Model Forum / General / Railroads / July 2005

On 27/07/2005 17:50, Ian Cornish wrote,

Excellent!

To answer 3) & 4) first, paint bubbles and burns if you solder too near
it, so you do put it all together then paint.  For a wagon kit, this
shouldn't be too difficult, in terms of hard-to-reach areas, although
*when* you progress to loco kits you do need to consider how you are
going to paint it, in terms of how it can break down into sensible size
chunks.

Now that's out of the way, 2) naturally comes next, and is perhaps the
most important stage.  Lots of people have lots of different methods,
and I'm sure other people will offer their methods, and of course you
can choose what suits you.  Here's the gist of what I do -

1 - have a good scrape around to get rid of any excess solder.  If you
are John Hayes, you can miss this stage!
2 - soak the model in limescale remover (I use Limelite), then scrub
with a toothbrush to remove any traces of muck.
3 - rinse well under a hot tap to get rid of any traces of limescale
remover!
4 - dry thoroughly in a dust free area.

As to paint type, I prefer to use a Halfords primer of an approriate
colour.  There is a lot of snobbery about using car aerosols, and in
some cases rightly so, but with practise the Halfords brand can be used
to give a very fine mist coat with absolutely no loss of detail.
Whatever you do, don't use CarPlan aerosols, because they spit and
splutter and generally make a mess (are they still around?)  Halfords
cans give a nice gentle waft of paint rather than a blast.

For the top coats, I use either Halfords aerosols again if I can get the
right colour, or airbrush Precision Paints.  Personally, I don't get on
with Railmatch paints, but a lot of people do prefer those.  I
definitely don't like either Railmatch or Precision Paints aerosols, as
I find the pressure is far too high and find it very difficult to get a
fine coat.  I need to be three miles from the model then find it
difficult to aim! Airbrushing is by far the best way to paint though, as
you have much better control and can get paint into smaller areas
without smothering the whole model.

What you should definitely do with any form of spraying is to wear a
proper face mask and work in a well-ventilated area.

Anyway, there should be some pointers for you, and I hope others can
offer their methods so you can pick what suits you.  This is the same
principle as building locos - I don't like the Tony Wright way, but do
like the Iain Rice way!

Broadly, paints fall into two categories, enamel and acrylic.
- Enamels are harder to use and harder wearing.
- Acrylics are easier to use but are softer and tend to wear with handling.

Whichever way you go, spray painting is generally far better than hand
painting.
- Aerosols work well but are ultimately expensive and limited in range and
technique.
- Airbrushes are expensive initially and give results dependant on skill
and experience.

This depends upon the material!
For plastic I wash the model or components in warm water with dish washing
detergent using a toothbrush and then rinse thoroughly in warm water.
For brass, the same applies but the surface needs to be rougher to ensure
the paint keys in. An etching undercoat paint makes a good base but is only
available from specialist suppliers.

For plastic I use ordinary automobile aerosol undercoat in either grey or
red oxide. I think black and white may also be available.

It curls up and dies!

You have to decide on an item by item basis which method is indicated.