Which do you use?
Interesting!
Don’t know. I recommend you do an experiment:
Pick a test locomotive–single unit. Get two pieces of track long enough to hold it. Mount on a board. Polish the top of the rails on one of them. Put loco on one. Slowly tilt upwards until loco slides. Note amount of lift. Do again with the other track. Compare! Report your answer to us.
An “extra” benefit: the polished track should/is supposed to stay cleaner than if you don’t polish it.
Now, off to work, you.
Ed
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
The above is my answer to the question about rail polishing. The site’s most excellent software decided to put that answer here, instead.
Gee, how could that happen?
Ed
More often than not I use a rattle can to paint my cars and locos.The burgandy for my GVR locos is exactly what Krylon created so that is what I use for them NS is another rattle can paint job.CSX of course is a air brush job which must be why I have 6 unpainted CSX locos waiting for Dark Future blue and gold.
Rattle cans are a lot easier to clean too,just turn the can upside down and push the button a few times.
You use Krylon paint for plastic models?
Some non-model, household paint attacks the plastic.
Krylon makes a paint just for plastics. I use it when ever I can. For really fine work I will break out the airbrush, but I have to be motivated to deal with the set up and the clean up.
While I have used both I prefer the rattle can.
I’ve used Testors and Krylon (plastic) rattle cans and found the Krylon is better overall.
I learned many eons ago to hold the can 10-12" away from the model for a lighter coat…
I will note I’m not above brush painting but,I learned how to do this in the Jurassic age of the hobby…
I have both but haven’t used the airbrush in a couple of years now. The rattle cans provide most of my painting needs but I have found a few of the satin finish paints take a few days to completely dry to where I can handle the model wtihout leaving finger prints. I am going to avoid these from now on and maybe get my spray booth finished to where it isn’t such a chore to use the airbrush (mostly the cleanup). Most of the primers and camo paints dry rather quickly. I mostly use the rattle cans for buildings and not rolling stock. Just my observations.
-Bob
Airbrush (and regular brushes, too), but rattle cans waste too much paint for my style of painting. They’re also not very versatile if you like to vary the colour as you paint. For instance, if I’m painting boxcars belonging to several different roads, they’re unlikely to be the same shade of boxcar red. With an airbrush, the colour can be adjusted at any time simply by adding another colour (or colours) to that with which you started.
Similarly, when painting steam locos, I use four or five versions of black - they’re all mixed from mostly the same colours, but the proportions of each vary - this is for each loco, by the way. Those individual colours can be used, of course, on their own, too, or mixed with other colours.
When I paint a car which requires a particular, but otherwise seldom-used, colour, I mix that colour from what I have on-hand, then the remainder is either altered to something more widely useable, or dumped in the various bottles of weathering colours which are always in use - nothing goes to waste.
As for cleaning the airbrush, you seldom need to clean it during painting if you plan the jobs carefully: clear finishes first, then white, yellow, orange, red, brown, black. If you’re concerned about the previous colour affecting the next one, shoot a little thinner through the brush, then continue. The final thorough clean-up, even with my clumsy hands, takes less than two minutes.
Wayne
ED,
Sure…Blame it on the software. [(-D] [(-D]
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
BTW: Rattle can spray paint and Air brushes have their uses…depends to me on what I’m using them for.
That may be so but,like air brush overspray it can be held at a minimum.
The biggest advantage for me I can do my spray painting outside under natural light and IMHO that is far better then artificial light.Plus I have no need to invest in a paint booth,air compressor,air brush,jars and of course a respirator for a 5 minute job.
As far as two tones masking tape can be used as well as decals for striping or for locomotive frames and pilots.
BTW…If your wondering I like natural light for layout lighting that’s why all my ISLs been in spare bedroom rooms or easy to set up and easy to take down for easy storage.
Another vote for the rattle can. I paint mostly structures, and very few locomotives or pieces of rolling stock. So, I’m not terribly interested in custom colors, and what I can find at the hardward store or LHS is sufficient for my needs.
As others have pointed out, cleanup is easy, and I can just go out in the yard to do my painting.
I will use a Rattle Can when I can (fast and quick clean up) on Structuers!
I will use an Air Brush if I have to spray a specific color (Grimy Black on my Steem Mill).
I will had brush the details.
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Since the question was asked, I’ll list the reasons for my choice.
Back in the early 1980s, my friend Carl Marchand (Tampa Bay’s DCC guru) encouraged me to give airbrushing a try. With some hesitation I did and have really enjoyed it since! Like DCC, yes, there is an inititial investment for an aircompressor and the airbrush but after that everything else is quite simple including the maintenance.
I don’t understand some of the complaints that I read about the so called “big investment”, considering that it is far cheaper than the cost of a new Athearn Genesis locomotive, lol!
My reasons for sticking with airbrushing:
1. Rattle cans, imho, take up too much space. I currently have about 40 small jars of scale model paint and craft acrylics. Most are over 5 years old and still in good shape.
2. Even the finest spray can nozzles don’t offer the flexibility of spray pattern sizes and style that airbrushes provide (ranging from super thin fine line patterns to 4" wide “rattle can” fan patterns). Results: Precision control, less overspray.
3. Custom color mixes. Here is where the airbrush shines. I’ve stayed quiet on the issue regarding the elimination of certain scale model paint lines which stirred some panic on the forums. In the airbrush arena, many of us already custom mix our own railroad colors with tints and paint products that are available on the market. Very difficult to do with rattle cans.
4. Flexibility as far as where you can paint (indoor or outdoor). Contrary to popular belief, a paint booth IS NOT required for airbrushing. However it’s recommended to obtain the cleanest job possible while reducing overspray and any floating lint.
5. Alclad Metalizing with an airbrush helps yield that st
I may spray paint a engine or car every blue moon so no lol since there would be very little return on the investment unlike that Genesis engine that I would use more often then a air brush,compressor etc…
Guys,
Safety:
An erroneous and dangerous notion that seems to persist in this hobby is that rattle can fumes are safer than airbrush spray fumes. Good grief, that’s not true! Rattle cans contain more dangerous chemicals than any jar of Pollyscale, Modelflex, Tamiya, or Scale Coat…but forget that for the moment.
In the first place, even if you’re touching up the corner of your fence post with a Krylon water based rattle can, you should never breathe in or around those fumes! Even with acute (short time) exposures to paint mists that are inhaled, the damage to your nervous system and organs can be irreversible.
Protection should be worn with BOTH, airbrush and rattle can use. If you’re too lazy to wear a respirator, at least have a low speed fan (or the wind on your back if you’re outdoors) positioned behind you, blowing forward to expel those fumes away from your body. Years back a friend of mine, who was a former body builder, laughed at the notion of wearing a mask while painting. He’s much smaller now and a walking wreck that sometimes struggles to breathe.
As my wife’s cousin, who is also a good friend, will tell anyone: Much of the abuse that you exerted on your physiology will catch up to you when you reach and/or pass the retirement age.
I use both overall. Either/or depending on the project. If I’m doing a project using specific RR colors and need control as in painting a Reading green and yellow locomotive…I’ll opt for airbrush. If it’s painting a group of hoppers or boxcars with one basic color…I’ll go outside on a 100 degree day, set up a wind break, and start spraying with a can. A hot day to get better pressure from the can.
Mark H
I use rattle cans for priming, where the Rustoleum Ultra-Color 2x formulations now really kick hiney - nice smooth even coverage, the way Baal meant it to be. I don’t know if there are primer colors in that range beyond grey, white, and red - our local big-box home centers seem to worry more about stocking “hammered” finishes than basic primers (which are often represented by empty shelf space inside the cage - spray paints in NY retail outlets must be locked up for anti-Graffiti purposes), but the Auto-Primer serves well for Light Grey.
Flat black, chrome silver and dullcoat work fairly well in rattle can too, but other Testors/Model Masters spray can colors always seem iffy, no matter if I soak the can in hot water, shake it for 5 minutes, make light passes with it, and so on - finish often is rough, bumpy, blotchy, or otherwise infuriating. Hence, airbrushing.
Always respirator mask rated Paint/Pesticides whether spraying rattle can or airbrushing, I don’t care if it’s harmless water-based paint, breathing in an aerosal of pigments can’t be good for lung function down the road.
The occasional fumes I breathe in from rattle can painting for 48 years did no harm…
What almost killed me at age 57 was years of smoking and two years of fast foods of various types and eating out-thanks to working 72 hours a week…
As far as fumes as long as you don’t breathe them for hours at a time you should be ok but,a quick paint job should do no harm-after all how much painting do we actually do in a years time?
I’m all for safety but,not with drama like those watch dog groups hands out.
We are all entitled to our own opinion. My own is that this is very poor advice.
I’ve been OSHA 40 hour HAZWOPR trained back in 1988 and been through many annual 8 hour refresher courses. Solvents such as those used in paints are one of the major things they cover.
The solvent vapors in many spray cans contain harmful fumes - many of them carcinogens. Just because you have “dodged the bullet” so far deson’t mean everyone will. George Burns lived to what, 99 years old smoking all his life, but he simply got VERY lucky.
Just because you may not breath hazardous vapors very often, doesn’t mean you can’t be affected by them. Basically it’s Russian roulette, except maybe you are playing it with a gun that has many more chambers and most of them empty but there is still a bullet in one or two out of many chambers. Best advise is to have a respirator with cartridges specified to filter the types of vapors you are expecting to be in the air and use it.
Anyone using paints with harmful vapors should absolutely heed the warnings on the labels and avoid breathing those vapors. The warning labels are there to protect you.
I prefer to use acrylic (non solvent based) paints so I can avoid dealing with the solvent fumes.
Cheers, Jim