painting steam locomotive


gregc

gregc

Apprentice Modeler
i have next to little experience painting models using either a brush or airbrush. i guess it's obvious that the body should be removed from the frame and painted. but it's not clear to me what to do with the drivers a coupling rods.

i recently saw a painted brass steam engine on ebay where the coupling rods on the drivers are painted. is this correct, or should it look like this model?

and it looked like the drivers may have been painted except for an edge along the outside edge. is this appropriate?

also, what would be a starting color, grimmy black?

are their any websites describing how to paint a steam locomotive?
 
Greg I hand paint the side rods on all my Steam locos. I use a combo of flat/oily black. It realy depends on what look your going for. A clean passenger engine may have gloss coat of pait with a pin stripe on the side rod. a Freight loco likely has grease stains and look dirty..you can paint the wheel edge but be carefull not to get paint on the parts that make contact with the rail or for electrical pickup.



I use water base paints but many will use oil base as well. I do know there is a special chemical paint that some will use to blacken metal parts. Look for it in a Micro Mark catalog or on there web page.

Trent.
 
gregc said:
i have next to little experience painting models using either a brush or airbrush. i guess it's obvious that the body should be removed from the frame and painted. but it's not clear to me what to do with the drivers a coupling rods.

i recently saw a painted brass steam engine on ebay where the coupling rods on the drivers are painted. is this correct, or should it look like this model?

and it looked like the drivers may have been painted except for an edge along the outside edge. is this appropriate?

also, what would be a starting color, grimmy black?

are their any websites describing how to paint a steam locomotive?
Click to expand...

It depends very much on the model and the prototype. You should have some sort of photo of the prototype to help you match the appearance of the model with the real thing. Most rods were bare metal and a steely gray color. Most model rods are nickle plated. You can brush paint these, being careful not to get paint into pivot points crank pin holes, and so forth. Are your mechanical skills up to taking the model completely apart? Is this a brass model, or something else?

Most brass models had zamac drivers with plated brass tires, though some had brass drivers. Some early brass models like those by Max Gray had the frame & drivers chemically blackened so that you didn't have to take the running gear apart. The running gear only goes together one way, so if you do decide to disassemble it, make sketches & notes so that you'll have references on how things go back together. Some segmented parts boxes or trays are a must to keep parts in. Some parts are also left/right specific.

It would help to know what model we're talking about so that the advice could be more specific

I have been using Scalecoat Detail Black or mixing a little silver with black to bring out the detail in the model. Flat or gloss black hides quite a bit.
 
What was painted varied from railroad to railroad, and as Trent said, passenger equipment was generally much fancier and better maintained than freight engines. A lot of people don't realize than steam engines had "tires" and wheels just like a car....except the "tire" is steel. The black you see in the "this model" picture would be the wheel, and the shiny outer part the tire. Tires were generally not painted although a few railroads painted the edge. The rim portion was generally painted either black or silver.
 
A camelback! Cool! :cool:

The nice thing is that an 0-6-0 is fairly easy to take apart and put back together. If you have reasonable mechanical skills you can do this one. Gem models are pretty stout too. Detailed reasonably well but not so delicate that you can't pick them up without breaking something like some early Korean builders who shall remain nameless :rolleyes:

Get yourself a plastic box from a Kraft or fabric store. The kind with molded in compartments. The soft plastic ones in the sporting goods section at Wal-Mart have movable dividers that can get your parts mixed up.

There is a very good website on brass steam models I like. Go here:

http://www.markschutzer.com

and here's another:

http://shastasprings.com/repower/guide_to_repowering_and_regearing.htm

Lots of helpful stuff. Welcome to brass land. It's fun but can get expensive! :eek:
 
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