I want my HO steam loco airbrushed by someone who can weather it as well as apply custom details for a fictitious railroad, and perhaps stripes as well. How do I find someone like that? My LHS owner is a source, but is months behind, and seems expensive, upwards of $200. He is also reluctant to recommend anyone else. I live in Pennsylvania. Any ideas? Appreciate any help, thanks.
My LHS has a good man too but you must wait 2 years! I don’t know what he charges but $200 seems like a good deal.
My LHS, Maine Trains in Chelmsford, MA, does custom work, both painting and electronics.
He does deal with shipped items as well. (He had one that somebody had shipped from New Zealand a while back.)
But, I think you’ll find a backlog in a lot of places, and, while that price does seem a bit high, most of the professional estimates you get are going to be somewhere in that range.
Have you tried a local train club? There might be someone there who is very good at this, and will do it for a good deal less, because he doesn’t need to pay the rent with train work.
Steve Wiedmer does custom painting–I have seen several examples of his work on N-scale diesels. His website is http://www.steve4painting.com/ You can find a lot of his work posted on manufacturer’s websites as well as his own site. Here is his latest work, Indiana Rail Road EMD SD9043MAC #9001 (currently for sale on eBay; photos from Kato USA website):
Jamie
$200 is a fair price considering how much work it is to paint an HO steam engine. It needs to be completely disassembled and cleaned for a proper paint job. %90 of a good paint job is prep and the prep can take days instead of the minutes it takes to spray it. I ended up asking friends to show me how to paint my own. I was much happier with my own paint jobs than other peoples. Not to say mine are perfect , they are not , but It cost much less after I had painted enough to pay for the paint booth and air compressor.
Is your engine plastic or brass? If there is a local club near you ask people in the club.
You can always paint yourself if all else fails
PAPappy: check your email. Jay.
$200 would buy a pretty nice airbrush and compressor. [:)] Stripes you can do with Virnex “no need to trim” decal stripes. Done right, it’s as good as painted stripes…or better. What’s the old saying…“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for today; teach him how to fish and his wife will kill you” or something like that.
Thanks for the link. Contacting a local club seems to be a great idea, thank you very much!
Curious as to how much you were expecting to pay, as you think $200.00 is a lot? Painting steam engines is quite time consuming, way more than diesels. If a job is done right, they have to be taken apart so the running gear can be painted separately. And you want it weathered too? I think $200.00 is probably a bargain.
I recommend B. C. Enterprises of Gardner Mass. They have done two of mine and both are beautiful. Turnaround time is 4 to 5 months and that $200 price would be in their ball park, depending on the particulars of your project. They are also excellent at repairing damaged brass. Their addy: http://www.bcenterpriseinc.com/