What is the best paint for diecast engines?The results I'm looking for is a smooth paint without shine.
In case you need to know what model it is, it's a Mantua shifter from the 60's
and before painting do I need to strip it's old coat?
Oregon_Steamer What is the best paint for diecast enginesThe results I'm looking for is a smooth paint without shine. In case you need to know what model it is, it's a Mantua shifter from the 60's and before painting do I need to strip it's old coat?
What is the best paint for diecast enginesThe results I'm looking for is a smooth paint without shine.
I would strip the old paint first. Because I'm cheap, I would use rattle can primer and paint from Menard's/Home Depot/Lowe's. There is a dark gray primer that is a good color for steam locos. If you are going to decal the loco you can use gloss black.
Gary
What were you going to repaint on it? Are you kitbashing a different locomotive out of it?
You'll have to sand down both of the entire locomotive and tender shells before you start painting otherwise the paint won't stick. I would type in HO Scale Paint on Google to see what you find. There might be certain colors you could use.
Oregon_Steamer In case you need to know what model it is, it's a Mantua shifter from the 60's
If it's from the '60's, the cab and tender body will be plastic. Stripping plastic is trickier than metal, because the solvent may attack it. You might be able to get those two pieces as parts--there were a jillion of them made.
For stripping plastic, many use a high-concentration alcohol--92-99%. I've also used lye.
Stripping the metal should be simple--something fierce. Take safety precautions.
When painting, be SURE the parts are clean. No fingerprints. Wash with dish detergent and then rinse and rinse again. If you don't get the detergent off--sadness. Then don't touch the parts with your skin.
A spray can of gloss black (better yet I think very dark grey) should work. Practice first on something disposable. Get good at applying the paint BEFORE you spray the loco.
Apply decals. That's another subject, but it's no big deal.
After decals are PROPERLY applied, spray with a clear flat like Dullcoat. Again, practice first.
Done.
Ed
Oregon_SteamerNo it's not being kitbashed. I just want to repaint the locomotive in the Glacier Park paint scheme, but using Empire Builder green.
I wrote my answer before this was posted. It's up to you whether you want to do any masking for more than one color. Typically, the smokebox is "silver", as on your example.
So, I would guess the tender, cab, and chassis would be black. Most of the boiler would be green, with a silver smokebox.
Great Northern only used the green on the sheet metal boiler wrap and cylinder wrap. All else was black. I doubt you want to get that heavily into masking, but it's your decision.
7j43k Oregon_Steamer No it's not being kitbashed. I just want to repaint the locomotive in the Glacier Park paint scheme, but using Empire Builder green. I wrote my answer before this was posted. It's up to you whether you want to do any masking for more than one color. Typically, the smokebox is "silver", as on your example. So, I would guess the tender, cab, and chassis would be black. Most of the boiler would be green, with a silver smokebox. Great Northern only used the green on the sheet metal boiler wrap and cylinder wrap. All else was black. I doubt you want to get that heavily into masking, but it's your decision. Ed
Oregon_Steamer No it's not being kitbashed. I just want to repaint the locomotive in the Glacier Park paint scheme, but using Empire Builder green.
Well actually it used to have a plastic cab, but in recent years I found a diecast one that was from an older version.
This is my first ever locomotive I ever bought I've had it for 8 years now, what I plan to do with this locomotive is I want to use it for yard switching and to run a commuter train on a branch line.
I have been looking at Great Northern steam locomotives I found a few pictures,
such as the Bachmann Spectrum American, Broadway limited S-2, even an Old Rivarossi engines have green cylinders with silver fronts.
One neat thing about painting metal locomotives:
If you screw up, you can do it over again. And again.
That said, I'd be thrilled if you nailed it the first time.
If the loco is all-metal, you can strip it easily with either lacquer thinner or Super Clean, and Super Clean will also work on many plastics, too.
You could use rattle cans for re-painting, but if you're doing a multi-coloured paint scheme, I'd suggest an airbrush and proper model paints.I'm assuming that you don't have some of the useful, but now discontinued, older paints such as Floquil or Pollyscale, but I've found Scalecoat paints to be a good alternative. If you don't have an airbrush, buy some good quality artist's brushes and use them to brush-paint your locomotive: because it's relatively slow-drying, it levels itself quite nicely, eliminating the brushmarks. If you have a steady hand, it could negate the need for masking.Scalecoat paints are available from Minuteman Scale Models
Scalecoat I is mainly for all-metal models, but if you're airbrushing, it can be safely used on plastics, too, while Scalecoat II is intended for use on plastics with either brush or airbrush. Both use similar, but not exactly identical, chemical-based thinners, composed mainly of Naphtha and Xylene.
While I paint my steam locomotives in multi-coloured schemes, too, they're mostly various versions of "black", and I almost never mask with tape, preferring instead to shield adjacent areas with pieces of cardstock...
The white sidewalls and red window sash was done with brushes.
Wayne
Thanks for the tip DoctorWayne.I do have a bottle of mineral read from polly scale, but I don't know if it's any good. What about tru-color paint?
I stripped my die cast Shifter with lacquer thinner. I then painted it with flat black spray paint, a coat of gloss clear for the decals, and then a coat of flat clear to seal everything.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
This is a Mantua Pacific. It came to me unpainted, if it had been painted I would have stripped it. Take the boiler off of the works. Wash boiler in hot soapy water, follow with a hot water rinse. Etch the Zamac in a mild acid. I use supermarket vinegar. Rinse again. Dry over night. Don't touch the clean casting with bare hands, hands leave fingerprints. Paint is from a rattle can, Krylon or Rustoleum, dark gray auto primer. Best stick-to-metal chemistry you can buy. Dries dead flat. Colors look just right to my eye for a steamer that's been out pulling trains for a few hours. Especially under layout lighting (fluorescent usually, never as bright as sunlight). Makes a good undercoat for the darker greens. For a light green top coat, you can use light gray auto primer instead of dark gray.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Thanks for the tip.
Oregon_Steamer...I do have a bottle of mineral read from polly scale, but I don't know if it's any good. What about tru-color paint?
Pollyscale paint generally had a very good shelf life, so yours should still be useable. I still have a pretty good supply of some Pollyscale colours, along with some Floquil, too, and since I have a large amount of Scalecoat, have not yet tried Tru-color paints. As far as I can recall, they're pre-thinned for airbrushing, which makes them less useful for brush painting.
If I was to use scalecoat, what would I do to need to make it a flat finish?
If you use the link which I included in my first reply, you can find a list of colours, in either Scalecoat I or Scalecoat II, which are available as flat or matte finish.
If you need Scalecoat colours which are available only as gloss finish, I believe that they also offer a clear flat finish, although I always use Testors Dullcote or Glosscote, or a mixture of the two, to get the desired finish. On my steam locomotives, cabs and tenders are fairly glossy, the boiler and boiler appliances less-so, while the running gear and tender deck get a flat finish. Smokeboxes and fireboxes get no clear overspray at all, as in real life, they're generally dead-flat. After the clear finishes are in place, any required weathering is added, whether by brush, airbrush, or artists' pastels applied with a brush - none of that gets a clear overspray, as it would make the various finishes too uniform.
Yes I did use the link. Is there a Certain Shade of silver that is suited for steam locomotives?
I need the following colors.
Probably not "silver" but high-temperature graphite and oil, on the exposed smokebox metal. I do not know what formulation GN used ... but you would match that. It would weather away from a metallic luster pretty quick and show staining. If it matters: the whole ring of boiler jacket at the smokebox would be green in this scheme, no trace of silver.
Example?