JACOB SOARES Thank you everyone for all of the helpful replies! My airbrush arrived yesterday, and my compressor will be coming around Friday. (I would have bought one at the hardware store, but they were all very expensive and had many features I didn't need. I found the perfect one on Amazon for a great price.) I will make sure to fetch a can of primer before painting the rest of the cars. As for the pieces I've already painted, I assume the paint can be removed by soaking them in acetone, but would that damage the plastic at all?
Thank you everyone for all of the helpful replies! My airbrush arrived yesterday, and my compressor will be coming around Friday. (I would have bought one at the hardware store, but they were all very expensive and had many features I didn't need. I found the perfect one on Amazon for a great price.) I will make sure to fetch a can of primer before painting the rest of the cars. As for the pieces I've already painted, I assume the paint can be removed by soaking them in acetone, but would that damage the plastic at all?
Now that you will be airbrushing the models, airbrush the primer as well. many will swear by rattle can primer, however I find the airbrush will give far better results. I find weathered black to be a better "base" for undercarriage and trucks, far less weathering work to knock down the engine black.
I have had good results using a sharpie for those fine black details.
Wayne also mentioned the side color, I would experiment w/ mixing orange w/ the reefer yellow (possibly a touch of brown as well). I will knock down that "bright/ light" yellow for my Chessie paint. Don't even ask about that Vermillion (red/ orange), a real pain to get close, fades to all sorts of shades. Good luck w/ the airbrushing and honing your skills. Practicing on some "old junkers" is a must. Paint thinning ratios, air pressure, nozzle/ needle size and spraying distance and technique will come in short order. have fun and look forward to seeing your "new" work.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Don't use acetone to strip paint from plastic. A better choice for water-based paints on plastic is 99% isopropyl alcohol - generally available as rubbing alcohol. Get the unscented version, and if you're in the U.S., you'll likely have to settle for 90%, the strongest available there.If the alcohol doesn't work on the paint which you used, try Testor's ELO (EASY-LIFT-OFF) or Scalecoat's Wash-Away Paint Stripper.
Wayne
Lots of good advice already offered, so I won't add too much. Even on Tichy's light grey plastic, a primer is of great use to allow the finish colour to better adhere. For the car you're painting, the back of the wheels and the axles can be rust coloured, but the wheel faces should be black/brown/dirty green or a combination of all three to represent the oil used to lubricate the solid bearings with which those cars were equipped. Some of them might even be shiney, but they did collect dust rather quickly - that part can be dealt with once you have the air brush.As for the poor coverage capabilities of yellow, it doesn't really apply for a PFE car, as they were more orange than yellow:
For painting the small details, use a good quality brush suitably-sized for the job. If some paint goes where it's not wanted, allow it to dry (but not fully cure), then use the tip of an X-Acto #11 blade to gently scrape away the offending material. You can then use the brush to touch-up the base colour if necessary. You may find yourself repeating these operations several times, which will eventually increase your skill at touch-ups, and also your skill at painting details.
Finally, as you're painting those details, your brush will begin to accumulate excess paint, which will begin to dry within the bristles, affecting the performance of the brush - clean the brush often while working and thoroughly when done - a good-quality brush will last a lifetime when well cared-for.
With all due respect to Dave Starr, I would strongly suggest a flat white (spray can) as a primer for very light colors, such as yellow. My experience with light gray as a primer under yellow tones is that the paint does not grab where there is a corner or bend in the model geometry (how's that for a fancy term!) and the underlying light gray tends to show through. My recent photo gallery models- see the bulkhead flat car and an earlier "Metropolitan Belt Transfer Ry" done in yellows both utilized a white flat primer coat underneath.
Cedarwoodron
it does no matter what you are painting - yellow is horrible at covering anything. You must coat it with a primer or with white.
Like most of the others, I think you should spray paint the body. I typically spray or air brush a primer coat of light gray flat paint on all the bare plastic parts first except wheels, trucks, and couplers. Then I would spray or air brush the body with the yellow.
As for the details on the body, you can paint them with a small brush, marker, tooth pick, or pin. (If you use a marker, don't put a clear flat spray as a final coat or the marker will run, unless the clear is acrylic.) You can also use the dry brush technique, but with that you really have to wipe most of the paint off the brush or you will put it on places you don't want.
You may want to go to a swap meet or train show and see if you can find some cheap model RR car bodies that you can use for practicing your painting and air brushing on.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Just to add a few different ideas - I've found that I can rarely paint small details perfectly the first time. That means I may need to go back with the base color and do a little touch-up. Sometimes it takes three or four little touch-ups.
I've also found that with certain acrylic paints, you can lightly "scrape" off any small mistakes. For example, if I go a little past the edge of a molded in detail, I can sometimes take a wooden toothpick and scrape off a little bit of paint that strayed too far. Sometimes wetting the toothpick helps too if the paint isn't totally dry. It's kind of a trial and error thing. Just do it lightly and try not to harm the base coat.
Other times, I'll even use a toothpick to dab on a teenie bit of paint. I don't know why, but depending on the situation, it seems to work better than a brush.
I think playing around and trying different ways to paint or touch up small details will help you develop your own set of techniques that work for you.
Jim
After you get the sides painted yellow, you can take a fine black marker to highlight the hinges. If you decide to brush paint the details, use a very fine brush and very little paint.
Thanks for the help everyone! I'll run by the hardware store sometime next week and pick up some primer with my air compressor. I suppose soaking the parts in acetone will get rid of the paint, but is acetone too harsh for the plastic? I supose since acrylic paint is water soluble that a water bath and gentl scrubbing with a toothbrush may work. As for the fine details, maybe I'll pluck a hair off of my head and paint with that!
Jacob,
Nearly impossible to explain to You how accomplish what You want to achive in just a few sentences. So I will offer some advice.
Tools or jigs to hold what you are painting, some have to be made for certain items, plastic's that can be shaped and fit in items to be held, Balsa works great for that. One hand resting on a flat surface holding on to the jig with the part attached to it gives You better control.
Brushes: Don't skimp here, Artist Red sable, Camel hair soft, sizes 00,0,1,2, pointed and flat. Can be expensive, but will last a lifetime if properly cleaned and cared for, Btw, that goes for You new airbrush also.
Tape: Forget about trying to use masking tape for two tone paint jobs to mask two colors to get a nice line anyway. Go to a Auto paint supply store and pick up Scotch 3m #218 Fine Line Tape, comes in different widths. Use that for your fine line, then You can cover the rest with cheap masking tape to protect from over spray. Let paint set at least and hour, then pull tape off at a 45 degree angle. I usually let the paint completely cure at least 24 hrs. before doing second color, some times more. If You were painting full size, You would not have to wait so long.
I use white primer in air brush for all light colors and grey for darker colors. I have not seen a rattle can spray primer yet, that can match the fine spray of an air-brush and I been painting quite a few yrs. When You get to start painting Your color on start with a dust coat first, at about a 90 degree angle to Your masked area's and the rest, let set, then a fuller coat, may not need another one, if You do, follow instructions on container for time on applying another coat.
As with all projects....patience, patience, experience, comes with experiment.
I build a lot of Military Diorama's and Plastic, Pewter and White Metal casting trucks and vehicles 1/87, also delved into same in full scale in my 72yrs.
Good Luck! Enjoy Your New Airbrush.
Frank
The key is to spray paint the larger areas and other smaller parts if they are separate. Airbrushing is probably best although I have found I get nearly as good a result with spray cans (Rustoleru, Krylon, etc.) and, as others indicated, painting the lighter colors (especially yellow) requires a primer coat.
Once the spraying is done, say on the reefer car sides, then paint the details with a tiny brush and as steady a hand as you can muster. I also find it helps to usesome strong reader glasses in addition to my regular bi-focals. And lots of light! Also remember, if you make a tiny error it is likelyu you will be the only one that sees it.
My daughter is a very good artist. I get her to do the really fine detail bits and she uses a brush that is so fine you can barely see it. Young eyes and a steady hand. I wish "I" still had them.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Yellow doesn't cover well, in fact it's terrible. You have to use a prime coat. For yellow, you want Rustoleum or Krylon light gray auto primer in a rattle can. The primer covers everything and dries to give a perfect surface for the top coat. The light gray color is close to yellow, so the yellow does not have to work as hard to cover it.
Sounds like you were brush painting the reefer sides. I have never had good luck brush painting that much styrene, the brushmarks seldom level out. I always spray paint car bodies and the like. Rattle cans work for me. Tell us how the air brush works for you.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Yellows and reds are some of the worst to try to cover with,even moreso than whites. So I use a white primer then several very light coats. Also, I start with the light colors first.
Richard
So, yesterday I got in my first shipment of paints from M.B. Klein (Model Master Acrylics) and set to work painting the parts to assemble a Tichy PFE reefer kit. The first parts I painted were the wheels, roof, ends, and undercarriage. These were painted with rust (wheels), engine black (undercarriage), and boxcar red (ends and roof.). This went over just fine, and aside from some touching up of the angles in the undercarriage and some spots of light coverage on the roof and sides, I'm relatively happy with the results.
The next parts I attempted were the sides. I used more of the engine black on the fine details such as the hinges and operating mechanism for the door, using the finest tipped brush in my brush set. The results weren't perfect, with some paint leaking around the details, (I also experienced some of this trying to paint the draft gear/sills on the ends) but I just accepted that as being a part of the learning process and dealt with it, although I'd like to know how someone is realistically supposed to paint details these small without getting paint absolutely everywhere it isn't supposed to go. Secondly, when I went to paint the sides with reefer yellow, I noticed two things: reefer yellow is much too light, (this can be easily fixed by the addition of some box car red to the mix, I'm not concerned about that.) and that the reefer yellow will not cover the grey plastic of the kit AT ALL. The end result wound up looking so awful compared to the others that I became frustrated and gave up for the time being. Here's a picture showing all the currently painted parts:
So yeah, in short, how do you paint fine details without getting paint everywhere, and how do you get light colors to cover? I'm also expecting delivery of an airbrush (Paasche VL double action) tomorrow, and I will be running to the hardware store to get an air compressor in a few days. I'm even more confused as to how I would get around these issues with an airbrush. These details are certainly too small to mask off. How should I go about painting these?