Is it safe to airbrush the moving gears on a steam loco? How do people weather these moving gears? I don’t want to have problems running my steam, but I want them to look like real steam locos.
I have read and searched thru the forum, but could not find an answere to this question. Any help would be appreciated.
Smitty
I beleive it’s OK. I don’t have any steamers, but there was an article on steamer weathering in GMR 2008 by David Popp and I beleive he used this method to weather steamers.[2c]
Your question isn’t stated clearly. Do you mean the gears in the drive train from the motor or the valve gear from the piston? If the latter the best way is to brush paint the valve gear and side rods. I would not want to get paint on the gearing from the motor. Generally it isn’t a good idea to airbrush anything that moves on a steam engine.
Use Neolube to weather your valve gears and sideframes, they’ll lokk and operate better than when you started!
I airbrush the running gear on steam locos, although I clip power leads to the motor so that everything is moving while I spray. I usually lube every pivot point, very sparingly, immediately after painting, but you could also do it before if you’re concerned about it seizing-up. I also clean (using lacquer thinner) and lube the crosshead guides immediately after painting. I’ve never had a problem doing it this way, and it’s easy to touch-up, using a brush, if required.
Wayne
You might try a magic marker![2c]
the only concern is stickyness, after painting lube them. Run the engine, any paint will get grinded/worn away.
Thanks all. That is exactly the answer I was looking for. I thought I saw someone airbrush their gears and such, but I wanted to make sure people actually do it that way b4 I tried it.
Smitty
A black Magic Marker on metal will tend to give a shiny brownish/black almost transparent color.
Ray