BNSF Warbonnet

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hey everyone. I am upgrading an old walthers trainline bnsf warbonnet with new roadnumber, decals , and adding a LOT of detail. I need to paint over some bad weathering and add a new BNSF logo. Plus I need to detail it like crazy and then weather it. If anyone has attempted this before or has any pictures or insite on how to do this or photos of a model like this that would really help. Any advice is absolutely appreciated.

(P.S. As a teen, an airbrush is a very big investment and is out of my budget so far. However I do have pastels and some acrylic paints for weathering.)[8D] Thank you!

2

First thing I would do is strip the shell down to plastic. Many here use Alcohol and I am sure they will chime in on there prefer method.

Personally, I would never use a brushes on the main colors. You might get away with brushes on strips. I would use rattle can Paint for the main colors.

Cuda Ken

3

So you are suggesting i take all the paint off down to the equivellent of an undecoraed model? How do you suggest how i do the red paint since I cant mask the engine on a curve. I assume than I put on yellow stripes on the sides with decals. Thank you very much for your advice.

-Will

4

Yep, Will, that’s it in a nutshell.

Just fill an air-tight container with 91% isopropyl alcohol from the pharmacy, put the locomotive shell (without any clear parts) in for anywhere from 30 minutes-1 hour. Take out, and scrub the paint off with an old toothbrush. The parts won’t be harmed, and you will have an undecorated locomotive.

Then, detail to your heart’s delight, and then use a rattlecan of paint.

Use a primer, then Paint the silver first, mask that in the pattern suggested by the decal instructions (aim for about 50% of the stripes) and then paint the red. For masking the curves, you can take some 2" wide Scotch blue painter’s tape, and trace the curve’s lines out onto the tape. Cut it out, and place it where it needs to go. Then, mask as normal.

Lay the decals down, and use your favorite decal settling solution (like Micro-sol from Microscale) and then wether to your liking.

I tried searching for some BNSF Warbonnet decals for you from Micromark, but I just came up with pre-BNSF merger schemes for the Santa Fe. You may be able to piece together the BNSF letters from another decal set.

http://microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

I, too, am a teen-ager in the hobby, and I know what you mean when it comes to having to be cheep.

Keep us up-dated on this project, as I’m interested in how it will come out.</

5

UPTeen23, I have an extra undec 8-40BW shell that I’m not going to be needing. If you want it send me a PM and I’ll figure out a way to get it to you.

6

Reason you should strip the shell is you stated it had bad weathering. Paint hides nothing, if anything fresh paint will make the old imperfections show more. Plus you will start to loss details that are cast into the shell.

What kind of BNSF are you going to do?

Cuda Ken

7

cudakeen, I am going to do a red and silver BNSF. A 8-40BW that was owned by the Santa Fe and the BNSF only added a red BNSF logo to the sides and the orange AC unit #517 is what Im after. That is what I hope the repaint will look like.

Tony, thank you very much for your offer but I am pretty much done taking the paint off so I wont be needing a new shell but thank you very much for your offer![swg]

8

I think an airbrush will help enormously with your project, and I’m sure it’s well within your budget too. I’ve been using an Aztek A220 for around 8 years now, and it’s always served me very well. And the best part is, you can find them easily for around $20. One thing to remember (and I’m saying this from experience) is that it likes enamel paints best. Most acrylic paints will work fine too, but it doesn’t seem to like Modelflex paints.

9

No problem. Good luck on your project and post some pics, even if they’re in progress photos.

10

Hey UPTeen23,

Do you have a link to this machine? I model BNSF too, (but mostly IC&E/DM&E), & it sounds like you found a really unique unit to model. Could you post a link to it? (no, I won’t cop it on you!)

You asked about decals & masking before. Please cut some masking on glass or some other non transferable surface to make the paint color lines -as stated before. I have a SD40-2 Shell I did in FURX (yes, for my IC&E consist collection) & it is a BNSF H2 (orange black) scheme but logoless, except for ‘FURX’ lettering on the battery doors. I stripped the logos off of an old Kato snoot & then removed the nose & added a Cannon 88" nose in its place. So, I had to paint the nose & mask the dippy stripe & what not. I used the Microscale decal to pattern the tape & adjusted until I got it right. It looks pretty well, but the oranges don’t match exactly (texture or color), but most folks will never see that. It is not finished, but if you would like a picture I can put one up for you. Also I checked my decal inventory, & if you need the ‘H2’ yellow ‘cigar strap’ Logos for use on your ‘warbonnet’ you need to look at Microscale# : 87-1044, 87-1076, & then 87-475 - for pattern usage. I also could not find Warbonnet ‘trim’ stripes, under the search term ‘ATSF Warbonnet’ (that scheme was an ATSF or even prior one)…

I hope this will help you a little, I wanted to help out more, but hit that dead end too…

11

Ya , Chad, I have found that this site is very helpful in looking up prototype photos.http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=16833

Oh and btw if you could post those photos that would be awesome! Thanks.

Darth Sante Fe, what compressor do you suggest that would be cheap and would work pretty well?

12

I use a can of propellant with my airbrush, since it’s a cheaper alternative to getting a compressor (unless you do a LOT of airbrushing). You can get it from Testors (6oz.) or Badger (13oz.). The airbrush comes with the proper fitting for the propellant cans. Testors also sells the A220 airbrush as a set with a small can of propellant.

13

UPTeen23,

Sorry for the delay, I forgot about checking posts. Note, this is not a real nice model, it is intended as a consist filler & otherwise what I call a 3 footer. (looks nice from 3 feet away or more… (not less, or up close like these pix)
This is a composite pic, which shows two shots put together to save space…
It was just a shell that I started with, & after IC&E DVD’s I needed to make one. So I rubbed/buffed off the Kato shell with BNSF lettering & numbering with Scalecoat Paint Remover & a paper towel. Being careful & masking off other stripes, it went very well. The add on lettering came off good. However there was some weeping (stripping) under the masking & I left that alone as if it were natural fading. I added a Cannon 81" nose, just because the deck treadplate allowed it. Newer Kato’s do not extend the treadplate pattern as far back, so “I just had to!”
I assembled the Cannon nose, then detailed it. I fit it to the unit & then painted it in Floquil BNSF orange. I then cut out the nose ‘Yellow Trim’arch & mastered its outline to masking tape on glass, using a pen to mark center & leaving a tall top side for alignment, with a square nose point line running top to deck. I also refered to the original nose for the height of the stripe & where the ‘Heritage Green’ would need to edge up to it. I used a caliper & a sharp X-Acto blade to make reference points on the new nose for the stripe. I layed the tape, starting on the crown of the nose (remember the ‘tall index line’ comment) & then laid down the side ‘wings’ to my X-Acto marks. Then after a little fiddling & mashing down the mask, the basement I went, to shoot the Heritage Green… After all that I had a harder issue. How to mask out the Anti Glare panel… Hmmm. I know masking tape likes to lay straight, so with that in mind I took some Dognut foam tray & cut a nose pattern in it. Then I laid out tape on glass & measured the top of the nose & X-Acto’