the side benefit that my wife will actually support the initial expense. Just today I paid a visit to Red Caboose here in NYC and was completely bewildered by the various options. Ended up just buying a lone Walthers Viewliner car as it seems they're really the only company doing them in plastic, and their model looks pretty good with the exceptions of the car number being in the wrong place and no interior.
Seems the Walthers models are expensive, though, and I couldn't find any smooth-sided diners in Amtrak livery; their Amfleet cars also seem a bit dodgy (trucks and undersides look a bit off to me). Is there anyone that makes a smooth-sided diner-grill in Amtrak livery, and anyone who makes decent Amfleet cars? (Hopefully more cheaply than Walthers...) I'm also looking for recommendations on Amtrak P-42's - I've heard the Athearn models are decent for the price?
Also, anyone that makes decently accurate RTR Superliners with interiors? (I could ask the same question about the Viewliners, but I'm sure the answer would be no.) Walthers' sngle-level Budd cars all seem to have interiors, but not their Superliners or Viewliners - though otherwise these cars look great.
Lastly, it's pretty obvious that I'm going to need to do some touch-ups on the paint on any RTR cars that I buy - I know absolutely nothing about paint, so what do you all recommend for painting the smallest details? Is there such a thing as a paint "pen"? (For example, the very thin bottom white stripe on my Viewliner is misapplied just a bit and I'd like to fix it.) If there are any web sites out there that have sort of a painting/detailing primer, feel free to just point me in that direction.
Thanks,
Jeff Williams snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com