broke out the airbrush today


BN8002

Did someone say B-unit?
I broke out my airbrush today to do some painting for my dad...I just painted the decks to look like wood instead of the brown that athearn uses or the light tan tyco uses on their flats. I think they came out pretty good..still need to put the hitches and all the rub rails back on and clean up the rub rails that I couldnt pop off.

IMG_9257-1.JPG
 
Nice...What brand is the large brown Santa Fe Flat?

since there are 3 there and I'm not sure which one you are talking about..i will give the manufacturer of each flat, front to rear.

Tyco, athearn, athearn, athearn, tyco, tyco, concor, tyco, tyco.

all of the tycos have been modified with frame mounted couplers, rub rails, circus ramps, and trailer hitches, the athearns all have or are getting rub rails and hitches and are dropping athearns half ass trailer mounts, and had the holes in the decks for such filled in..the concor is pretty much out of the box...had to modify the underbody to get the wheelsets to roll freely, but thats about it.
 
Looks real nice, how'd you get the look of individual boards faded/stained? I've got a few of these I need to do as well, course have to get the airbrush process going first...
 
Looks real nice, how'd you get the look of individual boards faded/stained? I've got a few of these I need to do as well, course have to get the airbrush process going first...

its kind of an involved process and is easier if you have 2 people, but you can do it alone, I did it alone on the last two batches I did of approximately 15 total cars...

first spray all the decks with floquil primer and let it dry. Once they are dry spray one at a time with floquil depot buff. You don't want the depot buff to dry, but you do want it tacky. You can experiment with the drying of it to see what works best, because the whole process hinges on this part. Next take floquil roof brown and a tooth brush. Dip just the tip of the brush in the roof brown because you don't need much. The more roof brown you put down the darker the deck will be. But you jsut scrape the toothbrush widthwise aacross the deck, with the depot buff tacky you scrape some of it away and expose the grey. Varying the pressure you use will yeild different results also. Butyou jsut go down the deck and make sure you work in the same direction and work widthwise.

SO in short,

Shoot all decks with primer and let that dry
Shoot one deck with depot buff and let it tack
Scrape with roof brown and toothbrush to expose the primer and put some dark brown

If you have a second or third person, they can scrape the decks as fast as you push them out, otherwise you will have to do them one at a time by yourself.
 
its kind of an involved process and is easier if you have 2 people, but you can do it alone, I did it alone on the last two batches I did of approximately 15 total cars...

first spray all the decks with floquil primer and let it dry. Once they are dry spray one at a time with floquil depot buff. You don't want the depot buff to dry, but you do want it tacky. You can experiment with the drying of it to see what works best, because the whole process hinges on this part. Next take floquil roof brown and a tooth brush. Dip just the tip of the brush in the roof brown because you don't need much. The more roof brown you put down the darker the deck will be. But you jsut scrape the toothbrush widthwise aacross the deck, with the depot buff tacky you scrape some of it away and expose the grey. Varying the pressure you use will yeild different results also. Butyou jsut go down the deck and make sure you work in the same direction and work widthwise.

SO in short,

Shoot all decks with primer and let that dry
Shoot one deck with depot buff and let it tack
Scrape with roof brown and toothbrush to expose the primer and put some dark brown

If you have a second or third person, they can scrape the decks as fast as you push them out, otherwise you will have to do them one at a time by yourself.

wow, that sounds involved, but the end product looks to be worth it!
Thanks for sharing!
 
its not really as bad as it sounds..and once you get everything setout and ready to go its easy. But if you have to search for things or if you forget something then that plays into it. But if you lay everything out and do it all in order its really simple. And definately worth all the trouble in the end..

I'll get some photos of the batch i did a couple weeks ago..consists mostly of bulkhead flats..
 
its not really as bad as it sounds..and once you get everything setout and ready to go its easy. But if you have to search for things or if you forget something then that plays into it. But if you lay everything out and do it all in order its really simple. And definately worth all the trouble in the end..

I'll get some photos of the batch i did a couple weeks ago..consists mostly of bulkhead flats..

Quick question, do you end up using primer before painting your models? I've got an athearn that I stripped the paint off and am planning on repainting and I've heard a mixed approach on this.
Thanks, Jason
 
Quick question, do you end up using primer before painting your models? I've got an athearn that I stripped the paint off and am planning on repainting and I've heard a mixed approach on this.
Thanks, Jason

as far as doing the wood deck, you have to use the primer because the grey helps with the "wood grain" effect...

as far as using primer on other models I paint...It really depends. I knwo a lot of peopel say its a must..but personally, i only do it if I am painting over a dark color with a lighter one. Like I had an athearn undec gp35 that I was painting in frisco's orange/white scheme...so I had to primer that because the undec was black and you would see it through the white. BUt a lot of times with my bn units I dont primer at all because the green is dark enough to not have anything come through. My b30-7a's that I painted were had a lot of black from undec. pieces I used and I shot the green right over it and you could never tell. so its really a judgement call..IF youa re in doubt, its pretty safe to jsut primer it and you wont have to worry.
 



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