Hey guys, I have a question:
I have a number of Kato and Athearn models that include those plastic handrails with the kits. These look great, but I am having trouble getting enamel paint to adhere to them. Is there a trick to this? I am able to paint the railings but after it dries it chips off quite easily. Please give me a tip or two. Thanks!
Spraying the paint on works better than paint brushing it. That’s how I do it anyway.
I’ve read before that Tamiya adheres very well to slippery plastic. A friend of mine uses it on the handrails of his HO units.
I use plastic adhesion promoter with the Bachmann Spectrum dash 8’s slipper plastic handrails. Works everytime.
Martin
[#ditto] You can buy that plastic adhesion paint at the autoparts store. Mines a spray can of Duplicolor. Use light coats.
Tamiya paint works well, it’s flexible enough not to chip of RC car bodies, works well on handrails. The trick is to get the paint to flow completely around the handrail, so it forms sort of a shell completely around the rail. It still can come off if handled but it won’t just chip off from normal operation.
–Randy
In addition to above there are special handrail paints that are more flexible and aren’t supposed to crack like normal enamel would is the handrail were to bend. I think they are made by Floquil but not 100% sure. I’ve seen them at the LHS. Maybe someone can comment on them.
I talked with Badger at a Train Show, and they also recommended that one should wash the handrails with soap and water to remove any of the mold release that’s still on them. They also said that their “ModelFlex” paint works well on these if the paint goes all the way around the handrail to form a tube.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Yeah they are hard to paint with a brush, you end repainting a few times before it really settles only for it to chip off. I usually assemble the plastic hand rails onto the body, and then prime the body and the handrails at the same time. The primer is a spray like paint, once on, the handrails stiffen up which allows me to paint them with no problem. But you must let the primer dry completly, hopefully this works for you.
I’m not totally sure, but I believe those handrails might be made of polypropelyne (AKA: cheap plastic). If that’s the case, that stuff is hard to paint. In the toy business, we sometimes will flame treat the plastic followed by a primer. Although I’ve never tried it w/ my propane torch at home, supposedly kissing the surface w/ a flame changes the plastic properties so paint will stick. I’d suggest trying it on some of your kids old toys first. Could be very risky on a handrail, but it would be interesting to try.
I have also used the Tamiya RC paints with good success. MR has an online article on painting the engineering plastic handrails.
Here it is: http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=248
Jim
I disagree that they are cheap plastic (on Kato units at least). Those babies are tough. They can be manhandled far more than styrene without even deforming let alone breaking. I think they are Delrin, or something like it.
Also, if you give 'er a shot with the flame treatment, why not use the sprues or leftover details? They are made of exactly the same stuff, so they should respond in exactly the same way. Just be sure to try it on something as fine, or nearly as fine as the handrails. Thin plastic melts a lot quicker than thick.
Mike
Any paints designed for clear lexan RC car bodyshells will work, Tamiya or Pactra etc, as they form a skin around the plastic and will bend and flex with the plastic. (just make sure it’s the RC paints not the standard acrylics),
The only thing is they are very thin so it may require 2-3 coats to hide black plastic, I use them on the LGB stuff in the Garden as well and not had any chip off.