I have a couple of undecorated items that I wish to add decals to. One is a rotary snowplow and the other is the accompanying F7 B unit. Both of the models are black plastic. The color of the models is to be black also with white decals.I read in a recent article in MR that you should paint an undecorated car with gloss finish paint if you are going to add decals and then use dull coat to finish the car after you apply the decals so that the decals don’t give off glare due to their shinny finish. If the cars are to be black and the plastic is already black do I really need to paint the car black or can I just leave it unpainted and apply the decals then the dull coat? I’m not very good at painting so I’m afraid that my paint job will ruin the cars with runs etc. Thank you for your suggestions.
You want to paint the undec's. Just raw plastic has a plasticky luster that looks bad. Paint looks much better. Surface prep is everything in getting a good paint job. Wash in hot soapy water, maybe a trip thru the kitchen dishwasher. Rinse completely in clear water, dry completely, say all day out in a hot sun. Don't touch the plastic with your bare hands after washing, it will leave finger prints that can show thru the paint.
I never paint any rolling stock with pure black. A dark gray looks much better under layout lighting. The Krylon and Rustoleum auto primer rattle cans come in dark gray, light gray and red. The dark gray is good on steam locomotives and other black rolling stock. It will cover anything, and dry good and flat. I decal right onto the auto primer and the decals settle right down. I help the decals out with Solva Set, and when completely dry, a top coat of Dullcote to blend the decals in.
I don't remember seeing any F units painted straight black, usually they come in a two tone paint job, or at least some stripes over the base color. Like the Pennsy's F units painted solid DGLE (dark green locomotive enamel, nearly black) had some gold stripes. Or the pre Mcginnis B&M, solid maroon with gold stripes.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Thank you. I will try the paint and follow your suggestions. The prototype is plain old black number one. No stripes or anything fancy because it is just used for MoW by Southern Pacific. The rotary and the loco go together as a unit with the loco providing power for the traction motors which have been removed and are mounted sideways inside the plow to turn the blades.
This is my formula for "black":
4 Parts Black
1 Part Red
1 Part White
.
I have been using it for years. Never fails, always looks good under indoor lighting conditions. In the real world black looks gray because of the sun light intensity and the surface area that reflects it. We cannot duplicate sunlight indoors, or surface area on a scale model, so we need to paint gray.
Military modelers call this "color scaling", in effect, Panzer Gray on a 1/32 model will be darker than Panzer Gray on a 1/72 scale model. This is due to surface area making the color look different.
Absolutely use gloss colors. I use Scalecoat 2, but Black, White, and Red are available in gloss in almost every paint color range.
Enjoy yourself, painting and decal work can be addictive!
-Kevin
Living the dream.