Dave and Paul,
Unfortunately they need to be stripped?
It is great fortune that they are to be stripped and painted for a deserving
railroad. Personally I love to buy UP roling stock and send them to thier death
and resurection as Q property.
As Steve Allen once said, " all seriousness aside folks "
There are 2 schools of thought concerning "spray plating" those Es. First
however you have to strip them. What I've found lately is that my old standby,
brakefluid doesn't work as fast and deep on some paint jobs. A rexcent P2K
double door shell was started with ABS fluid and 3 days later I could only
budge the paint with my fingernail.???????? Normally 3 days of soaking in the
stripper would start to cause brittleness on the plastic. 3 days would have
melted the old Athearn paint off in sheets. I switched to Isopropyl 91%, yes I
have written about this many times, and had great sucess in 4 hours. Walgreens
and Target both stock it.
Now how to paint. Paint not foiling, N-scale detail is too fine to use the
model foil the automotive modelers use for thier trim. It'll cover up the rivet
battens and be too hard to burnish down effectively.
Paint option 1: I always liked the Testors Metalizer paints. They have various
shades like aluminum and Yeah, Stainless steel. That's what you need, it even
has a slight bluish cast to it. Look at yout Burlington Color books and you'll
see what I mean. You put a BB in the bottle, shake like crazy, pour into the
feed cup on the airbrush, crank the pressure regulator to 35 psi, spin the cone
down to the finest pattern and spray for about 30 seconds ( N-scale remember)
and you're done. The Metalizers are practically pre-thinned so a little will
still do a large job. The thinner is probably laquer thinner but I like to use
the manufacturers product. Oh yeah, it is a hot paint so don't lay the first
coat on too heavy. After it dries a few days you buff lightly with an old
cotton sock. If you overbuff you can give it a second coat. For the grille work
on E8 & E7s do the thinned black or Dark-dark gray wash next and then gloss
coat with Future Floor finish, Let it dry for 3 more days and you're ready for
decals, if you found them. Here is a plug. Try Dave Lot'z shop for decals or
call Desplaines Hobbies in Desplaines or Al's in Elmhurst. Those are 2 of the
locals here in Chicagaland that usually have some Q stuff in stock and cater to
modelers. One word of caution and many words of cursing. The nose stripes don't
lay down as easy as they look. You have to cut the stipes apart to get them
around the bugboards, so be patient. try flooding the area with water and float
the solid stripe decal over the nose to see where you will have to cut. Pull
the stripe off with tweezers and lay it on the release paper or a glass plate
and then section to fit.
Your nose will be as good as you prep so look over the casting prior to
painting for angular parting lines coming down from the bugboards to the pilot
and wet sand them with 600 - 800 3M automotive wet & Dry paper or use a
nailboard. You guys that attended my clinic in Streator will remember this. Go
th the cosmetic aisle in Walgreens and get the 2 or 4 color nailboards. Those
are used for buffing and finish sanding womens nails and have a grit similar to
the 600, 800 and higher. You can cut the boards down to 1/4" strips and make N
scale belt sanders out of them. Also look at the cab roof, there is sometimes a
parting line a little set back from the upper window line. What I like to call
the eyebrows.
Paint option 2. Alclad. Some of the Hobby shops that carry military kits have
this product. It is a non buffing paint. You paint the model with a Black
undercoat and then paint again with the Alclad silver. It is a high gloss with
a nice mirror like finish. Honestly, I haven't used it but I have seen some
examples of it and I liked it a lot. Now for some street cred, my N-Scale
friend, Mike Skibbe, has used it and is very happy with the results. Mike is
the kind of modeler that HO guys wish they be as good as. He does model the Q
when he's not busy with the CGW, MILW and CNW. I do plan on painting my HO
Con-Cor Pioneer Zephyr with the Alclad but I am going to warm up with a Resin
Unlimited fluted stainless steel trailer.
Well have as much fun with your E-unit as I had with former Q E, CN ( IC) 100
this weekend crewing on the Santa Claus Train.
May the Peace and Joy of Christmas be shattered by the clatter of tinplate
trains and the laughter of grandchildren under the tree.
Merry Christmas,
Rob Manley
----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Hancox
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 10:28 PM
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Paint & Decals for E-Units
Hey cool, "snap" I too just scored a great deal on a E8 AB set that need
stripped down.
Looking forward to the replies :)
cheers
pal_houston wrote:
>
> I got a spectacular deal on a pair of N-scale E-8's this past weekend.
>
> Unfortunately, they need to be stripped, painted & decaled for CB&Q,
> which will give me something to do instead of hibernating this winter.
>
> I would appreciate your expert advice concerning the following:
>
> 1. what is the best paint to use to get the burnished aluminum effect
> that E-8's had?
>
> 2. where am I going to get a couple of Micro Scale 60-98 decal sets?
> (The sources I have checked already include, in no particular order: 2
> local hobby shops within a Saturday morning's drive of home, Micro
> Scale, Walthers, Internet Model Trains, Discount Trains On-line, and
> Feather River Trains)
>
> 3. replacing the front & rear couplers on these Life-Like models with
> MTL front pilot couplers MTL #1021 (001-02-021), and rear couplers MTL
> #1129 (001-30-013) as recommended or #1130 (001-30-014) as an
> alternative.
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
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2:51 p.m.
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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