Painting A Brass Engine Without Complete Disassembly

[SeeYou190]

dknelson

The other says that once a brass locomotive is completly disassembled it will never run the same.

Boy I hope that is not true.

-Photographs by Kevin Parson

I want this one to run just as sweet as it did before I took it apart.

-Kevin

[philo426]

[philo426]

Well I painted a brass 0-6-0 Steam Switcher that I just took the boiler off and airbrushed it and the rest I carefully brush painted with Tamiya paints.Clear coated the boiler and brushed the clear in the cylinders and frame.Came out quite well!

[AntonioFP45]

Caldreamer,

Some good replies from fellow modelers but it would be very helpful if you could post photos and/or tell us what your model is.  You mentioned "fuel tank", so I'm assuming that you have a "Diesel".  Is that correct?

The type of model can make a big difference in helping you choose which route to take. 

[dknelson]

There are two (ast least) schools of thought on this.  One says you can only do a good professional job with complete disassembly.   The other says that once a brass locomotive is completly disassembled it will never run the same -- not necessarily meaning it will never run as well but that seems to be the implication) -- when it is reassembled.  I would agree that taking a brass locomotive apart is unpleasant.  So various schemes were tried that avoided complete disassembly.  Most of them seemed to involve potentially overpainting some things and then removing the paint where not wanted.  E.g. paint the side rods and valve gear in order to paint the driver centers, that sort of thing.

Some guys claimed they had good success paiting the frame with the motor turning the drivers, and kept the motor on for a while so that paint would not gum up the works as it dried.  Others claimed that was nuts.  

There was a time when some importers started to chemically blacken the frame on their brass locomotives which perhaps at least minimized the disassembly to something less than 100%.  

Dave Nelson

[Darth Santa Fe]

I paint the first color without masking, let that dry, then mask where needed for the second color and then any others after that.  Small details are touched up with a paint brush after the airbrushing is done, then I add the decals and clear coat it.  Details on brass models are usually soldered in place, so it's best not to take them off.

[snjroy]

For that, I use a brush, and finish the job with a light coat of paint using the airbrush.

Simon

[Trainman440]

I guess technically you could but I would advise against it. If you paint a truck without disassembly you might get paint into the bearings/contacts/pickups. Also you'll miss certain spots. 

Charles

[caldreamer]

Is there a way to paint a brass engine without total disassembly?  By that I mean  painting the walkways, underframe, trucks and fuel tank without totally disassembly after removing the supertructure which will be painted seperatly