Sprayed the trucks Grimy Black, brush painted the rust on the couplers. A little tedious but it works well. If I prepaint a batch of ocupelrs I’d certainly spray them, but these are already installed. No stickign problem - just move them a few times after the paint dries and they work just like normal. I still have to do the air hose and glad hand part.
Before:
After (different car because I didn;t take pictures until AFTER I did this car):
While I was working, I heard a noise and looked down to find a new helper:
I’ve been brush painting couplers, wheel ends, and truck sideframes for years. I use Testor’s paint in the little square glass bottles. For the truck sideframes and wheel ends I apply a mix flat light brown and black, I use a rust colour for the coupler knuckle, and I use flat black for the wheel axles and coupler trip pins.
The coupler knuckles do get stuck after I paint them, but I move them back and forth several times to wear down the paint that is trapped in the coupler mechanism.
Painting truck sideframes a lighter colour sure makes a difference. You can tell what kind of trucks a freight car has just by glancing at it.
I brush-paint the wheels (both sides) and axles, and also the springs, whether they’re moulded or actual springs. For any of this, the trucks don’t even need to be removed from the car. The sideframes, along with the couplers, are weathered when the car is weathered.
For cars which actually need the trucks to be painted to match the prototype, I prefer to sandblast the sideframes with baking soda, then airbrush them with the desired colour. The wheels, springs and axles still get brush-painted:
I use a discarded bullet case and a home-made backing plate to paint wheels, they work fine for 33" wheels, but have to be modified for 36". If I get a couple more of these cases I could paint wheel faces at once. I use Rustoleum rusty metal primer out of the can for these:
I haven’t painted the backs yet because I may ad resistors for a signal system someday.
I paint the trucks a brown color. I’ve used Valspar brown and Rustoleum camo earth and a few other colors for the trucks. I put in a set of plastic wheelsets in the trucks so that I don’t have to use the truck tuner to clean out the paint.
Couplers get either the rusty metal primer or the brown I use on the trucks. Depending on the car I’ll do the underframes as well
Then I add pastels to both when I weather the car:
I paint my trucks rust red since t he prototype left them unpainted to make it easier to see cracks. They weathered out rust red. I brush paint the wheels grimy black or oily black.
I have an ongoing project to paint the trucks on ALL my cars. I have a ways to go yet.
