I got this old Playart HO scale locomotive a few years ago, on a whim, because it was cheap. Finally decided to pull it out of the box and mess around with painting it. Picked out the brass and copper parts, and painted the wheels and visible sections of the electric pickup, flat black. It actually runs. I don’t think it was ever used before.
I removed the Euro-style lamps from the running board. Playart was a Hong Kong company, that mostly bought up retired tooling from other companies, which probably explains the Germanic appearance of this locomotive. Haven’t been able to figure out what company originally produced it though. These Playart locos used to be available from catalogs for like 9.99 in the 90s, the company went bust before 2000 I think. Really, strictly toy train junk, but even a little bit of paint makes a big difference in appearance.
Might looks pretty cool with a spark-arrester stack though. Maybe model a small logging railroad... something like that.
PS: also so a Miata today, fitted with a bodykit like so:
No pic, because I was driving.