Hi all,
I painted some wheels and trucks with Model Master railroad tie brown the other night and have decided to make it basecoat for almost all my freight car wheels and trucks form now on. It certainly looks better then unpainted metal and delrin. Anywho, I'd love to hear recommendations from you all on a spray paint color, any brand, that will compare to railroad tie brown, and be a good base coat for painting and weathering trucks and wheels.
Alvie
RustOleum has several Camoflage colors that many find useful. I have a can of Khaki on hand, but there are several others that are equally suitable deopending on your prototype. It dries fast, binds to plastic (good on ties), and is "ultra-flat."
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Can't talk you into an airbrush? It gives you a whole lot more options for weathering.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Totally agree with Big Daddy....suggest investing in a Paschel VL airbrush. I have had one for three decades, painted nearly 1400 feet of track with railbrown. You will have much better control of spray pattern producing a nicer finished product. Once you are comfortable with mixing and air pressure adjustments, many other uses will come to mind. Best of luck!
BigDaddy Can't talk you into an airbrush? It gives you a whole lot more options for weathering.
While that is a excellent idea not everybody can use one due to living in a apartment or lack a space for a proper spray booth set up and even a air brush can setup leaves fumes that family members finds offensive. Certainly the boss of bosses will have a say in the matter with frying pan or rolling pin at the ready..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Alvie asked for some spray can reccommendations. While airbrushes are useful, he didn't ask about them. Sure, you can do some nice, preecise work with an airbrush. For overall base coat on track, however, it's about the least precise project possible, so hardly necessary.
Larry's cautions on keeping housemates of various sorts happy should be taken in either case.
One other tip. The big cans of regular spray paint are the value leaders for track painting. Hard to do it cheaper. My experience is that the small hobby spray paint cans are even handier, as they can get the spray closer to the track and manuever better around adjacent scenery that might be in place already. So many of these colors have been discontinued or changed lately it's hard to give a specific rec, but look into the various military camoflage colors for ones useful for track painting. Even better if you find something that works at a discontinued discount.
For wheels, on friction bearing trucks, dark gray auto primer in a rattlecan, either Krylon or Rustoleum, is just right. The friction bearings oozed oil out in the wheel faces where it picked up dirt and turned almost black. Roller bearing trucks don't leak oil, and the wheel faces on roller bearing trucks just get covered with mud and dirt, and dry out to a light brown dirt color, all brown, no hint of rust red. You can find some flat "camo" colored rattle cans with a khaki color that is about right. My rolling stock is all friction bearings, so I haven't personally tried the khaki. I brush paint my wheel faces with Floquil grimy black (I still have a stash).
Freight trucks were not painted to make it easier to see cracks. They mostly showed rust red. I paint them with rattle can red auto primer, again Krylon or Rustoleum. It dries good and flat and a straight rust red. I mask off the wheel bearing pockets with tape before spraying. It looks much better than leaving the trucks black glossy plastic.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
I've used my Paasche model H airbrush to paint some of my wheel sets using the old Floquil grimy black. Since thats no longer made, I'd go with something similar.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Well he didn't ask about track painting either, did he? Actually I think cans do a quicker job for that task.
Airbrushing need not be daunting, if he has the space or even an outside deck.
There are spray paints distributed by Battlefront Miniatures in their "Colours of War" series that are flat camoflauge colors. I believe Dark Soviet Khaki is pretty close to Rail Brown.
.
Also, if you have a NAPA Auto Parts Store nearby, they distribute a line of spray paints in their "Martin Senior" line that have a professional spray tip. You might not find the exact color your want, but you can adjust the paint tip to spray a horizontal fan spray pattern perfect for painting rails. Might be worth a look. These tips also atomize very fine.
Wear a respirator and get out the apartment for a few hours after you spray either of these indoors. Bad fumes.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
BigDaddy Well he didn't ask about track painting either, did he?
Well he didn't ask about track painting either, did he?
Maybe the OP should change his title then? Here it is below - the "rail brown" sure implies painting rail - but the body of the first post does a 360 to trucks. Anyway, he sort of did ask about track/rail - via the title to be fair.
"Rail Brown in a spray can recommendations"
I do a lot of rolling stock painting using Rustoleum or Krylon spray colors. I find the economy of paying $4-5 for a 12oz can at Walmart that virtually matches what color I am looking for model railroad use is money better spent than the same or greater amount on a small Model Master 3oz can.
I realize that in some instances, pigment particle size may offer better results with model paints, but my spray painting abilities (and thorough & patient masking techniques) result in superior effects from the larger cans.
Often, if I need to see comparisons of several related colors, I will buy several cans and test them first. I can always find a use for the other ones somewhere around the house if not on my layout, rolling stock or structure models.
I use a filter and fan-type spray booth I built in my garage (vented) with the spray paints. Some colors not seen at Wal Mart may be offered at Home Depot.
Cedarwoodron