Paint refreshed locos with painted visibility stripes and handrails, a bit rough but better than the original
I guess like most of us beginners I try to find as much advice as possible before making a decision - and a big shout out to FB members of N scale groups that offer this freely and for the members of MRRM forums that I stalk that do the same.
So, using my 27 year old Bachmann Spectrum 'C40-8' locos on the intended DCC evolution that's occurring, raised quite a few questions as they are far from 'DCC Ready'.
This included could they even be upgraded to DCC and, as their livery 'out-of-the-box' was state of the art in 1996, should I update their paint scheme?
After hours of research the answer to the first question was yes and I'll step through the upgrades in another post.
Updating the Paint Scheme
But having gotten the DCC upgrade question answered positively, with renewed enthusiasm I decided if I was spending the effort upgrading the locos to DCC, I might as well refresh the paint work to a more recent paint scheme. After 20 years of painting wargaming figures (my 'other' hobby) this was something I was much more confident in tackling.
Original paint work - looked 'plastic' to me and had bright silver highlights, with none of the cool visibility stripes and yellow handrails.
The visibility stripes are a bit thick but I'm happy overall with the end result.
So I went researching the prototype primarily using Railroad Picture Archives which is an excellent source of photos and the nsdash9.com roster for more guidance.
The first surprise was that, as numbered (8665, 8667, and 8671), the locos weren't C40-8s they were C39-8Es... wowser, I mean I can't tell the difference between the models at this scale, but I would have thought Bachmann would have at least got the designation right?
Anyhoo, I found the right locos and saw several paint schemes. I liked the last one, circa 2008, shortly before they were retired, with the solid white visibility stripe down each side and safety-yellow handrails.
I used what I had at hand which was some Vallejo (Cold White) and Citadel paints (Yriel yellow), masked the locos up, and got painting, touching up with a Vallejo matt Black.
Just painting black over the 'random' gloss silver surrounds of the windows and louvres, and horn and exhaust, vastly improved the look of the locos .
The masking was harder than expected as the tape had to sit in between the stanchions of the handrails, so needed some persuasion with an Xacto knife to mask around the stanchions properly.
This is when I realised that the model isn't quite the same as the prototype and that the stanchions actually come down the body further than the prototype - so my first major call was where to actually put the edge of the white stripe (I think I've made my stripes too thick).
Getting the hard edge lines for the white stripes (7 nation army echoes) took many goes touching up with both white and black, and are still a bit rough close up, but look good enough at 'track distance'.
I sprayed the petrol tank first with matt varnish so the paint would have something to adhere to, as this was slightly different plastic to the body with a satin finish. In the prototype pics they look like they're painted dark grey (even with weathering), but I decided to stay with black and then gave them another spray of varnish.
At present, I can't bring myself to dismantle or paint the trucks for fear of clogging up the drive system or stuffing up the reassembly, but I guess I'll get confident in that soon too. As for weathering, if I do one loco or piece of rolling stock, I'll want to do all of them... so, that's a project in itself, for another time.
To finish, I masked the windows so the plastic glass wouldn't craze and the locos got several light sprays of Army Painter's matt varnish.
Finished locos pictured with the new kaolin cars from Atlas which I'll cover in another post.
Will also update couplers at some point during the DCC upgrades.
Tip for painting 'soft plastic' handrails
Unlike the body, the handrails are, what we call in the wargmes scene, 'soft plastic'. This means any paint you put on will flake off at some stage. For wargames figures, especially 1/72 scale figures, the plastic seems to produce an oil across the surface which gives the plastic a slightly glossy finish. This film also means the paint won't adhere properly to the plastic, hence it flakes off.
So, here's a wargaming tip I was taught years ago when using acrylic paints. Paint a carefully applied layer of PVA glue completely over the plastic first, then paint over this rather than onto the plastic. Then apply another layer of PVA glue over the top of the paint.
This sandwiches the paint between two skins of PVA and it is unlikely to flake for many years (I've had Carthaginian 'bendy, soft plastic' spears that have only just been redone after 20 years).
The PVA glue dries clear but gloss, and do take care not to leave 'globs' of glue around angles. Too many coats of PVA and the 'clearness' will turn opaque, so its good to get a complete top layer on in the first round.
Also, I've found it takes better if the top coat of PVA goes past the edges of the painting, I think because the glue adheres again to the plastic, making a complete seal.
Next up, I've just received a shipment from Atlas of their 'new' Master kaolin tank cars, so better have a look at them.
No comments:
Post a Comment