I have a old Athearn Blue Box Hopper I wanting to paint. It has been painted before I got it. Paint is thin and translucent, but smooth and there are no decals on the car. Besides the off chances that there might be a reaction when I apply the paint, is there a reason to strip it first?
I have never painted a Train item before and wonder why people strip them? I do know a lot about paint from running a body shop for 20 years. On real cars, the only time I would strip a car is because.
1 Old paint is damaged, cracked or flanking.
2 Two much paint all ready on the car. Thicker paint will chip easier.
Only reason I can think of for stripping Models would be to get rid of the decals, or to keep ladders and grab irons from looking to thick. Am I missing something?
I’ve painted over the original paint on several cars. I think the key is the words “Blue Box.” Mine were also Athearn models, specifically reefers. One important reason to strip old paint is to keep the details on the car from getting buried beneath multiple layers of paint. On a Blue Box, the details aren’t particularly fine-scale, so it hardly matters.
It may take several coats of paint to completely cover up old logos and reporting marks, particularly those in contrasting colors to the base color of the car. Again, this requires more paint, perhaps an extra coat or two. If you do strip the car, then you will have a uniform base and you can get a more uniform paint job with less paint.
I agree, Lou. I’ve got a couple of shirts where the “train paint” has set and will never come out. On the other hand, the body replenishes its outer skin layer frequently, so even if you can’t get the paint off, it will eventually disappear. Since I don’t have a paint booth and generally do my spray painting out of doors, it does lead to some funny looks from the neighbors.
About 5 years ago I repainted (via airbrush) some Athearn standard passenger cars, using a similar olive color which I believe was Floquil. I throroughly cleaned the bodies first, sprayed a light coat (as the colors were pretty much the same), and the results were quite good.
That being said, I can see two main reasons to strip old paint off before painting. The first is that every coat absorbs some of the details (i.e. rivits, car door/window seams, etc.). Second is to get a good base when painting with a significantly different color. As priming would just add another coat, and thus lose more detail, striping will get you back to the base where you could either prime it first or paint a couple thin coats of the new color.
Frankly, it all comes down to one’s “good enough” threshold.
There is no hard fast rule saying you need to strip the paint first. As long as the surface is clean you should be able to paint right over it. However, if there is any factory lettering on the car (pad printing) it will show thru the paint as a raised area. It is kind of hard to explain but, once you see it you will know what I am talking about. Decals on the other hand are totaly different. I have painted over them with no trouble what so ever. As was also mentioned in a previous post, the paint thickness might be an issue especially on some of the older Blue Box cars. I had some that after I striped them found details that were completly hidden by the thick coat of paint.
As others have said, lettering can sometimes show through and detail may be covered - BUT, it varies quite a bit from model to model.
I have painted over a number of paint schemes with good success. One time even over a Southern Pacific Daylight scheme with no loss of detail or any indication of the old scheme.
One big factor is what paint you use over it. I use Scalecoat for all my rolling stock/loco painting.
It has very fine pigment (less chance of filling in details) and covers well because of its gloss finish (flat or semi gloss clear added after decals). I can’t speak for using any of these new acrylics because after one attempt at using them in an airbrush, I said never again. Acrylics dry too fast for my slow, deliberate work pace and they seem thick and more likely to obscure details. As long as solvent based paints exist, I will use them.
So, especially if the existing paint is well done, and preferably a fairly simple scheme, I often just paint over them rather than strip.
But of course my first choice is an unlettered or undecorated model for such work.
I like to strip before painting so I don’t get any paint on my clothes…overspray and splatters wash off in the shower instead!
Seriously, I want a good clean original surface to paint so paint and details will show better. Multiple coats of paint result in paint build-up as we all know, and that makes the embedded details fade.
