Wanting to Get Started in Decorating Locomotives


quakers1

quakers1

The Blue Man
Hello everyone.

Recently, I have been taking the time to more heavily plan my layout. I did like the sound of going N scale, but I determined that it would simply be a bit too small for my big hands to handle. So, I've decided to move back up to HO scale. Along with the planning, I have considered what I would like my prototype to be, and what I want in a railroad. As of right now, It's looking like I will go Norfolk Southern. But, I looked and saw that there are very few Norfolk Southern locomotives on the HO market as of now. Will this stop me? Nope, because I have another plan. This is where I am needing some help and advice.

Here is my backup plan: decorate and detail a large part of my fleet myself! But, I have not done a lot of decorating before. Seems to me that out of all modern Class I railroad paint schemes, the Norfolk Southern is an excellent one for beginners, since it is all black, and the white is added by decals. Since this decision, I have been heavily reading my copy of Basic Painting and Weathering for Model Railroaders by Jeff Wilson. This book has cleared most of the basic techniques up. But, I have some questions (mainly about getting shells of oddball NS units):

1) For most of the "normal" Norfolk Southern locomotives (Dash 9s, SD40-2s, Flat Radiator SD70Ms), all I will need to do is buy undecorated versions, or buy units of different roadnames, and strip the paint off of the locomotives. But, the Flared Radiator SD70Ms have an odd nose, and of course the radiators. Also, since my railroad will be dated in the 2005-2008 time frame (when 4-axle power, Spartan Dash 9s, and what not was still seen often), I will definitely model some Spartan Dash 9s. Are there companies out there that sell shells of these locomotives, or just parts for the shells to make them into the locomotives I want?

2) Even though I will buy some locomotives already in NS colors, I am going to superdetail them just as I am with my custom ones. What are some good brands of diesel detail parts that I can use to achieve this?

3) As of now, I only own the painting book i mentioned earlier. Do any of you guys have any suggestions for books that would help me in more advance painting and detailing projects?

That is all I can think of at this time. As I run into more uncertainties, I will add more questions to this thread. If possible, could any of you please answer the questions I posted. Any help or advice is greatly considered by me: no one's answers go unused by me.

Thank you so much in advance for all answers and/or advice given in this thread. Thanks even more for taking the time to read this. I greatly appreciate it!

Cheers,

-Ace :)
 
You can buy many of the locomotives already painted and decorated, so adding detail parts as you've said will make them even better. For the locomotives that are different, you might have to look into finding resin part builders and hope that they'll have what you'll need to make them.

Detail parts companies...I've gotten excellent parts from Railflyer, Cannon, Detail Associates and Details West. Everything I've gotten from Railflyer has been perfect (best treadplate in the business, and incredible step kits). Cannon is excellent when you need to replace doors and their fans are beautiful kits. DA and DW are great for when you need something that both Railflyer and Cannon don't make.

I can't recommend any books. However, there are tons of websites devoted to airbrushing and painting techniques, and the majority of them are good (and FREE) for what you'll need to do.

Can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck with your projects.

timothy dineen
 
Thank you for all the help so far...throughout today, I have read many articles, and even watched some videos on kitbashing locomotives. Through videos, I have found a small place that sells the two main parts required to convert any Athearn Genesis SD70M into a Phase II Cab/Flared Radiators SD70M. The video showed how to do one in UP colors, but the Norfolk Southern Flared Radiator units are the same concept, but just a different paint scheme. Since the current run of Genesis SD70Ms has no Norfolk Southern units, looks like I will be doing some paint stripping!

For some of the models, I have found available paint schemes that I can just mass-order and re-number. Examples are the C44-9W (Athearn sells a Horsehead Scheme unit). Is it possible to strip all the white off, and have an all-black shell for adding decals? (Specifically, I'm wanting to model some of the older units, such as the 8900 series, and the 9600 series that are not in horsehead paint). I'm also wondering if this is possible on the Broadway Limited SD40-2, but its the other way around. I want to model Horsehead locomotives, but BLI does not offer their SD40-2 in said scheme. Bottom line: Is it possible to remove the white, and have an all-black shell to detail with parts and decals?

Thanks for any answers, and thanks for reading my message!

-Ace :)
 
Depends on whether the black is paint or plastic. I was able to strip my ASTF-decorated RS-2 to black, because the shell was molded in black plastic and everything else was painted on. If the plastic was grey or something, it would come out grey.

Model Railroader did a bit a while back where they used a cotton swab and some pine-sol to remove just a little lettering by carefully dabbing at it. While this might work, doing it for a whole engine might just drive you insane.
 
Be VERY careful with PineSol. Some models are made with plastic that reacts to the chemicals in PineSol and you'll end up with a ruined model. Trust me...I have a Walthers coil car that ended up becoming very flexible after a dip in PineSol.

You could use an air eraser gun with baking soda to remove the white lettering and logo. It won't be the easiest thing to find, and you'd want to try it out on a junk shell before moving on to something you want to work with.

timothy dineen
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top