One item that I’ve noticed that can mess up an otherwise nicely weathered car, is the black plastic wheels. Do any of you more experienced modelers paint them, or is it better to spend the cash on metal alloy wheels? Or replace the entire truck?
My thought was to coat the exterior side with silver nail polish, or chrome paint and then to weather in some rust and grime, but will it last, or will it end up peeled all over my ballast?
Any input appreciated.
In case no one mentioned it…A hearty Welcome to you![:D][#welcome][#welcome]
I always recommend switching over to metal wheels as soon as possible.
But regarding weathering:
Instead of an airbrush (which I do own) I use two tiny pill bottle containers that I load paint in. One I pour grime or dark gray. The other rust. I thin them 40% to create a “wash”. Using a thin paintbrush, I paint the sides of the wheels (wheelfaces) alternately with these two colors. I allow each coat to dry 2 minutes. I usually apply 3 to 4 coats as they are quite thin. The results look very nice and realistic.
I generally want the appearance of wheels that are not worn out but have seen several thousand miles of service in hot and cold weather.
Keep in mind the type of service the particular car is in. IE: For hopper cars that carry items like limestone or cement I prefer to mix up a grayish-white wash.
I use Polly Scale and ModelFlex acrylic paints and thin them with alcohol. If you use solvent based paint, thin with lacquer thinner. So far, I’ve had some pretty nice results, imho.[8D]
Hope this helps!
gabrial the plastic wheels also have a use on a layout— they can be used as a static display for a shop scene or as flat car/gondola loads. i personally use metal wheel sets
and weather them a rust color and leave the tread shiny, and once the whole car is weathered everything is sealed with dull cote
tom
Some passenger car wheels would end up silver (like Santa Fe), green or other various colors. The Santa Fe got real sloppy towards the end with it’s passenger equipment and you can even see the silver overspray on many of it’s passenger locomotives in photos.
Wow, thanks for the fast replies. I’ll look into buying some all metal trucks. I’m wanting to add lighting to my little “olde tyme” passenger cars, so metal has an added bonus.
fp45 i will have to try your technique painting the wheelsets.after all these years i have only painted the trucks generally with a just a brush.gabrial you will be much happier with the metal wheelsets.they won’t pick up as much dirt(gunk) and they sound a lot better than the plastic wheelsets.metal trucks are fine i guess as many people use them and i use to also but i switched over to the slippery derlin type plastic truck many many years ago.have fun.terry…
[#welcome] to the forum. I see you joined almost a year ago but apparently didn’t post until recently. Don’t be a stranger.
Good luck on finding all metal trucks. I don’t think anyone makes them anymore. But that’s not bad; the super slippery Delrin or other “engineering plastic” trucks available today have much better detail than the all metal trucks we used to get (except the old Central Valley passenger trucks – they deserved their premium prices). And putting metal wheel sets in these slippery trucks will give you a very free rolling truck. You’ll find grades where you thought you had laid level track.
I agree with all of the above comments on painting wheels. I apply Floquil grimy black with a small brush and then washes of black/rust/mud/cement as appropriate. I would also add that you want to be careful not to get paint on the wheel treads or the journals (the pointed axle ends). You will anyway so keep a couple of Q-tips handy to wipe the paint off before it dries. After the paint dries, the edge of a wooden ice cream stick works well but is a whole lot more work.
One problem with these slippery plastic trucks is that most anything you use to weather them won’t stick very well. I’ve started spraying the truck first with Krylon Matte Finish (Dull Cote would probably work as well) BEFORE I weather the truck. The casein paint and weathering powders I use then seem to adhere a lot better.
Chuck
Metal trucks are still produced and easy to find for both freight and pax cars. You will have a much better selection with plastic trucks, though
I would certainly go with metal wheels if you can, though I still have my share of plastic wheels on my own layout. I wouldn’t mess with painting the treads of plastic wheels silver, as the noticability would probably be low and the mess they would make on your track would be high I would think. A more noticeable difference would come in painting the viewable sides of the wheels a grimy rust color. Unless you are looking at brand new cars, you never see prototype wheels that are silver or black on the sides. They are always rusty and dirty. I don’t try to air bru***hese. I just mix a little paint and dab a small brush in and swish it around inside the wheel.
Ron
You have to go with medal wheels. Medal cost more but are worth the money. They not only look good when the sides are weathered but help in performance as well. Plus the plastic wheels create drag and I’ve even heard that they attract dust. I buy Intermountain wheels by the bulk and paint them right out of the box. It’s easier that way. Stick with metal wheels with metal shafts. The plastic shafts tend to warp.
I think that if all of us had a money tree we would go with Athearn Genesis Trucks for I think that they look the best but they run about $14 a pair. I just stick with the cars brand trucks. Once painted they’ll look great. I paint with grime and rust colors, and then use chalks to touch up with more rust.
I wonder if anyone has tried useing a weathering chemical like the one sold by Micro Engineering to weather metal wheels. (I guess it’s like tool black or gun black). I figure if it works on rails, it should work on wheels. Should leave nice silver treads after a while of running. Anybody try this?
I came across this photo of a painting jig. My appology, to the unknown person who made this, that I’m not able to give them credit.
gsetter-That’s a neat idea. Thanks!
Painting aside, I also noted you intend to add interior lighting. Might I make a suggestion ? …
Use plastic trucks and metal wheels with metal axles (I think it’s Jay-Bee that makes them). One wheel is mounted solid to the metal axle and the opposite wheel is insulated. Alternate the insulated wheels in each truck. This way, the required “wiper” to pick up the power from the rails to the car is on the axle and not the wheel treads.
Mark.
Ditch the plastic and use metal wheel sets.
Keep the paint off any part of the wheels that touches the rail – keeps gunk (ie paint) off the rails and on the real rolling stock would be clean from friction anyway.
I keep 3 or 4 bottles of various acrylic rust colored paints on hand for painting the wheel faces of all rolling stock (including locos). I use it full strength. All the washes and stuff may look great from 6 inches away, but from 3 feet away basically unnoticable, for me time better spent elseware.
I personally wouldn’t worry about plastic versus metal wheels unless a car is giving you some kind of trouble, (pass. cars excepted if they’re going to be lit of course). Of the 400+ cars on my layout, only 30% have metal wheels. Getting the cars all weighted, KD’d and free-rolling is most important. JMHO.
For the above use, square off the axle ends (cut or file off the pointed ends).
Mark
I brush paint the faces of the wheels grimy black. Then I mask off the axle bearings in the plastic trucks with tape and spray the entire truck with red auto body primer. It dries dead flat and looks just like the prototype trucks which are just rusted steel. Then I mask the sides of the car with tape and spray the undercarriage with gray auto primer. This hides the weight from view, and blends the undercarriage details. Together this paint regime kills the plastic gloss and makes a decided improvement in the looks of the car.
I like metal wheels, the bright shiny tread is right, looks good and costs money. If cost were no object, my entire fleet would have metal wheels. As it is, maybe 10% of my cars are metal and the rest run on the plastic they were born with.
My local hobby store ha a package of 12 metal wheels for 9.
You may have to use the truck there but swap the wheel, that’s not too hard. And be sure to check your stock of wheels. there are 33s and 36s for freight and pasenger respectively, and you don’t wanna have to go back and buy 30,000 wheels like I have too…
This is excellent advice, but I have to add, check the weight load of the freight car also. Many model cars in the 90 to 100 ton range mistakenly (or negligently) are sold with 33" wheels; they should be 36". Cars in the 70 ton range should generally have 33" wheels. Some intermodal cars have 28" wheels.
Ray