Scalecoat II brush painting

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Is it just me, or does this paint need some major thinning even to brush paint with? I got some to match a couple of Stewarts locos, and tried brush painting a section of handrail that came molded in black instead of being painted the Pullman Green body color. The paint seemd extraodrinarily thick and hard to apply smoothly, which tells me it needs thinning. Then to top it off, once dried it didn;t look like much of a match at all. In fact it seemed almost as black as the unpainted handrail. And no, I didn;t not accidently get Brunswick Green, it’s definitely Pullman. Wierd thing is, I painted a hidden patch of the shell and when that dried it DID match pretty closely. I also did get a can of the same color in a spray to paint a couple of RS-3 shells I am detailing, but it’s much too cold outside, not to mention windy, to go try it out.

What’s the deal here? I also did some with some Pollyscale Pullman Green (to match a P2K Geep) and that stuff straight from the bottle went on smooth as silk and was a near perfect match. But it’s too light to match the Stewart shells - which are supposedy Scalecoat paint.

–Randy

2

Hi Randy,

Yes, Scale Coat 2 must be thinned. You can purchase the SC thinner or use Lacquer Thinner (not Mineral Spirits, straight lacquer thinner) which is available in some of the home supply stores and auto body supply stores.

I’ve been airbrushing SC-2 for years but haven’t used a paint brush with SC2 in a long time. My humble suggestion for brush painting with SC-2 is to pour a small amount of your paint into a separate cup and start by thinning 30%, then apply it on a sample piece (junker rolling stock shell or a piece of styrene).

Once you’re satisfied, apply it to your unit on one section only to check for color match. One catch about Pullman Green over black…it often looks black. You may need to apply a medium or dark gray primer on your black handrails if your results still look too dark.

On handrails I always prefer to clean them with alcohol and then lightly scuff them with a Scotch Pad or fine grit sandpaper (800 grit or finer) to achieve good adhesion for primer and paint.

Hope this helps [:)]