This is a SOO F7. I built it based on the picture from the cover of the July 1999 Model Railroader. I also used some pictures I found on the web of other F7's, but they are all so different in detail. I just made my best guesses and went.
Write to me and let me know what you think.
The original...
This is my "matching shot"... Not quite the same angle, but its close.
A whole engine profile view
Here's some close-up views of the front and side details.
I'm especially pleased with the rounded look of the top headlight. That is one of the things that drove this whole model, I wanted the rounded front and the rounded headlight sticking out of the nose.
Ben Fleskes has used the portals in a Union Pacific F7 he built, but I don't know how he mounted them. This shows the method I used. I mounted them upside down using the clip hing arrangement. A row of 1x2x1 panels were placed along the bottom of the portal piece (the red stripe) to cover up the lower part of the portal that I don't want showing. Then the row of grill tiles covers the top part of that I don't want to show.
The original engine was actually light gray and red, but since I only have the portal pieces in yellow and white, I picked white and red as my color scheme. I think it gets the point across fairly well.
Using the Crown gears as the fan covers is another thing I picked up from Ben.
Here's a close-up of the rear portal and the back door. The door is set back by a half stud. This is something I've seen on many other models and I really like the effect.
This is a Minifig's eye view standing just in front of this diesel.