I have six Rivarossi heavyweight cars and two Rapido smoothside cars. They are all just a bit too shiny for my era. I was thinking of just dull coating them but I wonder how the window glazing would look afterwords. The thought of masking each window doesn’t fare well with my clumsy hands.
Any ideas? Could I achieve a duller look with chalks or a weak stain? The streamliners are supposed to be shiny but the heavyweights should be well worn but clean.
Well, you could try to dull down the glossy color with powder pastels, but it won´t hold properly until you coat it - back to the issue of masking the windows again.
Maybe you can dismantle the cars down to the shell and then dull coat them?
Often on the Rivarossi cars the roof and the windows were molded in one piece which snaps into slots in the floor. If you are careful and pry the tabs from the underside and pull on the roof, you should get it off. Then you can dull coat the car body and when dry, snap the combined roof/window insert back in. (The combined roof/window insert is molded clear with only the roof painted.) If you do break one or two of the snap tabs, don’t fret, as there should be enough to hold the roof on. The insert provides support for the car body as without it, the shell will flex and the roof will have a noticable gap above the car walls. (Unfortunately, this might happen anyway especially on Bachmann Spectrum cars.)
I would use some chalk to at least weather the trucks, underbody and steps before painting on your dullcoat. The steps and stirrups were orignally painted black or the car body color but over time they might turn to a dust/mud or even rusty color.
I am not familiar with the Rapido smoothside cars but hopefully the windows can be removed for painting.
In my experience (I’ve painted several of these), the approach wabash indicates is the correct one to follow. It’s not all that difficult to separate the roof and windows section from the main car body so that it can be painted…just use reasonable care.
CNJ831