painting brass cabooses (cabeese?)

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I will soon be painting two brass cabooses. I have done a fair amount of air brushing over the years but have never tackled any brass items. Any suggestions? Tips? Cautions?

2

Hello Roger,

This really isn’t much different than painting other kinds of models. Here’s how I’d proceed:

  1. Take car of coupler mounting, truck adjustments, and any other mechanical or detail questions before painting. For cabooses especially, check that the backsides of all the widows present a flat surface where you can attach glazing to finish the car. Then disassemble the car as far as possible – usually this will be just the carbody, floor, trucks, and couplers.

  2. Wash all the brass parts in hot water with dish detergent, scrubbing with an old, soft toothbrush. You want to remove all oil, dust, and fingerprints. Let the parts air dry.

  3. Before spraying a light color – including most bright reds – apply an overall neutral gray undercoat. You’ll get a better rendition of the final color with fewer coats of paint needed for full coverage.

  4. If you have to paint two or more colors because soldered parts can’t be detached, let each color dry thoroughly before masking, then use blue painters masking tape. I stretch the tape out on a sheet of glass and cut sharp edges with a no. 11 blade and a steel rule. Lifting the tape off the glass removes some of its tackiness, so it’s less likely to lift paint off the model.

Once the car is painted, finishing and lettering are done exactly as fo

3

The only thing I may add is that after painting a lot of brass over the years Scalecoat paint is an amazing paint for this medium. It really needs no primer, sprays beautifully and once baked has a finish almost as tough as what is on your car.

The baking is what scares most people away from painting brass. But actually this is easy and very advantageous. Once you have completed your final coats and cleaned your brush it should be dry enough to put on a baking pan. However check it at this point for overspray problems. Here is another advantage of Scalecoat, you can fix overspray at this point with Windex and a Qtip. When you are sure it looks good put it in the oven at its lowest setting 170 and bake it for an hour. Let it cool and it will have a beautiful glossy tough finish.

SB