painting wheels trucks

[John Gray]

what is a good type of paint for adding rust to wheels both metal and plastic as well as the trucks? 

I don't like the shining wheels on the locos and freight cars.

[kasskaboose]

I use artist paint (comes in small squeezeable tubes) of burnt umber and burnt sienna.   I mix a small amount of each together with a toothpick.

[John Gray]

Oil's? What about scalecoat or that other brand now discontinued can't think of the name now of course.

[Morpar]

I have been working this recently and am using Rustoleum rattle cans. With the wheel masks I made I can spray 32 wheelsets with one mask, 15 with another, and 4 with the commercial masks I have. I picked up 4 different colors with one being a medium gray to simulate new steel. In the last few trains I saw I actually paid attention to wheel colors and saw maybe 3% of the cars had a brand new wheel on them which was grey. The rest of my wheels are a mix of 3 other rust looking colors. I polish the axle tips with the Dremel and the wheelsets are ready to install.

[maxman]

John Gray

Oil's? What about scalecoat or that other brand now discontinued can't think of the name now of course.

 

Floquil?

[HO-Velo]

First off the metal wheel-sets are cleaned with lacquer thinner and a very light coat of plastic compatible grease applied to the axle points.  Using a wheel mask the wheel-sets are airbrush painted with Floquil enamel Railroad Tie Brown, side-frames with spray can Rustoleum Dark Grey Auto Primer. 

When dry the wheel faces get a light coat of Pan Pastels, bearing adapters some rust colored tube oil paint, side frames then pounded and highlighted with weathering powders.  Finished up with a little dry brushing or colored pencils and Dullcote sealed.  Axle points cleaned before final assembly.   

Regards, Peter

  

[PC101]

If your rolling stock may have travaled through a hump yard recently, remember to clean/shine up the outside rim/ridge where the retarders rub to slow the car down.

That is one nice looking truck you have there Peter. The different shades of rust look fantastic. 

[John Gray]

that is what I was thinking also.

I'm a MOPAR fan and still race in NHRA with the same car I bought in a '71 Demon 340  F stock automatic that runs 11:10 125mph

[John Gray]

Hey Peter; I have railroad tie brown, grey primer that's what I use during auto  body work 

thanks

["JaBear"]

All good methods in the responses.

 

I use a red oxide primer rattle can, which I use for painting the steel weights, but after removing the wheelsets from the trucks, I squirt a bit in to the lid and brush paint the wheel faces and axles. At this time, I also give the trucks a quick flick with a very cheap rattle can that proports to be almond, but looks like dust/grime to me. Remembering that freight cars did get serviced; it depends on how much grunge I want it to look as to how many passes I make with the rattle can, though I don’t want them to look as if they should be “bad ordered”.

 

As the majority of freight cars I have run plain bearings in a journal box, I’ll randomly give a journal box lid a flick of gloss black to simulate over enthusiastic use of the oil can by the maintainer. I’ll also randomly give the springs a flick with the red oxide and also the trucks, in places, as well.  

 

I give the axle tips a quck spin in a Peco track rubber to make sure they're polished, and just a touch of dry white lubricant when installing into the truck.

 

This is not a great photo but it gives the idea.

 

Trucks by Bear, on Flickr

Cheers, the Bear.

[ricktrains4824]

I use cheap "craft acrylics" thinned enough to airbrush, with a flexible adhesion promoter added in.

Mine is from Createx and is designed for use on costume masks, but works great with the plastic sideframes too, making the dried paint slightly flexible. 

[AntonioFP45]

Hello John,

For weathering trucks and underbodies, I've had decent results with acrylic paint washes. My usual go to colors are Freight Car Red, Dirt, Aged Concrete, and Grime. These are Polyscale colors (unfortunately, no longer in business) but Vallejo and Tamiya offer similar colors that would achieve the wanted effects.

I over-thin the paint,apply it with paint brushes and let gravity due its's job as the washes work their way into nooks and crannies.