I’ve never painted anything in the model railroad milieu.
Now, with that out of the way, I have some RTR HO cars that have the standard black plastic trucks. What color would be a good color to use to paint the trucks to match the color of prototype trucks? What kind of application?
TIA,
Greg
Hi Greg,
The answer is “it depends” - on your railroad’s location, time, etc.
But the basic answer is I dry-brush mine with a basic “dirt” colour. I paint the faces of the wheels with a dirty/dark/rusty colour. I mix up all of these from craft or dollar store paints.
Andrew
I like to paint mine with floquil grimy black, roof brown, and rail rust…I also have some SP hoppers and like to paint them with krylon red primer…the main thing is that you take the glossy black out of the trucks…be careful not to get the paint on the axles or the outside of wheels, or flanges that meet the track and keep it out of the journals where the points of the axle meet the journal box…Chuck
I like to use pastel chalk on my trucks. I mix several colors including lamp black, raw umber, burnt sienna.
Depends on where the car is from. Different regions have various shades of dust. My fleet has been drybrushed colors that include Polly S : rust+railroad tie brown, grimey black+dirt, mud+dirt, and straight dirt.
Make sure you degrease the exterior of the truck so the paint will adhere.
I usually start out with a coat of grimy black, either Floquil or Polly Scale, and then dry bru***he truck and the wheel faces with various shades of rust, dust and grime. I use Polly Scale for this. As mentioned in other posts the important thing is to get rid of the shiny black finish and make them look used and dirty.
Have Fun,
Tom Watkins
not an answer but another question to aggrojones, eng22, and masonjar:
Chalks require sealing with a clear (dull, matte, gloss, ect) some folks use hairspray.
As for technique on trucks…I usually paint the entire side frame and wheel faces with rust. Even brand new, unpainted castings have a coat of rust. Then I hit the sideframes with a wash of alcohol and grimy black, concentrating on the springs and bearings. If the prototype has trucks that are painted, I will apply small areas of the color over the rust to simulate paint that has not flaked off yet, before I hit it with the grime wash. Make sure you clean the axle points on the wheel sets before reinstalling them and clean the wheel tread of paint before running them to keep the tracks cleaner. Just my technique.
Standing at attention, general!
drybrushing is a weathering technique that requires a “dry brush”…you dip your brush into paint and take a paper towel or a cloth and work the wet paint into the towel or cloth until the paint is almost dry…then you can brush whatever you want to weather in vertical lines to give hints of erosion colors caused by rain against metal or products leaking from rolling stock…you can’t similate these effects if the brush is too wet with paint …if the brush is too wet the weathering will look like what it is…a blob of paint instead of suttle lines of whatever it is you want to weather…
I use a rust color and they look good. But it depends on your prototype location, you may want to use a dirt color that is close to the dirt in your prototype.
First, determine whether the RR painted the trucks the same color as the car body, some did, some didn’t. Paint them either car color or black.
then weather them.
Dave H.
Sorry for my lengthy post above, guys but I hope some of you experiment with it.
One additional tip that may be helpful. I always like to take the “Rust Wash” and careully apply a tiny splash onto my Kadee couplers. I’m carefull not to let any paint run into the point where the knuckle is hinged.
To finish off, I apply a small dab of silver or steel color to the tip of the coupler trip pin, to simulate the metal hose connectors on the prototypes.
Cheers!
My trucks are automatically painted with Floquil Grimy Black, freight and diesels. The shiney black they come with makes them mostly disappear in photos, leaving a black hole under rolling stock. To this black I often spray a light coat of Floquil Foundation, a beige color that simulates road dust. Sometimes I drybru***he details with Floquil Rust - the springs really stand out after this treatment. Never leave trucks plain black is my motto!
Bob Boudreau
I weather the trucks on all my freight cars. I mix a combination of Testor’s flat black and flat miltary brown, and I paint the sideframes and the sides of the wheels. I paint the axles flat black. I also paint the coupler knuckles with Testor’s rust paint and the trip pins flat black.
Try the “Paint Wa***echnique”. This was featured in an MRR issue about 15 years ago. It works well and fast! Great with Acrylics or solvent based model paints.
I like to use very tiny containers for this. Pill trays and plastic egg cartons work out great!. I normally use Acrylics.
Remove the wheels from your trucks and wipe the trucks with alcohol on a cloth.
Pour a small amount of rust color into one container or bin. Pour Grime or Gray Primer into the other. Thin 3 to 1 with 70% Isopropyl (rubbing) Alcohol. You want this to be watery. Make sure you stir it as pigments tend to settle on the bottom. For solvent based paint like Floquil, use lacquer thinner.
Dip your paint brush into the rust and apply it to your trucks’ sides using vertical “downward” strokes. You’ll notice right away that the paint wash will run into every tiny nook and cranny in the side frame. Don’t worry if at first it looks cruddy! It will flow out. Allow 2 minutes to dry.
Take the same brush and dip it into your primer or grime wash. Same technique. After another 2 minutes, you should have some very impressive results! If you want more weathering, continue alternating back and forth between the washes. Not satisfied? Soap and water will take it right off, but don’t wait too long.
For a realistic effect, you want to see darker and ligher shades of the paint wash on the trucks, after drying.
On your wheels, just as simple. Dip your brush into the wash, put the brush on the wheel face and completely en-circle it. Use alcohol on a cloth to wipe off any wa***hat gets on the wheel tread. Again, you don’t want the paint to look even. It’s o.k for darker and lighter shades to show through. These are the effects from rain, rust, dust from ballast, etc.
Compare your “washed truck” with one that’s shiny black. You’ll really appreciate the effect. I’ve gone “Ga-Ga” [:p][:p] and
Depends on what the prototype car is, and if the trucks were actually painted. If the cars are of a new enough prototype, that shiny black may be alright. I have seen trucks painted in all kinds of different colors on passenger and freight equipment.
This is a good subject, I’ve had the same question for sometime now too. I spent a weeks worth of time painting rust colors on my new metal wheels before I installed them onto my trucks. As for my trucks, well I tried to use a grime color and boy was it the wrong color. It turn out as a gray. Now I have to go back and repaint them, which I’ve been putting off. You see, just look at my caboose in this picture, BAD!
Grimmy Black or Flat Black with a drybrushing of Boxcar Red to simulate rust. It’s simple but effective.
in my trainworld:
metal trucks are left whatever color they came in.
plastic trucks get primed with testors metalizer magnesium. they look so good, many remain at this stage. some go on to the brass metalizer that produces a nice effect when combined with dark hardwoods.
mine is a clean railroad that exists indoors; so weather has no effect; no rusty stuff for me.