I’ve come to the forum with some questions about painting a locomotive. I have seen pictures of some of the awesome work you guys do, and would really appreciate any and all suggestions you may have. I have read some of the earlier posts on painting but I’m still a little confused.
A little back round, I have a Paasche single action model H airbrush which I use for weathering rolling stock and buildings and I am fairly comfortable with it and will use it for this project.
This time I’m going to be painting my first loco a Spectrum GP30 that is now in UP colors and changing it to the Arizona and California color scheme. Hopefully the picture which is my first attempt at posting one will show you the new colors.
Due to health issues I will be using Poly Scale water based paint.
My concerns are:
Should I primer first and if so at what ratio as I don’t want to loose too much detail with a thick coat of primer?
Seeing the paint scheme is green white green what would be the best procedure for painting it, such as all green and add the white afterwards or tape off the white area and paint the green then come back and tape off the green area and paint the white?
Last is I’ve used DuPont blue tape in the past for masking and really haven’t had much success from keeping the colors from bleeding along the edges any secrets to making a clean sharp edge?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me and I’ll post some pictures Good, Bad or Ugly when I’m done.
First thing - Strip the old paint off the model with 91% isopropyl or something like Scalecoat II ‘Wash Away’ or Floquil ELO(Easy Lift Off).
With your air brush, spray on Polly Scale primer or a medium gray so you get an even coat of grey over the entire model. You do not want bare black plastic showing. Your lighter colors will not cover exposed areas very well.
Then air brush the white on an let it dry overnight. I usually is 3M blue tape to mask. I lay out the tape on a glass surface plate I purchased and cut it with a new #11 Xacto blade. Once the model is masked, spray a light coat of your white over the masking seams to ‘seal’ them.
You can then spray the green about 30 minute late. Clean up your air brush and peel the tape off. Microscale #87-825 is a set of decals for engines. Make sure you spay the model with gloss before decal application, and a satin finish after the decals are set.
Great ! Thanks PVRich for asking this, as I didn’t prime my last attempt, painted over the bare black body shell, and luckily I was using a dark blue, so it came out ok, but the gray I tried to use on the cabs didn’t, as it took lots of coats. I also have a future project where I will be painting a couple of GP15’s, about the same scheme as yours, a little different shade of green, for the Wisconsin Northern.
Thanks Jim for the lesson ! I never thought about “sealing” the tape with a light coat of paint ! I do trim the factory edge off the tape, burnish real good, and I still have some minor problems, which I touch up with a tiny brush afterwards.
are you supposed to glosscote before decals? I always glosscote after. this was a brush painted model one with far more forgiving colors than my SP&S ones, My cousin gave me a trick for yellow paint and that’s to put a coat of brown on before the yellow.
If you want to eliminate,trimming the,‘‘factory edge off the tape’’,use #218 Scotch,3M, Fine Line Tape,available at Auto Parts and Auto Paint suppliers… Works like a charm…
Re: quality tape… the Tamiya brand masking tape is pretty good and leaves a nice sharp edge. It’s designed for masking models for paiting and is available at most well-stocked hobby shops that carry plastic models and a good selection of paint type supplies.
In addition to much of the above(good post Jim) I would consider a white primer. Many people forget to seal their tape, kind of a hassle but important. I have “sealed with a brush&thinned paint” to try and save air brush clean up. Not always practical though depending on if the brush can leave marks,etc.
Jim, Thanks for all the great information. I live in Prescott AZ and have seen this engines and others a couple of times on my way to California going down the backway to interstate 10. So I decided to give the ARZC trackage rights to my switching layout. I thought I would check Microscale and see if I could make up some engine decals and to my surprise Microscale had a set for the ARZC, thats how this whole thing got started.
I bought two old tired tyco GP looka likes, I’m going to practice on those first so I don’t screw up the Spectrum on my first try.
