How do you paint and weather your trucks and wheels?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
21

I been using paint pens for around four years with no issues. Like a fine brush you clean the tip when you finish the job…

22

Larry:

How do you clean your paint pen tips?

Thanks

Dave

23

Larry, it wuz a monstrosity of a brush, besides while she isn’t a chef like Gordon Ramsey, I much prefer Nigella Lawson.[:P][bow]
Dave, sorry for going off track.
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]

24

Bear, like you, I am not offended by people adding some spice to my threads[Y], but thank you very much for being considerate.

I’d take Nigella over Ramsey any day of the week!!![Y][Y][swg] I think I’d have a hard time just being in the same room as him. I dislike nasty people enormously no matter how skilled they are. I’d rather have a bad meal from a good person than a good meal from him.

There! Rant over!!

All the best,

Dave

25

I pour a tad of thinner into a lid and dip the tip of the pen into the thinner and wipe clean with a shop towel.

And guys,I prefer Rachael Ray over Ramsey. She doesn’t go into fits like Gordon.

26

Thanks Larry.

Ya, Rachael Rae is good! Her recipes are much more ‘North American’ than Nigella’s so they are easier to relate to. We buy her cooking magazines all the time.

Dave

27

Sorry to go off topic here but I don’t watch cooking shows (though I did kind of enjoy the original Iron Chefs from Japan back in the day). I remove the trucks from the car and the wheels from the trucks and use a brush with acrylics. That seems to work fine with the Delrin; I have to touch up metal wheel faces from time to time but can’t remember the last time I had to touch up a truck. Prototype practice as to sideframe color varied in my era ('60s); if I don’t have prototype info my normal default is to match plain “boxcar red” or brown cars but to use dark grey (never pure black) on those bright Burlington reds or NYC jade greens. I don’t bother painting the backs of the sideframes as they’re virtually invisible in operation. For wheel faces, axles, and backs I use a dark grey or “grimy black” base with varied amounts of dirt and rust colored powder weathering, to keep things in sync with the car’s overall weathering and to avoid having them all look exactly the same. I have an airbrush and could use it, but prefer not to, even when doing a batch of wheels. Setup and cleanup with an airbrush is quite time consuming, plus it puts paint in places where you don’t want it, such as wheel faces, axle points, and axle pockets. Oh, and I can definitely endorse the idea posted earlier about using an old paint brush handle to hold the trucks while I’m painting them.

28

CNSF

Thanks for bringing us back on topic![Y]

I like your ideas, especially about not using the airbrush. I’ll have to give your method and doctorwayne’s (with an airbrush) a try to see which works better for me.

Thanks

Dave

29

Hey, guys, I seem to remember reading (in MR, of course), 'way back when, that real life rules forbid painting couplers and wheels because paint will cover up cracks, which often can be spotted before they get too severe. That being said, I usually airbrush my old-time trucks with grimy black, cutting strips of masking tape to cover the treads (paint will usually migrate from wheel treads to the railheads, don’t you know)–but of course, I model in O scale. Also, I figure anything is better than black plastic–and as I said in my stream, acrylic paint does stick pretty well, even on Delrin and other “slippery” plastic. Have Fun!

Deano

30

I have read that also about not painting the wheels couplers, so they can see cracks. When i was in the miltary they did NDI inspections on the aircraft, which was just a protable x- ray machine. One time using a truck that serviced liquid nitrogen to the plane i had the hose connection was leaking around the bend in it. We could not see any cracks, so we took over to the place that did the inspection, they diped it in some dye and ran it through some machine you could see the crack all around the connection. It was neat to me, cant remember what they called that process.

31

[#offtopic] again!!! [:$]

Gidday fourt, I suspect that you are referring to a Magnaflux Magnetic Particle Inspection Machine.
Cheers, the Bear

32

OK, while we are off topic (and having a good discussion I might add), I had a rather disconcerting experience with structural cracks in a C-130 Hercules transport. I was supposed to fly from the Canadian Forces base at Lahr, Germany to Sweden, and the Swedish Air Force had sent a C-130 Hercules transport to take us there. We waited on the tarmac for what seemed like hours before being allowed to board the plane. After we were airborne one of the crew apologised for the delay. He explained that they had discovered some cracks in the main wing strut and had to figure out if the plane was still safe to fly! We made it so apparently they were right.

[#offtopic][#offtopic][#offtopic][#offtopic]

Hey! Its my thread and I will do what I want!!![:o)]

Dave

33

Magnaflux Magnetic Particle Inspection Machine. That does sound right. i thought it was a neat thing.

Cracks in the wing spar/strut not good, as it is what holds all the weight/strength of the wing. Suprized they let the C-130 fly. Belive the Air Force C-141 was retired early because of that proeblm. I worked on the C-5 myself.

34

Dave I brush paint the trucks and wheels weathered black or grimy black. I use a wheel mask since I paint the backs and axles of the wheels. I then dry brush the trucks with various shades of rust. You can also use some oily black if you want.

35

K4s_PRR,

Thanks for sharing your method.

Dave

36

I’ve had problems keeping paint from flaking off the delrin trucks when benging them outward to remove and/or inserte wheelsets. You can do all the weathering operations with wheels in the trucks, but you will need to remove paint from wheel treads before it dries. to do this, I apply a little solvent to a paper towell, lay it over a piece of flextrack, and run trucks (wheels) back and forth over the solvent until the paint is removed from the wheel treads.

As an alternative, you can use a toothbruch and cleanser (grit) to rough up the delrin prior to painting. That seems to help alot.

37

I agree with your comment about how much detail some of the “cheap train set“ stuff. After stripping some AHM, Tyco, Bachmann, etc I’ve noticed far more detail than originally visible. They must’ve used really thick paint “back in the day”.

Im taking care to repaint with thin coats. So far the spray bomb primers have left much detail exposed.