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I have quite a bit of experience painting things, as I combine model railroading (which is little painting, more running) with building model cars, ships and aircraft (which is almost all painting).  For the type of work you do on a locomotive, I am VERY partial to using an airbrush, but this is largely do to experience.  I find I can personally lay a more consistant and smoother coat with an airbrush and can do very find detail work that is quite useful for weathering.  I can also adjust the thickness of the coat to get a dusting effect to replicate kicked up dirt and such. Spray cans are great for high gloss finishes (laquer and spray can seem to be a great combo) or if you don't have a lot of experience with an airbrush.  They are very consistant and easier to reproduce than airbrushing if you are not used to playing with thinner ratios and air pressures.  The comment made about warming the can is absolutely spot on.  Warming the can both raises the temperature and causes the paint to be atomized into smaller particles.  The end result is a thinner and smoother coat of paint that is less likely to run (drips from too much paint). Since you are new to this, let me share some of my experience for custom painting.  Take with it what you will, as this works for me, but may not work for others.  First off, I am not a big fan of completely stripping models.  If the model was decorated, I will use a weak thinner (turpenoid or such) to take off the decalled/raised lettering, but usually find that the factory paint shows no raised lines.  There are a number of debates on priming, but I recommend it.  This has less to do with adhession and more to do with even coloring.  I model CNW which uses a lot of yellow and having an even basecoat is important.  I would still recommend a light gray primer for you to visualize surface defects before proceding.  If you weren't using black, I would also recommend following this with a white primer, as the white really helps improve and brighten the color coat so that the colors are more accurate (this is particularly important for reds and yellows that are quite translucent). After priming the model, be sure to check for surface flaws, fix these and reprime as needed.  Then you can put the color coat down.  As mentioned before, all paint coats should be done in multiple light coats that build up.  For you flat colors, you want the paint to be almost dry when it hits the surface.  With a spray can you can adjust this by holding the can at different distances from the model (closer = less dry when it hits the surface).  With an airbrush, you can adjust pressure or thinning ratios.  Once the base coat is dry, paint details as needed.  If you need to mask, uses masking tape that is cut with a straight edge.  The edge of masking tape often gets banged up and clogged with dirt.  Cutting with the straight edge will get rid of problems this causes.  After applying your masks, burnish the edges down.  If you were painting with gloss paint, I would recommend spraying one more coat of the base down to seal the paint.  This is important with glosses because they need to be applied as a heavier coat for the gloss appearance and using the base color as the first coat means if paint leaks under the tape, it will be the same color as the base.  As long as you're not using glosses though, just spray in light coats that don't puddle and you won't have problems. Once all the coloring is done, you need to put a gloss coat on.  Do not put any clear parts back on until the end.  Both gloss and flat coats will frost these, although flat coats are much worse.  This requires a little bit more practice, but the basic goal is to put on a "wet coat" that doesn't run.  The best way to do this is to make several passes in quick succession until just at the point where the paint looks wet like you just washed the model in water.  If this were to be a final coat, it should be put under a plastic cover or such to prevent dust from collecting.  If you plan to flat coat later though, this dust won't matter. Decaling is next.  This is fairly simple.  Put the decal in water.  Warm water will speed this up.  After the decal release (slides around easily, usually 30-60 seconds), use a brush or q-tip to slide the decal into position.  Brush some setting solution onto the decal and use various implements push it into the exact position.  After this, let it sit for 3-4 hours without touching it.  It will wrinkle and you will want ot touch it, but it will be fine (use micro-set or equivelant, micro-sol is much stronger and may permantly wrinkle the decal--use that only when needed on complex surfaces).  If you are applying the decal right on a sharp edge or corner, be aware of the clear carrier film on the edge of the decal.  It is sometimes easier to just cut this off than entice it into a 90 degree angle. After the decals have dried, wash the model.  This gets rid of excess decal adhesive and any dust that has accumulated for the time being.  If I am going to weather the model, I like to apply an oil wash at this time.  If you're interested in this, send me a message or something and I can expand.  Otherwise, the model can now be flat coated.  If you are looking to make a freshly painted model, you can leave it with the gloss coat, but I find this to be too glossy for my tastes so I mix gloss paint with 1 or 2 parts flat coat and spray that on.  Obviously, that is only an option if you use an airbrush. I know some of this is repeated, but some is not.  I hope this helps. Eric
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