Over the past few weeks I have been trying to paint some of those life-like 70s-80s Ford Trucks for an Autorack. A few weeks ago, I was painting a group, then as I walked away I heard some rustling and a thud… A squirrel had fallen out of a tree and landed onto the trucks. Not only was the paint wet, it cracked the roof of 1, and another one got stuck to it.
I couldn’t do any painting last week due to rain, but I tried again today before the Packer’s game. Got it all going well, I painted 6 today, put an Accurail 4750 kit together during commercial breaks and “bonus coverage.” I came back out, one of the 6 trucks is missing and another one is knocked off the newspaper I painted it on, again and of course squirrel tracks in the paint.
Is there anything I can put in the area to keep the squirrels away? I have 2 dogs, but it’s not working. Just though I’d ask if anyone has any ideas.
Try mothballs, most animals hate the smell of mothballs. It is also a good way to keep your cat(s) off the layout. Of course you may want to remove them when you are running trains, unless you don’t mind the smell.[W]
Do the trucks have to stay outdoors once they’re painted? Unless you’re using lacquer-based paints and want to keep the odour out of the house, indoors will likely provide a cleaner environment, without wind-blown dust and insects getting stuck on the still-wet paint. Most model paints are dry to the touch within minutes, if not seconds.
I’m not too crazy about squirrels either, and if I lived in the country would likely just shoot them. We have a lot of grey squirrels and black ones, along with chipmunks, but the most destructive ones are the red squirrels. They’ve eaten through the walls of my century-old garage more than once, and they get into everything. Chipmunks especially like to nest in your vehicle, too and my daughter payed a lot of cash to get the wiring on her SUV re-done after much of it was destroyed by squirrels. According to the repair guy, it’s a fairly common problem, as the insulation on the wires is soy-based and, to an animal with a squirrel-size brain, that smells like food.
I use rat traps for the chipmunks and red squirrels, but regular grey or black squirrels don’t seem to be susceptible, and I’m told that their skulls are too hard to be much affected by such traps. If you have dogs, the traps should be where the dogs can’t get to them.
Those tuscan and boxcar brown colors taste a lot like pecan and walnut. Squirrels love the taste of the stuff. They’re broken into the garage twice and then the last time it was teenage squirrels who were about 3 times as crazed as the older ones. As I watched them pull out their cellphones and start taking selfies, it was kinda cute, but it turned out they were just inviting every squirrel in the neighborhood over. What a mess![banghead]
Well, not really. Whether you think of them as tree rats, north of where I’m from in southern Indiana or as tree chickens, as folks think of them south of down home, the [soapbox] puny balls of fur can trash your layout, painted parts, whatever. Heavy wire, welded wire, or plain ol’ brick is what keeps 'em out, don’t trust chicken wire for more than temporary duty in case of squirrel emergency.
Per Wayne’s suggestion, I concur, get quiker drying paint. Excellent spray results, too, with Krylon. I only use Rustoleum for colors I can’t get in Krylon locally and even then I think twice, because I know I’ll be waiting. Still good stuff, but if you need fast drying paint, krylon is worth a try.
It’ll dry so fast you can usually just wait until it visibly dries and come on in. It’s the first few minutes that most evaps, but that can bee too much if a chem-sensitive person has to share the air. Do you have a garage you can set the painted but still drying stuff in?
Wait, you left the painted vehicles to dry outside under a tree?
Lots of things likes seeds or leaves can fall from trees onto fresh painted surfaces, not just squirrels, and just as likely flying decendants of T-Rex’s cousins can release “liquid waste”, which doesn’t help model finishes.
Bring the finished painted models indoor as soon as you can, or at least cover them with a barrel or basket or something…
I used to do painting outside. Never had a squirrel get into my models, but I did once have one come up and sit right next to me an inspect my work. I’ll have to upload the picture I took, a very photogenic little guy. You’ve seen those videos/photos where a dog licks the lense? That’s how close this squirrel was.
earlier this year in the spring I was sitting in the kitchen of my house building a Cornerstone kit. Heard some rustling behind me, and to my surprise there was a squirrel (my house needs a lot of work). Next day sat on the porch for half the day with a .22 and solved the squirrel problem.
I’m going to agree with everyone who said to bring everything inside to dry. Also, have you tried using a hair dryer to speed up the process of drying the paint? It works fairly well. And I remember an aside from MR years ago in which it was said Jim Six has been known to use a microwave to dry paint jobs.
As for squirrels, you can always hope a bird of prey moves into your neighborhood.
To keep them off freshly-painted models, your best bet is to cover the models with a cage, basket, laundry hamper, whatever.
We have ground squirrels here that have given us trouble on a few occasions. Damaged wiring in both our cars, digging up my outdoor layout, piling dirt on the tracks, etc. I trapped a few but found that rat bait was more effective.
I’d also just bring stuff inside. I’m an apartment dweller without so much as a patio or balcony, so I do my outside painting by a dumpster. The items go into the bathroom with the window open and the door closed to dry. No smell seems to get into the rest of the place. Plus side: if its too cold to open the window or too humid to open the window, its bad conditions to paint anyhow.