I just finished spraying my first model ever, a Spectrum GP30 painted in New Haven scheme (yes, it's freelanced...). It was just one color and pretty easy, and doesn't look awful, so I'm hoping that my first painted model turns out well. So, I thought I'd ask - how did YOUR first paintjob turn out?
Modeling New Haven despite what his user name says...
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
It took me years to learn that there was a word for my first painting experience: that word is disaster!
While still in HO-Scale I never did get around to painting my handful of Hobbytown of Boston diesels, leaving them in bare metal. I oversprayed my steamers in black and then used decal sets to apply Santa Fe lettering. When I bolted over to N-Scale I acquired a bunch of passenger cars, a few of which I attempted to paint in a two-tone blue livery for my (then current) ST. LOUIS AND ROCK ISLAND NORTHERN--as hard as I (think I) tried to get everything lined up correctly when I removed my masking tape from the window strip it looked like the prototype had run their paint shop with a bunch or winos wielding with a paint brush. And applying N-Scale decals . . . . . . . . . . I don't wanna go there!
DISASTER!!!!!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
I thought mine turned out pretty good. Brush painted some wood models with Floquil and used their spray can on my Bowser K4 Pacific. This was back in 1972 so I'm not sure if the paint formulation is the same.
Enjoy
Paul
The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, OregonThe Year: 1948The Scale: On30The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com
I did an Atlas Rs-32 a couple weeks ago, it was rattle canned with some paint I had for R/C cars, body is a dark blue and the railing and walkways are white. It turned pretty good, could be a little better but I am happy with it as I am using as a second train for my local shortline so a little tattered is fine. It will look a lot better once I get my road numbers and railroad name on it and a coat or two of dul-cote.
Chessie,
You don't specify but, inferring from your use of the word "model", I'm guessing that you strictly mean "locomotive"? I've yet to paint a locomotive so I'll mention my very first kit: A DPM brick freight house. I hand-painted it with a brush and think it still looks good.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I would have been better off spilling the paint as opposed to what happened on my 1st paint job. Fortunalty it came off EZ and i started again , not nearly as bad the 2nd tine around
I always paint silver last....comes off too easy on the tape.
Mine doesn't move.......it's at the station!!!
Absolute disaster. I was 9 or 10, had the idea to do my own freelance railroad, and decides the colors would be blue and yellow. Got some Testors spray cans in those colors, and had at it on my AHM MDT switcher, the one that went 200mph and would ALMOST tip over like a Lionel but would lose contact and slow itself down before actually flying off the track. And I had also just seen an issue of MR where they showed how to convert an AHM observation into a track inspection/business car (I think it was associated with an article about an anniversary trip on Bruce Chubb's layout - NOT the MR 50th, this was years before). I had the AHM obs in Illinois Central (I have no idea why), so I hacked out the read end in preparation for installing the new huge window, and so I also painted that. I have no idea what happened to the obs but I still have the loco. Silver frame, blue body, yellow roof. Maskign it didn't turn out too bad but wow is it bright. Obs was painted the same, silver trucks, blue body, yellow roof. I used to run them around together (I never finished the bodywork on the obs) as an inspection train. One thing I failed o do was remove the older lettering on both pieces, so it shows through.
A bigger mistake was made on the railroad. I never ended up building what I worked out whioch was a modification of one of the 6x10 plans in 101 track plans. But worse was my name choice. I knew all about the Union Pacific, and the Southern Pacific. So I picked one that I never heard of before. No not Eastern Pacific, even to a 10 year old that sounded really dumb. Western Pacific. Imagine my dismay when I discovered it was a real railroad.
A much later adult attempt at a freelance line had me create the Pennsylvania and New York, and develop a somewhat plausible history and reason for being - those documents I still have. But that one never got built either. Never really designed a track plan, actually.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I'll have to post some pictures tomorrow - Let's just say, I entered the world of adding decals and messed up the large NH and stripes, so I had to remove them and wash the model... Once it dries, I'll show you the work and the one decal that I got to work!
Seems like everyone's had mixed results here, some good painting, and some bad painting. I'm just a teen, so I don't have too much experience under my belt, but hopefully once I've completed this I'll have some skills at all this. Now, how about the decaling job, seeing as that's what I'm doing. What was your first experience with that? Any tips for someone who's never applied decals and has shaky hands?
I can tell you this and it's always been the same from when I was a kid when attempting almost anything for the first time.
My body shakes, my vision becomes blured, my heart races and my teeth make this terrible grinding sound.
My confidence builds up slowly during the next few attempts until all the early nervous behavior is gone.
Bruce
My first attempt at painting was a complete failure, if not disastrous! The paint job was blotchy and spotty, and the paint had crept under the masking tape, which apparently I had not applied properly. To make things worse, the paint stripper I used to get rid of that lousy paint job melted the plastic shell of the car, which I then threw away in anger and disgust.
Took me years to be ready for giving it another try, this time under the supervision of an airbrush expert. The result still was so - so. Airbrushing, just like soldering, does not seem to be my cup of tea!
I was pretty happy with this one:
It's a Bowser PCC car, one of the old ones. (They have since come out with a more detailed plastic model.) This one has a metal shell, and was only available as undecorated. As a freelance, I literally chose my colors at the paint rack at True Value Hardware. They are rattle-cans, applied with blue painters' tape for masking. It's also my first experience in make-your-own decals. There were a few false starts, including seeing the letters disintegrate on contact with water. (Hint: read the directions.) I printed multiple copies of the decals, which was a good idea since I ruined a few while getting my "decal groove" back after 40 or so years.
There were other firsts on this car. It was my first non-trivial DCC decoder installation, and also my first experience working with LEDs. I added both the headlight and taillights. The car number, 42, is taken from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
My first paint job was in the late 50's. I was ten years old and had just finished assembling a die cast metal Mantua Big 6. I rattle canned it with Floquil, engine black. Then I baked it in moms oven. It turned out great, at least in my young eyes!
Luckily, I had gotten the rattle-can blues out of my system years ago while I was still modeling cars. I didn't try my hand at airbrushing until recently, but I still haven't painted a whole loco/car. I will be later this year when I paint an undecorated GP50 to Missouri Northern Arkansas colors.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
For me it can natural and I did quite good and became quite efficient with the spray can-some can't tell I use the rattle can..I still perfer this method over airbrushing.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Just recently I have painted a total of 4 locomotives and 1 ACF covered hopper. The hopper was a pink klemme corp car which I hated and after an unsuccessful weathering attempt I stripped it and then repainted into a Norfolk Southern hopper and it turned out well. I used a very inexpensive airbrush.
The locomotives I have painted have all been in the Norfolk Southern Livery so my question is how can you possibly screw up a straight black paint job. You can't I think it's impossible, all three of these came out great, 2 tower 55 es44dc and 1 Atlas U33C turned into a C39-8. Now one other paint job was creating a grey ghost ES40DC out of a tower 55 northern pacific unit and again uni-tone paint jobs are hard to mess up.
The project that is next up is repainting and decaling a Atlas dash 8-40cw in conrail quality livery. I may have had a disasterous attempt at weathering it and I may have had to strip the paint and start over, man I hate being a perectionist sometimes. I just create more work for myself.
Very interesting stories everyone! Unfortunately... I have to join the unsuccessful side. While trying to apply the stripes on the locomotive, I messed them up, and then accidentally scraped the paint... I'm a bit discouraged right now, but I don't think I'll give up. This was my first model I've ever painted/decaled, so who would expect it to be perfect? I think I might strip the model, put it away for a bit, and work on a Pan Am SD40-2. Any tips or comments to help me stay confident?
My advice is patience and practice. I started also when I was a teen. Now in my 40's and my first cars that I painted with a spray can were ok but all the details were lost because I put so much paint on them. I have graduated to an airbrush and that does a much better job. as for decals use solvaset once you get them on and then flat clear over top of them. Lastly don'r get discouraged! Us true modelers that paint, build, kitbash, repair are a dying breed.
It was a lot like my first sexual experience, I was nervous, I was scared, and I did a really horrible job, but with time and practice I became pretty good at painting..............
Mark :-)
My first painting was an actual custom job for a customer of my friend who ran a hobby shop. He normally did the custom jobs, but he had broken his hand and he asked me to do it. He supplied everything, the paint, decals, airbrush and compressor. Talk about pressure. After a couple of practice sessions, I painted and decaled the loco under Roy's tutelage of course, and miraculously, the job turned out well. The customer was very pleased. For the next 2 yrs I used Roy's equipment until I could afford my own.
That was 38 years ago, and I'm still custom painting. I believe that I got a lot better in that time. At least my customers are satisfied, as am I.
Carey
Keep it between the Rails
Alabama Central Homepage
Nara member #128
NMRA &SER Life member
ho modern modelerI always paint silver last....comes off too easy on the tape.
After some trial and error on old shells etc, I consider this my first multi color paint job.
I tried painting the first locomotive I ever owned. I was 13 years old at the time. It was a Cox SW1500 (same as Athearn's SW7). It was in Union Pacific colours and I wanted to re-paint it into the CN black 'wet noodle' scheme. The paint job was horrible to say the least, and I couldn't find any decals at the time so I hand painted the CN logo and road number. I also added some crude home made detail parts, and overall the loco looked hideous.
But over the years I was able to find the proper decals and detail parts and my painting skills improved as I got older. A few years ago I made a list of every loco I painted and I graded each paint job. Some locos have come and gone, but I remember how well I painted each one. The grading is as follows:
G = Good. Few blemishes, decals show clearly, clear separation between colours.
M = Mediocre. Blotchy paint, colours slightly off, rough finish.
BJ = Butcher job. Rough finish, blotchy paint, broken decals, colours incorrect.
H = Horrid. Rough finish, blotchy paint, broken decals, colours incorrect, no decals, hand painted lettering.
Number of locos painted:
G = 59
M = 27
BJ = 13
H = 3
Total: 102