Do they have them in a bigger size instead of those small 3 oz. spray cans?
No. You can get dull & gloss cote in a bottle and use a thinner to shoot them thru an airbrush (much more economical).
Another option is Krylon’s clear flat. I have not had any probs withit attacking paint (acrylics or enamels - as long as they’re fully dried) or plastics. The Krylon does require a longer curing tiime than Dullcote (a good 24 hours).
Wal-mart and many LHS’s sell matte-finish. It comes in a spray can the size as the large spray paint cans. Good substitute for Dull-Cote. Make sure your decals are well seated or they’ll fall to pieces. Ask me how I know.
Great idea about DULL COTE (Air brush) and KRYLON Satin. Another idea why pay 5.50 for a small can of Floquil RAIL BROWN, GRIMY BLACK, etc. when down at WALLY WORLD you can buy 99 cent spray paint that will weather rail great.
Question, You can you a spray paint can to paint the railroad ties brown? If so how do you clean the rail??
Thanks
Go to WalMart and try Patricia Nimocks’ Matte Finish. It works very well.
What do you use as a thinner for the bottled testors dullcote?What proportions are good for airbrushing?
I’ve spray painted my track with rail brown from a spray can while the track was positioned on the layout (no senery was down yet, just some foam board under the track in places for elevation changes). I have not yet cleaned the entire track yet, but have done some spot testing and the paint appears to comes off the rails easy enough with a Brite Boy and a little elbow grease. The beauty of spraying the track in place is that when you lift it up the silohette left on the layout is a perfect marking showing where to glue down cork roadbed. The trickest part was that I had used Peco flex track and turnouts and had soldered all the joints before hand. My layout is small (40" x 60"; hopefully the first of a few modules that will be strung together), so I was able to slip strips of cardboard under the painted track, attach it to the carboard with masking tape (to keep the track’s shape), then slid two long poles between the layout surface and perpendicular to the cardboard strips and, with my wife, lift the track up and off like we were carrying a patient. Btw, this spray painting in place to get a silohette idea came from one of Kalmbach’s how to books (the one that walks you thourgh building an n-scale layout start to finish), although they used set track pieces so removal for them was easy (they just disassembled all the pieces after painting them and later reassebled them after the cork was in place). If you want more info, let me know.
The bottle of Dullcote should specify what thinner to use. I use laquer thinner or floquil diosol at about 50/50. Make sure to use a mask (for your face) and in a well ventilated area.
Thanks for your imput I’ll be trying this tonight
MRB
One thing worth adding to what I said above: it’s probably best that you mask the turnout points and hinges (don’t think that’s the right term, but you probably know what I mean) to ensure that the spray paint doesn’t gum up operation --this was important for me bacause I’m using Peco electro-frog turnouts and need them to route power. These masked areas can be painted by hand later.
Yes. Simply coat the tops of the rails with a light oil ("3 in 1’ or something similar). Paint, let dry and the paint and oil will wipe off of the railheads easily. Be sure to mask off all switch point ends and contacts.
You may want to spray ties and rail sides a rusty brown as above, and after it dries use artists acrylics and a 1/2" bru***o stain the ties between the rails a darker shade. It goes quite quickly. Use a bit of black (for oil stains) and grey (for old ties) here and there.
Testors makes their own thinner. I would not recommend laquer thinner unless you are used to spraying Floquil, laquer thinner can craze plastic if it goes on too wet. I would recommend you use mineral spirits (hardware store), if you can’t find the Testors thinner.
The proportion I use is about 60-70% paint to 40-30% thinner.
As far as painting track, I wait until the trackwork for a section is done and it’s all glued or nailed down and all the power drops have been soldered.
I have painted track with everything from spray cans, acrylics with an airbru***o hand painting.
I usually wait to clean the track until after I finish ballasting, (so I only have to do it once), then use paint thinner on a rag to wipe the rails down and finish up with a brightboy and some elbow grease. I pretreat points with a little oil on a cotton swab and wipe them off with another swab when done.
Krylon matte finish. $4.00 for 12oz can. I use it on everything and have never mess up a decal or paint finish with it. I think it is more dull looking than Testors dull coat.IMHO