Received a “new” locomotive via HOYARDSALE. Any suggestions for darkening the color of a factory painted P2K e-unit? It is an early run E9 in SP bloody nose scheme. It runs incredibly quiet and coasts easily - but the gray body color is is so light it appears to be a unit left sitting in the Arizona Sun for about a decade. Seriously.
I do not want to disassemble, strip, and repaint this locomotive. Would a wash of SP dark Lark gray work? I know I can use pigments to weather the unit and hide the paint issue but my intent was to keep weathering to a minimum as it is in passenger service.
Oh, yeah. One more question. Will the DA journal covers work on the P2K? The unit is missing one.
Paul
Short of masking the red nose and re-painting the gray, I don’t know what you could do. Useing a wash would likely give you a some what blotchy or streaky appearnce, which wouldn’t represent a clean passenger engine very well. Plus it’s going to turn the white lettering gray.
As for the D/A truck journals, yes they will work, but you will need to shave off some molded on detail and glue them to the sideframes. They will not snap into the sideframes like the original ones do. I’ve done it on one of my E unit prolects.
Very nice work on that RI unit.
How does the windshield and door glass come out? Do not see any glue marks. May be easier to mask. And the red nose may be more easily decaled than masked.
Figured out the porthole glazing and the metal grill appears to be spot CA glued. The handrails and eyebrow grabs have been heat set but they’re easily painted.
I was hesitant to respond earlier than this because I was going to suggest the same thing. Make a heavy wash (not just a diluted paint, say 1:1, but more like 4 or 5:1 in favour of water), and use a dryish brush technique. It may be that your first lick at the surface with a brush done this way will look ghastly heavy. No problem…spready that first lick around a lot, but dry off the brush even more before you do, or better yet, rinse it clear and then swipe the first lick…do that quickly to prevent drying, though. Really work that initial dab all over the side of the model, spreading it all over, further an further. Don’t hesitate to dip your brush in a bit of clear water once or twice to keep the initial wash application from drying in any one place before you have spread it thinly enough.
You might want to practise on an old box car to get the hang of it. If you do it correctly, it will not look blotched…or botched…depending on your word preference. [(-D]
-Crandell
Thanks for the input. Tomato, tomah-to. Either way, it tastes good on a sandwich.
Believe I’ll do the 5 to 1 wash approach, wet water to PS Dark Lark Gray. I’ll use a better quality fan brush to apply. I have decals to redo the lettering,numbers, and red nose of needed.
As the roof will receive some soot pigment to represent exhaust grime, the main concern are the sides, trucks, pilot, and fuel tank skirt.