Thanks. So is the 1000 a lacquer? Can you spray acrylics over it? I have a lot of acrylic. So this begs the question what was the white and SP Scarlet? Sumner
It's a lacquer primer, but once it's dry pretty much any paint can be sprayed over it. It's become my go-to primer for lacquers, acrylics, and even enamel. The white is Mr. Color lacquer white, and the red is Tru-Color SP Scarlet.
I love the smell of paint in the morning. Figuratively, not literally. Wear your respirator, folks! I masked off the red and white areas. Doing this cleanly is slow and tedious, but work now will minimize how much touch-up I need to do later. With the tape in place and burnished down, I start by building up light coats of gray around the tape lines to avoid any gray bleeding under the tape. Once that's done I switch to heavier coats to get a smooth gloss. Once the gray paint has cured, I carefully peel off the tape. Apart from a couple spots on the handrails that the adhesion promoter didn't get to, everything looks pretty good! Before I move on to lettering decals, I add the nose wings. Experience has taught me that this step never goes 100% smoothly, and today is no exception: Not only did I forget that the wing decals I have aren't long enough to go all the way down to the sill, but the red ink ran slightly. On the bright side, the paint and decals' colors match up very well. A few more minutes in the paint booth and everything will be set right.
Great write-up and good info, thanks. What I was hoping for. When you are done I'd like some advice on painting a loco in those UP colors that you love to hate . Main question is there are three colors (yellow, gray and red) and wonder if you would try and mask the red stripes painting them last or look for the stripes in decals and go that way (I have some) or take a different approach in the sequence in painting the loco? I was thinking yellow then gray then red or gray then yellow and red last or ????? Also... After taping have you ever tried painting the tape line and intentionally spraying into with another coat or two of red to seal for bleed under the tape and then going on with the gray. Car guys do that some and we did it painting the flames on my truck. Sumner
If I had to paint something in UP colors p), I'd probably paint yellow first, then mask and paint red, then mask again and paint the gray. Maybe even a white undercoat before everything to really make the yellow pop. Either way, trying to get a full-length pinstripe decal perfectly straight sounds like a miserable ordeal! I still do that if the second color is also something that covers poorly and needs heavier coats (e.g. red over yellow), but with something that covers as well as dark gray I find it a bit overkill.
Thanks, I'll take that approach. I really need to get brave and try one. I have a number of bare shells that don't even need stripping. Do need to get some more track down so I can run a train a little further and hopefully will be done with the wireless hand held throttle I'm working on right now soon. Too many things to do but at least they are all fun. I had a supplied air system that supplied outside air to a face mask for when I was painting the street rod and camper but gave it away to a friend this past year. Maybe too soon? Sumner
That sounds like massive overkill and I want to try it! My pokey 3M respirator works well enough that while I touched up the red paint I didn't even notice that the spray booth's exhaust duct had come loose and was venting everything right back into the room. Luckily the weather is nice and I could air the place out! All the nose touch-up took was the bare minimum of masking, a light coat of primer to lighten up the unwanted dark gray, and a few passes of scarlet on top of that. And when I paint 4061 I'll (probably, maybe) remember not to make the same mistake Now I can move on to the rest of the decals. The blessing of (relative) youth is that I can actually see the little warning labels even in N scale. The curse is that I can read many of them, even the ones that are a blur in prototype photos. And SP, as was their wont, went out of their way to avoid consistent warning label choices and positionings. If I don't want to label the fuel filler cap as a high-voltage hazard and the high-voltage cabinet as a fire extinguisher I have to scour the web for non-blurry photos to get the right labels and photos of the two specific GP20s I've chosen to get them in the right spots. It's tedious, but having each unit in the roster be subtly unique like the real thing will be a worthwhile reward.
4075 has her decals on and is nearly ready to weather. And thanks to an awesome TB member, I now have the correct Sunrise bell and MU stands for 4061! Couplers and fans for 4061 are on the way. Once they arrive I'll have everything I need. Unless I decide to add an engineer figure to one or both cabs too
I've enjoyed looking at detailed locos before but haven't ever seen the process so really appreciated you taking the time to do that in this build. There has been a drawback though, and that is I've always thought my N scale locos looked pretty darn good for a mass produced product. Now though they look a little more 'toy like' and I can see that once you have a couple that are detailed out on the layout you'd start thinking they all need to look like that. I just took a look and the Hobby Air I bought about 15-20 years ago was the same price as what one can get one for now (What I had HERE). I liked it as some/most of the auto paint products now are really not good for you but it was really a mess pulling the air hoses for the gun and the hood around (I taped them together) and not hitting what you were spraying. I started with the full hood that came with it and that was really confining but then bought and went with a 1/2 face mask. Another problem is the air gets hotter the longer the unit runs. I was going to make an ice water intercooler to cood the air but never did. I was only spraying my own stuff so still wasn't exposed like someone who does it for a living. With a respirator like you are probably using a good sign when you need to change cartridges is if you can smell what you are spraying they probably need changed. I also keep them in zip lock bags when not in use as they can also age just exposed to other things in the air. This is probably old news for you but thought I'd throw it out there for someone that is getting into painting. Looking forward to the rest of your build, Sumner
I agree with Sumner, it is really cool to see all the work (including research) involved in fully detailing a locomotive. My locos, sadly, are not the beneficiaries of such talent, patience and dedication...
Thanks guys! I'm always happy if my work inspires others. Most of what I've learned about the hobby has come from this and other forums, and I'm glad to be able to pay it forward. That said, a full weathering write-up will have to wait for SP 4061 while I nail down my weathering workflow on 4075. After my last modeling hiatus I switched from water-based acrylic weathering to oil and lacquer based techniques. It's been a whole new learning curve and once I get to 4061 I should have a more detailed description than, "binge-read the internet's worth of magazine articles about weathering, buy way too much oil paint, and go to town," which is pretty much what I've been doing lately.
I believe you've achieved that goal in spades. I also believe that the thanks is to you for taking the time to educate the unwashed and ignorant among us (speaking solely for myself in that description).
Number 4075 needs wind deflectors, but I was able to run it last night. Despite lots of light blocking the Gyralight still creates light leaks in places I hadn't expected, like the horn and through the decoder PCB itself. And for some reason the pickup is still finicky, even after cleaning every electrical contact in the drivetrain twice. Meanwhile, 4061 is still awaiting fans.
Good news: after a nice long wait, the fan blades for 4061 finally arrived: Bad news: the weather has gone straight to, well, a place very unsuitable for painting. The air outside is so hot, sticky, and smoky it might as well be BBQ. Better luck next weekend, hopefully.
