I wouldn’t want to guess how may plastic structure kits I have built over the years but I ran into a first today. The Walthers ADM concrete grain elevator kit has the window frames molded into the clear “glass” parts. With a tiny paint brush and as much care as I could muster I hand painted the frames but inevitably some of the windows got paint on them.
If you have encountered windows like these how did you paint the frames?
Cut out some small pieces of painters tape to cover the “window” section. Burnish them down nice and tight. Then make sure you don’t have a whole lot of paint on the brush and paint away from the tape (more parallel to the paint edge in this situation) to keep paint from bleeding under the tape.
Pretty much the same as you. If you use a water-based paint, you can simply rinse off the mistakes and try again, but that should be done as soon as you notice the mistake, as it dries very quickly. I used a fairly dark colour to match the colours used in the rest of the complex, so they’re not very noticeable. That colour was originally chosen to help de-emphasise the overly-heavy members of the windows in the structure in front.
Since mine was a kitbash, many of the kit’s flat walls, which were too small, weren’t used, but I was surprised to count 80 of those small windows.
If you keep the handle of the brush as close to parallel as possible with the object being painted, you may have more control over where the paint ends up. Also, make sure to rotate the window so that you’re painting only the side which is closest to the hand holding the brush - this keeps only the business-end of the brush over the work.
EDIT:
Gaaakkk!!! Your brush technique sounds good, but the bit about the tape…these are four pane windows. Cutting out and fitting 320 pieces of tape sounds too much like work. [(-D]
Wayne
This is ,without a doubt, my least favorite part of this hobby.
Another example is the Walthers’ Hiawatha Skytop Lounge - after being warned by a fellow hobbyist I ordered a pre-finished model for repaint as the windows on the domed rear of the car are molded into the shell. Even with the original to go by the repaint was a nightmare. I had hoped to use the Microscale Micro Mask but then found that when I went to trim it it would cling to my blade & pull off; in the end I had to do it by hand, with less than stellar results.
I usually just paint the frames with a enamel paint, like Humbrol or Testor model master. The places I miss is easily removed with a wooden tooth pick!
Graffen,
And Others,
I’m a pretty good hand painter of fine details, Military and most other Models, but the easiest and fastest way I found to color Mullion’s molded on the window glazing, is to use a Sharpie, black, fine point marker. The tip is fine, but I would call it bold. Works for me everytime. Most mullions were black anyway! That’s how I did my Walthers kit. If I do happen to go and make a mistake, I scrape it off with the tip of a #11 xacto blade, I have it down pat now. Just remember the ink is Permanent. It helps if you wash the parts with warm soapy water, to remove any mold release and finger prints first, so the ink grabs better.
Frank
Am I understanding this correctly?
The “glass” is already molded into the window frames?
I have never encountered this before.
I have built several structures where the window frames were molded into the walls but never where the glass was already in place. If that is the case, i wouldn’t even try to paint the window frames.
Rich
Walthers grain kit is like that. You still have to glue the glass in the walls, but the Mullions are molded into the glass.
Frank
Edit: This is the N-scale version. HO is the same. The door glass is clear. The small windows, have the mulions molded in the plastic:
https://www.walthers.com/instructions/0933/09330000003225.pdf
Wow. I would either avoid the kit or leave the mullions unpainted.
Rich
Most of the buildings I have don’t have glass in the windows so I tape around the outside and paint with a tiny brush. The few that have glass stay unpainted.
I believe when the ADM elevator was reviewed in MR, Jim Hediger used a ‘pink pearl’ eraser to ‘pad print’ the raised mullions, sounded like it worked fairly well by using this as a firm large flat surface to transfer paint Chris Morey
Sounds like the frames are part of the building. If that is so, maybe you could cut a piece of cardboard to fit over the window area, brush a little paint on it, glue a pc. of dowel on one side as a handle & use it as a pad to apply paint to the top of the mullions. They are small enough so you wouldn’t have to worry about the sides of the mullions. jerry
I recently had to paint the frames on the skylights for the Walthers REA freight house. I second the idea for the Sharpie. That’s how I did it with satisfactory results. The pad printing with an eraser sounds like a good idea that I’ll have to try next time.
Mark
Mark,
Thanks for the warning. I have two of the REA kits. I guess I’d better sharpen my sharpie. [:)]
Everyone,
Thanks for all of the suggestions and comments. To clarify for some of you, the clear plasticc windows are separate parts from the building walls. But unlike other kits where the window frames and mullions are separate parts, in the ADM kit the frames and mullions are molded into (onto?) the clear plastic window “glass”. Even with a tiny brush and a fairly steady hand I was unable to keep some paint off of the window panes. I thought about some sort of pad painting but was not smart enough to think of a pink pearl eraser. I may give that a try. And the Sharpie idea sounds very good–I will definitely try that.
Thanks again.
You could see if Grandt Line just happens to have one that will fit.
http://www.grandtline.com/products/arch/ho/ho_scale_small_windows.html
Steve S
That ssounds more reasonable than my hilariously low estimate on how many windows there actually were.
Markie97,
I used those skylights from that building and put them on the Walthers, Machine shop building, with a couple of the swirl roof vents on top where the two little squares are. Of course I had to cut holes in the roof though, not for the faint of heart, though! Looks great! Used a Sharpie on those also. But a silver one, to match the color of the roof vents.
Frank
I have tried just about every method and have come to the conclusion there is no good way to do it. It is a tedious task which you will almost certainly have to go back and do some touching up one or more times before you get it right. Unless it is something that I really want, I try to stay away from kits that have molded on detail. To me, it seems silly to mold detail to a wall that needs to be painted a different color than the wall. I started a thread at least five years ago, maybe longer which was basically a rant about these types of kits and it generated a lot of discussion but no solutions. Yes, the kits that have molded detail are quite a bit cheaper, such a DPM, but what is your time worth? I would rather buy a kit where I can spray paint the various parts seperately before assembling them or even use built-ups rather than waste so much time trying to paint fine detail with a brush.
I’ve come across a few walthers kits with that type of window. The skylights in the Walthers Union Station kit has those. Brush painting is out of the question. A Sharpie is a good choice but even with that you have to be very steady handed. Either black or silver work and I use the side of the tip rather than the point. I tried an ink pad but you have to be very careful when pressing the mullions into the pad because if is very easy to get the ink on the glass. Fortunately, the kits that had these kind of windows are background structures so the blemishes aren’t that noticeable.