I need some advice to help me solve another problem, this one thanks to my own sloppy work.
Before applying the name decals, I gloss coated the surface with Testors Glosscote as per the decal instructions. I made the mistake of using a bristle brush instead of my airbrush. That resulted in a rather heavy and somewhat uneven coat being applied, and that coat remains visible even after applying Testors Dulcote over the decal.
I am worried that applying additional coats will make things worse, and sanding everything off will eliminate the board detail because the lines between the boards will be full of paint and the clear coats.
Here is what it looks like now:
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Hi Dave. I don't know if you did this, but applying a new coat of Dullcoat over the entire model helps harmonize things. Don't forget to cover the windows with tape...
Simon
Hi Simon,
I have applied two additional coats of Dulcote and the problem is less obvious but it can still be seen clearly.
In my experience weathering chalks will help minimize the visibility of this.
I suggest you DO NOT apply any sort of general weathering wash over the model - white to fade the paint, black to add soot, or whatever. This will bring out the decal area very strongly, as the wash will settle thicker into the gaps between boards so serve to highlight the area where the gaps are filled in with the glosscoat.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
PruittIn my experience weathering chalks will help minimize the visibility of this.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the suggestion.
My problem with using weathering chalks is that I don't want to weather the plow, other than dirtying the white floor a bit. The plow was a prototype that would have been used for promotional purposes so I don't think it would have been allowed to show much deterioration. It also wasn't used for very long before the design was abandoned after one of the engine frames suffered a catastrophic failure.
How are you feeling?
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
The more often I see a photo exposing the innards, the more impressed I am.Creation and execution have been real labors of love, to be sure. None of which reduces their excellence. Just like the prototype (?): a one-of-a-kinder.
Howdy, Bear! On the prowl for berries? Use all you had making the muffins yesterday for the Diner?
John
That is the reason I never paint gloss to decal over. Used to be necessary before decal setting solutions.
Hi Bear,
Although the plow itself is nearing completion, I still have some work to do on the rest of the train. I have to finish adding DCC to the two pusher engines. The biggest challenge there will be figuring out how to get a recording of the Cumbres and Toltec snow train transferred onto a Loksound V5 decoder. Next will be to paint the locomotive tender that I shortened and then rename/renumber the locomotives to Canadian Pacific.
I have started on an extra water car, and I still need to come up with a suitable crew car, tool car and caboose.
The plow itself still has to have the air lines and manual brake parts added, and I have to solve the gloos coat/ dull coat dilema. After that it should be ready for final assembly.
Attuvian1The more often I see a photo exposing the innards, the more impressed I am.Creation and execution have been real labors of love, to be sure.
Hi John,
Thanks for the compliment. It has been a labour of love (with a little hate thrown in occassionally ).
rrebellThat is the reason I never paint gloss to decal over. Used to be necessary before decal setting solutions.
Hi rrebell,
I did exactly what the decal instruction page said to do which was to apply the decals over a glossy finish. However, I made two mistakes. First, I didn't spray the Glosscote so it went on too heavy, and second, I didn't cover the whole side of the plow. I only applied the Glosscote where the decal was to be applied.
I'm still thinking about how to solve the problem. What I'm considering is painting the whole side of the shell with Glosscote, and then applying Dullcote over that. The joints between the boards still show quite clearly even though they are filled in a bit, so I'm hoping that a couple more coats won't ruin the whole thing.
An alternative would be to paint the offending sides with another colour coat, then reapply the decals without Glosscote, and then finish with as light a coat of Dullcote as is needed to hide the edges of the decals. That might be the better option because there would likely be less paint buildup.
I'm going to think about it for a while.
If you are going to apply any type of clear finish on a model, be sure to do the entire side instead of a spot finish. Any subsequent overcoat finished will show the clear patch you applied. Even if I'm just changing a cab number, I will spray the entire side with gloss, not just where the numbers will go, otherwise it will always look a bit different.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Mark R.If you are going to apply any type of clear finish on a model, be sure to do the entire side instead of a spot finish. Any subsequent overcoat finished will show the clear patch you applied. Even if I'm just changing a cab number, I will spray the entire side with gloss, not just where the numbers will go, otherwise it will always look a bit different.
I wish you had been here before I started the clear coat process. It is a lesson that I will not soon forget.
Thanks for the tip on re-numbering. I probably would have messed that up too.
I have been able to mostly eliminate the clear coat problems. I applied two coats of clear coat. The first was Glosscote to both sides of the shell where the decals are using a bristle brush. The second coat was Dullcote using a rattle can.
The colour difference is mostly gone but the Dullcote is still patchy. Some spots are still too glossy so I will apply another coat of Dullcote when things are dry. The brush strokes from the original application of Glosscote are still visible but they are much less obvious.
I have thought of another solution if I'm still not happy with the excess paint. That would be to sand all of the paint layers and the decals off down to the styrene surface and then apply a 0.020" sheet of boxcar siding over top of the original siding. I would only have to remove the paint from the area behind the exterior ladders. That shouldnt be too difficult. I don't think that adding 0.040" to the overall width of the back half of the shell would be noticable.
I look at the bright side. Given the number of coats of paint that the shell has received, the weight of the plow has to have gone up by at least 50%!
Bit the bullet! The paint came off quite easily with a chisel blade, and the surface didn't require much sanding:
New 0.020" siding. The increase in width isn't noticable at all:
Good thing I ordered extra decals!
Tonight I got the new window frames completed. I had to build them mostly from scratch because I didn't have any more of the windows that I used the first time. It took me a while because my hands were shaking and there are three layers in the frames.
Tomorrow I will paint the new side panels. I'm going to do it using a brush because I don't want to have to mask the rest of the shell. Hopefully I won't mess it up too badly.
I proved to myself once again that I am totally useless at painting large surfaces with a brush. I dug out my best quality 3/8" wide brush but I couldn't get a smooth coat with it. Perhaps the brush is too stiff, who knows, but it's back to the airbrush. I will have to mask off the painted areas so that there is no more paint build up on them, and I will have to put my little heater on in the garage for a few hours because it is too cold in there right now to paint.
There is another minor issue that is bugging me. When I put the new 0.020" car siding on the back half of the shell, it left almost no roof overhang. I decided that I could live with that. However, when I installed the window frames, the frames on that part of the shell now stick out proud of the roof line. The window frames on the front part of the shell are flush with the roof line. The difference looks odd but solving the issue would require major surgery and I don't want to risk that. For now I will live with the issue. What I should have done, once I got the paint scraped and sanded off of the original siding, was use some alcohol to strip the paint out of the grooves. I was reluctant to do that given the huge problems I had when I stripped the stationary blades.
Maybe I'm being too fussy.
hon30critterMaybe I'm being too fussy.
As with most model railroaders, the builder notices issues where others don't notice a problem.
I think it looks great, and I'm sure most others would agree.
York1 John
York1I think it looks great
Thanks John,
It is less noticable with the first coat of paint on it. I guess I'm kicking my butt because I caused the problem in the first place. This project has definitely taught me that I don't know as much as I thought I did, especially with regard to painting.
There are many ways to do things, esspecially painting. Like I said before, the gloss painting first before decals came about before decals setting solutions were common. I have never seen the need. I also have fixed old decals that are on wood by coating with styrene glue, kind of a hit or miss at times.
rrebellThere are many ways to do things, esspecially painting.
I agree! Unfortunately, a couple of the ways that I have chosen to do things were rather bad choices!
However, as I said, I have learned a lot from my errors and I owe a debt of gratitude to those of you who have helped me recover from my mistakes.
Thanks everyone!
P.S. I'm about to go out to the garage to put the heater on so I can use the airbrush to paint the new panels properly.
I got the new sides painted, but I had a problem with spattering, i.e. small droplets, coming out of the air brush, so I would like to hear your opinions.
I was using an Iwata dual action airbrush. I have only used it a couple of times so I am still getting used to the action. The brush had been disassembled and was thoroughly clean. I was spraying True Line acrylic at about 30 psi. I tried lowering the pressure to 20 psi but the brush didn't seem to work very well. The paint was quite thin in the bottle, i.e. like milk, so I didn't thin it. I took the needle guard off of the airbrush after the first droplets showed up, but there was no paint on the guard. I managed to get decent coverage with two coats, so the only real problem is the droplets. FWIW, the droplets seemed to land on the outer edges of the spray pattern and not in the middle.
Any advice?
Thanks,
I did a little work on the pusher engines' tenders tonight. I didn't like the coal bins on either of them (not that I know a whole lot about tender coal bins), so I decided to make a few changes.
The tender on the right needed a false floor to keep the coal from falling onto the electronics. This is the tender that I shortened. The tender on the left also needed a floor for the coal bin and I decided to add some height to the bin as well. These are both in the initial stages of construction but there isn't a whole lot needed to finish them. Just a little trimming is needed on the corners of the bin on the left and they will both be ready for paint.
I spent the evening applying rivet decals to the pusher locomotive tender that I had shortened. I guess that I'm actually getting good at applying the rivet decals because I only messed up one strip! A couple of the decal strips may not be perfectly aligned but I'm not going to worry about them because the tender will be painted black so the rivets will hardly show. I did apply some knowledge from my very frustrating experience with applying rivet decals to the stationary plow blades. You may recall that I kept knocking them off when I was handling the shell. This time I gave the decals a light coat of Testors Dullcote before starting work on the other side so everything has stayed in place.
More progress!
I successfully applied the name decals to the new side panels on the rear of the plow and they look great! The decals settled nicely into the grooves when Solva Set was applied.
I haven't applied the Dullcote to them yet, but I will do so as soon as the decals are thoroughly dry.
Looks great, Dave!
WOW! Looks great Dave.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Nice job Dave!
Mike
Thank you Mike, Brent and Mark,
The improvement in appearance was definitely worth the extra work.
I got some Testors Clear Parts Cement and Window Maker. I tested it on a couple of spare windows and I wasn't totally pleased with the effect. The edges of the 'glass' are thicker than the center giving it a fish eye sort of appearance. I decided to try it on the cupola windows and it worked a little better, so I decided to do two sides of the cupola.
I'm still not entirely sold on the windows, but that has turned out to be irrelevent. I forgot to Dullcote the cupola paint before doing the windows so I have to remove them. I'm not too upset because hopefully the more windows I do the better I will get at it.