HO tip of the day: Painting wheelsets

[AllenB]

If you take cork roadbed and triple it up side by side, it is the exact same width as a wheelset. So you snug the wheelsets down onto the cork strips to hold them still. I took a 10 inch section of roadbed, tripled it up...stuck a few long nails through it to hold it together (which made a great stand of sorts) and placed about 20 wheels on it and shot it with Polyscale "rust". Turned it around and shot the other side

It took me the longest time to figure out how I was going to hold those wheelsets still while I painted them. Now I know. Hope it helps someone.

[Dave S]

Thanks for the tip!

[Espeefan]

Sounds like a nice cheap easy to make jig! I use those plastic ones that do 8 or 10 at a time, but I like the "Andy Sperandeo treatment" where he paints the wheels grimy black on the outside and rail brown for dark rust on the inside and axles. I also model when most cars didn't have roller bearings and the wheels got oil all over the outward face. Good tip!

[AllenB]

I've found that rail brown almost looks green. Anyone else experience this?

[Espeefan]

Whose are you using and solvent or acrylic?

[AllenB]

Originally Posted by Espeefan

Whose are you using and solvent or acrylic?

The wheels are Intermountain 33". I'm using waterbased Floquil.

[holshot14]

What do you do now with the paint on the wheel that touches the track?

[AllenB]

Originally Posted by holshot14

What do you do now with the paint on the wheel that touches the track?

The best that I can do is to put them on trucks and run them by hand along a spare piece of track while they're dry to the touch but not cured fully. If you run them quickly, the paint wears off. Not the best solution and doesn't fully come off, but so far that's my best solution. I'm open to other suggestions though.

[Rico]

Put a piece of paper towel or J cloth over the track with alcohol on it, should do the trick?

[jdetray]

This homemade wheel masking tool keeps the flange and tread clean while you paint the wheel face. The link shows the N-scale version, but the tool can be made for any scale and any wheel diameter.

This thread shows the tool in use.

- Jeff