Hi, I have some old Roundhouse boxcar and reefer kits where the lettering is printed diretly onto unpainted colored plastic bodies, e.g. Houston & Texas Central brown boxcars and yellow reefers. The bodies look "plastic" and I am wondering how to make them look like they are painted without harming / obscuring the lettering and heraldry. The obvious is a clear varnish but I'm not sure it would do the job and I'm wondering what you might have done that worked!?
Grateful for any thoughts.
Thanks,
Bill.
DullCote. It is a flat clear finish, it will kill the plastic gleam and not harm or cover the markings. Comes in a rattle can.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Testors #1260 Dullcoat will help a lot, followed by some light weathering.
Some subtle highlighting, painting the ladder rungs and grab irons a slightly lighter colour helps a lot also.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Are you attached to the colors or road names for some reason? If not, consider removing the lettering, repainting the cars and applying new decals, followed by some sealing. You could really upgrade the models by replacing the cast-on ladders with separate ones, putting on metal wheelsets and upgrading to Kadee couplers if you haven't already.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Portland Bill Hi, I have some old Roundhouse boxcar and reefer kits where the lettering is printed diretly onto unpainted colored plastic bodies, e.g. Houston & Texas Central brown boxcars and yellow reefers. The bodies look "plastic" and I am wondering how to make them look like they are painted without harming / obscuring the lettering and heraldry. The obvious is a clear varnish but I'm not sure it would do the job and I'm wondering what you might have done that worked!? Grateful for any thoughts. Thanks, Bill.
Some dullkote found at a local hobby shop or ordered online. I recently found out hobby lobby carries many great brands of paints including tamiya. I spray all my models with dull kote, including my proto and genesis cars, then weather with nothing more than dark gray/brown rustoleum camo spray paint for trucks and underframes.
For the bodies I use the acrylic paint you find at walmart for $.50 a bottle, Ill always buy 3 or 4 of one color. I found I like the pavement and burnt umber colors best for rust and grime. I dip my brush in paint, then water and just spread it all over the car and wipe with a paper towel.
The spots that have too much paint can be removed easy with water. Hate the way it looks? Wipe off the paint and start again! I just started 2 months ago, you get a feel for it quick!
This southern pacific 40' boxcar started off as a cheap roundhouse kit. Added 30 min of weatering and this is the result. You can go as heavy or light as you want, but this is the best way to remove the feeling of a plastic model. Also may be good to keep a stash of automobile wheel weights ( the stick on ones ) .5 oz over each truck seems to give the car a good weight.
Hope this helps! I hope you update us all with progress pictures!
NHTX Not being familiar with the cars you have but, having dealt with cars of other manufacturers that are molded in color, the following might help the reefers. As most reefers are yellow or orange, things molded in yellow or orange plastic tend to have a translucence which makes them look waxy. To overcome this the, paint the interior with a solid, dark color that will prohibit penetration by light. Black, boxcar red or a dark green, even aluminum will work. Do this to the boxcars as well....
This sounds like a useful suggestion, and then overspraying the exterior with Dullcote should enhance the appearance somewhat, too
.
I got these two MDC boxcars for a couple of bucks each...
The yellow one was painted, while the red one was lettered directly on the unpainted plastic.The yellow one was stripped of all paint and got a few modifications, ending-up as an MoW car...
...while the red one had the lettering removed, and was re-worked into a pretty-decent rendition of a Southern SU-class boxcar...
...with scratchbuilt Hutchins ends...
Wayne
Yes DullCote (IF you can find any - it is hard to come by around these parts) gives solidity to "molded in color" plastic structures as well as rolling stock and is a good base for later weathering.
I give a weathering clinic where I found the cheapest train set gondola (I was searching for a prop for the clinic) at a swap meet, one side I left in the original high gloss yellow and the other side I simply sprayed with DullCote but made no other improvements. I pass it around the room so people can be properly amazed at the difference just that one step can make. You swear the DullCoted side is more detailed.
Here is a method that works with structure kits that are molded in color: Art Curren who wrote the Kalmbach book on kitbashing would vigorously scrub the kit sides with abrasive cleaner such as Ajax or Comet or Old Dutch Cleanser on an old toothbrush to remove that plastic shine that makes unpainted plastic look waxy (and then rinse thoroughly). He did what he could to avoid painting. But he was not trying to preserve lettering and numbering as you are with rolling stock. Still it might be worth trying if you have a sacrificial lamb boxcar sitting around.
Dave Nelson