Beyond painting, what are other effective options for darkening the side walls of nickel-silver wheelsets? Will they accept any type of brushed-on staining?
I’m considering it for the pilot trucks of a couple Genesis MT-4s, a couple cabooses, and a pile of more recent RTR freight cars.
Thanks!
John
you can use the cold blueing or blackening available for firearm use, it will work on nickel silver, which actually is mostly brass …
it’s a chemical reaction rather than just a paint
I’ve read about Neolube, but no personal experience
Neolube will give a nicely grungy appearance. Narrowgaugers use it on siderods, etc. Just be sure you don’t get it anyplace where it’s ability to conduct electricity will cause problems.
Micro Engineering sells a chemical blackener or patina solution which in theory is supposed to match their pre weathered rail.
https://www.walthers.com/rail-weathering-solution-4oz-118-3ml
In my experience the solution reacts differently with different “blends” of nickle silver and sometimes takes on an almost greenish tinge. But it might be worth a try, and there are other chemical blackeners available. Like any powerful chemical, use and store with care.
Dave Nelson
I used it on the faces of the wheels on my Walthers Amfleet passenger cars. Dries fast. Huge improvement!
Kevin
Depending on the particular wheels you wish to colour, that colour might represent rust, as on a wheelset with roller bearings, with perhaps some road dirt or dust over that.
For cars with trucks fitted with solid bearings, the wheel faces would be black or perhaps a very dark green - I use an old bottle of Floquil Pullman Green with some black and brown added to it. As the paint is old, it’s fairly thick when brushed-on, so does a good job of representing the oil/grease which accumulates on the wheel’s face, and then collects the dirt and dust kicked-up from the roadbed, giving it a somewhat three-dimensional quality. I represent that dirt and dust with airbrushed weathering after the wheels have been painted.
The backside of the wheels, whether equipped with roller- or solid bearings, would be a rust colour, toned-down somewhat with an accumulation of the road dust and dirt, and ditto for the axles.
If you wish to represent some cars as having been humped, clean the face of the wheels’ rims to show the polished effect imparted by the retarders.
I always brush-paint wheelsets, and usually without removing them from the truck’s sideframes, nor removing the trucks from the car. It’s fast and easy to do. The car will also get weathered using pastels and/or airbrushed weathering, and that will include a final light overspray of road dust on the trucks, underbody, and lower portions and ends of the car’s body…
[IMG]https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/doctorwayne/Freight%20Cars%20