Yellow HandRails

[Dough]

How do you guys create the yellow hand rails on the front and back? Do you just paint the orginals, or do you buy/build the entire piece?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I paint the rails on all my diesels to match the prototype. It is pretty simple to do with them in place. Just get a good detail brush, the correct color, and go. If you are worried about getting paint on the places where the rails connect, just slide a piece of tape between the rail and the body.

Warren

[Anonymous]

As has been said before, you just paint the handrails that come with the model. A few pointers for this:

Undercoat handrails that will be painted silver (like those on SF Warbonnet locos) with black - this makes the silver a richer, more realistic shade. Undercoating components that will be painted silver in black is normal engineering practice

If you're planning to paint handrails yellow (or any other light colour), consider undercoating the handrails in white first - this will give the yellow a decent base, especially if the handrails are made from dark-coloured plastic

The choice of paint is important. I use either Tamiya or Citadel Minatures paints, usually depending on what I have to hand! Tamiya paint is good for lighter colours, Citadel paints are a bit thicker. I've heard reports of people using paints designed for R/C car bodyshells on plastic handrails as these don't flake off as easily, but as my fleet is almost exclusively "Blue Box" Athearn locos I've not had the chance to try this.

[Anonymous]

Agreed....Paint them...a bonus is now some of them are coming from the factory that way. I bought 3 Undec KATO SD70MACs and they all came with white handrail ends...which is a good thing since my rr has white safety paint. But depending on the prototype KATO (at least anyhow) models are now coming with the correct safety paint on the handrails and grab irons

[Anonymous]

You might rough them up a bit with a fine grit (480 or 600) sandpaper to give a 'tooth' for the paint to adhere to. Also be sure to clean them with a bit of toweling and a liquid cleaner such as Windex to remove any oils which might defeat your paint.

Randy

[Dough]

Thanks for all of the advice guys, I'll give it a shot over Christmas.