I want to repait some of my diesel locomotives, I do have a little k-line switcher that I think will be a good way to start, and make sure I do it ok. First of all, is it a special paint you have to use? Or can it be just simple hardware store spray paint? I want to do this engine with CSX colors (YN3, since its just 2 colors). Any suggestions on what paint to use?
Thanks,
Grayson
The most important tning is to get all of the graphics off of the loco before re-painting.If you don’t the previous markings will show through.You can use most paints as long as you primer the pieces first.This will keep the paint from crazing the plastic and assure a uniform coverage.Take your time and let the pieces dry completely (at least a couple of days) before handling the pieces.It takes longer but will result in superior work.
Ed
You can get actual railroad colors in bottles or spray cans from Weaver.
Don’t paint heavy coats or the paint will fill in details molded in the plastic.
Soaking the body in brake fluid will usually remove all the existing graphics and paint. When down to the bare bass wash with warm soapy water.
You cannot use just any paint…unless starting from bare plastic with the primer. If you use acrylic enamel based spray paint, the vehicle (Thinner) the paint is in will likely eat into the paint your covering up. Latex paints are available and may work for a cover up job but still test first.
Roland
Grayson, first you might try doing an advanced search here on repainting as this topic has been discussed by me and others at great length.
Sounds like this is a first time project for you. In that case, you have selected a somewhat tough paint scheme for a first attempt as you will need to make paint masks. You don’t say what kind of K-Line switcher this is: the MP-15 and S-2’s will be far easier to do than the Plymouth switcher, since the Plymouth has a lot more added details that will need to be carefully removed.
A brief summary of what I have said before in other threads:
A) You will want to strip the paint and lettering off your current shell. Various things will work depending on how your original was painted: Isopropyl alochol, original formula PineSol or automotive brake fluid. Just as a side note, MTH shells are very troublesome to strip if not almost impossible. After stripping, you need to clean the shell with warm soapy dish detergent.
B) There are a number of commercial spray paints that are plastic friendly and some that are not. Rustoleum is not, not until you prime the loco first. Krylon makes an advertised plastic safe paint, as well as some others types that still are safe like Krylon Short-Cuts. Spray-N-Go, Perfect Paint, PlasticKote (in the small cans, non-automotive) are several that come to mind without looking. And there’s also the Weaver marked colors mentioned by Jefelectric aboove - and they come in spray cans too. You will want to prime the shell first so that it is opaque, and primer also helps the final coats of paint to adhere better. Once you completely cover the plastic train shell with a PLASTIC SAFE primer, then you can go ahead and use something like Rustoleum.
C) When doing multi-color schemes, you need to do the light colors first. Paint masks can be made using a good quality masking tape and plastic. A trick to help minimalize paint fuzz is once you have the paint mask on after the yellow has dried, is to then spray yellow on agai
[quote user=“brianel027”]
Grayson, first you might try doing an advanced search here on repainting as this topic has been discussed by me and others at great length.
Sounds like this is a first time project for you. In that case, you have selected a somewhat tough paint scheme for a first attempt as you will need to make paint masks. You don’t say what kind of K-Line switcher this is: the MP-15 and S-2’s will be far easier to do than the Plymouth switcher, since the Plymouth has a lot more added details that will need to be carefully removed.
A brief summary of what I have said before in other threads:
A) You will want to strip the paint and lettering off your current shell. Various things will work depending on how your original was painted: Isopropyl alochol, original formula PineSol or automotive brake fluid. Just as a side note, MTH shells are very troublesome to strip if not almost impossible. After stripping, you need to clean the shell with warm soapy dish detergent.
B) There are a number of commercial spray paints that are plastic friendly and some that are not. Rustoleum is not, not until you prime the loco first. Krylon makes an advertised plastic safe paint, as well as some others types that still are safe like Krylon Short-Cuts. Spray-N-Go, Perfect Paint, PlasticKote (in the small cans, non-automotive) are several that come to mind without looking. And there’s also the Weaver marked colors mentioned by Jefelectric aboove - and they come in spray cans too. You will want to prime the shell first so that it is opaque, and primer also helps the final coats of paint to adhere better. Once you completely cover the plastic train shell with a PLASTIC SAFE primer, then you can go ahead and use something like Rustoleum.
C) When doing multi-color schemes, you need to do the light colors first. Paint masks can be made using a good quality masking tape and plastic. A trick to help minimalize paint fuzz is once you have the paint mask on after the yellow has dried, is to
Don’t just use any paint. There are paints out there for plastics. I recently restored 2 sante fe 2343’s with Krylon Fusion paint that is specific for plastics. It worked great for me. I went right over the old stuff so I didn’t strip and use primer…but the easy off oven cleaner thing worked on some other pieces i had and didn’t harm the plastic at all.
Masking tape is ok for some things but I use car detail/ pin striping. It is superior in every way(except price, about $7). You can bend it in almost a full circle and the crisp line it makes will make you glad you didn’t mess with masking tape.
Good luck
Any color is better than CSX colors. [;)][(-D] Here is a switcher that was CSX and now the great Norfolk Southern Stallion.
Sure looks a lot better NS than CSX. [(-D] Send me an email and I will tell you how I convert them.
Hey aurora, good idea on the substitute for masking tape. But I have used all the paints I usggested and all work on all plastics (except Rustoleum, without using a plastic safe primer first) I have repainted, including trains, Plasticville and K-Lineville buildings.
The reason I strongtly suggest a primer is two-fold: it will help with final coat paint adhesion and even coating, and it prevents light from shining through illuminated items like a locomotive shell. Lionel in the past used colored plastic, but K-Line used white styrene. Light colors like yellow, orange, red, and white will allow light to glow through the shell.
I haven’t used the Krylon Plastic Fusion paint yet, but others here have and say they like it. But in my experience, without stripping first is that logos, hearlds and lettering from the previous paint scheme WILL show though on your new paint job with a slightly raised area where the old lettering, logos were.
My experience on the K-Line S-2’s is that the old lettering will also show through without stripping first.
So I strip the paint first, the add primer, and then paint whith plastic safe paint, right?
Yes, Grayson, in a nutshell that’s it. You do need to wash the shell after stripping, or if you should decide not to strip it, before you begin any painting. Now I don’t know what S-2 shell you have. Some of the older ones had shells in molded color, which helps with the opaque/translucent issue. But those older S-2’s also had a deep channel between the side hood doors. K-Line later modified the shell to fill in this channel which made decoration for them much easier… and will make decaling much easier for you.
If you have one of these older shells, I’d strongly suggest using some Plastruct styrene to fill in some of the depth of those channels between the side hood doors. The window insert doesn’t come out of most very easily: try banging the shell against your hand or a padded ch
www.csxmodelrailroading.com/csx%20yn3%20c44.jpg
Brianel, that picture is paint scheme I’m talking about. Its called YN3 or “Dark Future”. Thanks for the help Brian, I think Ill try it on a car first, and then try to do it on a switcher.
Chief, nice repaint, I do like NS, they do have a yard in Savannah, but im a CSX guy. I have a friend thats a NS supervisor for Norfolk, recentely lived in Savannah. Nice guy, he said that NS has the most wrecks and collisions than any other railroad, mainly because alot of there engineers and conductors are new and not experienced, and thats coming from a NS employee!! [:D]
NS: Destroying America CSX: Building the future [;)] [(-D]
Grayson
Looks like the Chief defaced a perfectly good CSX Engine with Norfolk & Sufferin paint & markings again![;)][;)][:P][:o)] Take Care.
i paint engines for mth for their catalog and we use automotive paints , acrylic enamels. but for what you want to do i would choose polly scale paint with a nice airbrush. the colors i would use for the dark future scheme are missouri blue with a little yellow in it and the yellow would be cand o yellow.
Some folks. [;)]
Really Chief? I didnt know you loved CSX! [;)]
Isnt it past your bedtime? [:D]
Hey Grayson, I read elsewhere on this forum that you’re a teen. Hey great, and I want to encourage you, so I hope I wasn’t harsh with my advice. I want to see you do the job right, but you also might not have the same amounts of discretionary money to spend on train projects that some of the “grown-ups” (go ahead and laugh at some of us, we don’t mind) might have.
If you have more specific questions about kinds of paint, decals etc. feel free to drop me a line via this forum through my email or ask 'em right here. I remember doing my first repaint project when I was a teenager - and it’s not like I had lots of money to spend on it. Be kinda cool if I still had that loco today so I could see how well I did back then.
I didn’t know half then what I know now. I’m sure I never stripped the shell back then. I do remember it was a late 1950’s postwar Alco of some kind. Couldn’t have been too valuable as I bought it on my allowance. I remember too I did it in Lehigh Valley and I remember being pretty darn proud of it too.
Here’s some links to help you out.
http://www.railgraphicsdecals.com/Rail_Graphics_Decals_Generic_Data_Sets.htm
These guys make some great data sets. They make them by order so you can get some other colors like yellow for CSX freight cars. The 0 scale work very good, but for some of the smaller 027 kinds of cars or flat cars, having a set of S scale is mighty handy.
http://www.mgdecals.com/frtlistbystk.htm
This company makes some neat sets not done by Microscale. I have found over the years, that you can use HO sets made for larger cars or locos for smaller 0 guage cars.
http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT
There’s the Microscale website. There’s a
