Detailing and Decaling

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Ok so I need to paint and decal my locomotives, the painting part is easy but the decaling… not so much. I need to add 45 degree stripping to the nose and the rear of the locomotive but im not really sure what to do about the grab irons, the number boards, and the headlamps. Do I remove the grab irons and cut out the number board and headlamp space then add new grab irons or is there a better way? Also a quick question about detailing, if I want to say add a nose bell or something that requires some hacking of the shell to add a detail part what do I use to fill in the small gaps between the detail part and the shell?

Don

2

First a question - are the grabirons already cast into the body or are they spearately applied wire details? If separate, the decal before applying. If cast on, either remove to apply separate grab irons or decal over them.

You can decal over the number board on the rear then either paint the numberboard background or apply a numberboard decal if there are not openings for the numberboards.

Regarding the nose bell, if you do things carefully there won’t be much of a gaps to be filled. You can use gap filling CA to fill small gaps. Larger gaps my require putty.