How to paint a CB&Q GP30 in N scale

[BNSF7173]

Due to many requests, I have taken photo's of my procedure on how I have painted one of my locomotives. A little background, I was taught the world of custom painting from Alan Belcher who once owned Concord Car Shops, an excellent hobby shop down the road from me in NH. My first locomotive was an Athern Blue dip B&M F-7. Alan painted it for me and I decaled it. I started painting with the airbrush soon after in 1992 and started N scale custom paint in 1994. Since 1999 I have done N scale exclusivley and got bit by the detailing bug. I don't do as many N-Trak shows anymore, so now most of my locomotives are fully detailed and prototype specific. After painting, my number one hobby is railroad books as they offer the information I need for painting. I was hired by Testor in 2000 and started as a Customer Service/Tech person, then in October 2001 went into Marketing working with Wal-Mart, making instruction sheets for many of the die-cast car models and working on merchandise racks. In late 2002 I started having more influence with both the Pactra RC and Floquil RR lines and in 2005 I became Category Manager of both lines. That means I literally do both RC and trains! Now onto the painting!

Each year Galesburg IL is host to one of the biggest train shows in America, since 1977 The BN, now BNSF sponsered a Railroad Days. The town would have carnivals and train related displays downtown. In the early 1990's, Harry Grossman (TB member Littlegiant) started hosting a model train show at Carl Sandburg College. Long story short, the show was a huge success. Bill Selleck and myself usally have a display set up in the library and this year will be no different, except rather than paint up another BNSF engine I thought I would pay homage to the "Q"

Bill Selleck has been building an exact N scale Galesburg station as it appered in the years before Amtrak. Unfortunately this station no longer stands, replaced with a smaller albiet "Q" style station. While looking through pictures of Galesburg past I came on some art that depicted the 100th anniversary of the Q. The picture shows an early American 4-4-0 next to I believe a Burlington O5 next to the shovel nose Zepher next to an E unit and lastly a then new GP30 in the then new Chinese red and gray paint scheme. I have always loved the EMD GP30 and with the Burlingtons colors it looked sharp, #974 the one in the artwork begged to be modeled.


I started this project with a shell I've had for a while, it is from the Atlas/Kato model in N. When Kato molded this shell, they must have had the Q in mind as everything on the body matched. All I had to do was shave off the details and add BLMA grabs, MU hoses, cut levers and JnJ lift rings and cab shades.

[BNSF7173]

With the main detail parts added it was off to the most important step for a good paint job. I washed the shell in a solution of warm water and liquid dish soap, let it soak for a bit, then rinse the shel in Cold Water. Let the shell air dry completely before going on the next step. The next step is important only if you have metal and brass detail parts. The body was also a real dark gray and I wanted to better replicate the CB&Q colors. To keep the detail parts from losing paint I used Floquil #F330009 Aero Light Gray Primer. Although this is a spray can, the nozzles we use in the newer Floquil sprays have a much finer spray head and can be used on N scale items without any loss of detail. The Primer is an enamel, so spray in a dry enviorment, humidity can affect enamels and ruin your model with bubbles. At extreme humidity levels, enamel paint will foam. I gave the shell a few light passes and left it in my workshop for 24 hours to cure. This is important! Floquil enamels will "Dry" in 10 minutes or so, but they require 24 hours to "Cure". If you rush and spray other coats over the enamel during its cure time, you may get bubbles in your finish. You can't see it, but when an enamel cures, it develops a skin, the skin is microscopically porous and alows the solvents to escape and evaporate. After a minimum of 24 hours you can go onto the next step.

[HemiAdda2d]

Originally Posted by BNSF7173

...rinse the shell in Cold Water.

I have a couple questions--I am by no means a professional painter, but I have my share of models in N. I have always washed in not-quite-hot water, and rinsed same. What's the deal with cold water?

When you allow models to dry--do you have issues with water spots on the models? I did, and resorted to using my airbrush, (minus paint, of course) and pressurized air to dry it...
If you have water spot issues, how do you fix/avoid that?

Partly on- topic--is Polly Scale paint a Testors product?

[BNSF7173]

Now I'm ready for the first color coat. The CB&Q colors after 1958 were a light gray and Chinese red. Polly Scale does not offer these colors (yet ) so a bit of research was required. The gray was easy, as it was a standard light gray without geen or blue tones un like say a D&H gray which has shades of green in it. For the gray I used Polly Scale #F414116 Reefer Gray. The Burlington red was a bright vibrant red, almost pure red, but as they aged the color ranged from red to almost orange. I wanted a happy medium, for an aged unit I would use Polly Scale #F414183 SP Scarlet, but since the GP30 in the phot was relatively new, I choose #F414128 Caboose Red, which is pure red but not as bright as #F404091 Signal red.

I find it easy to hold the shell for painting by using a cheap foam brush that you can pick up at any home improvement store. The foam holds the shell snug without deforming it and the wooden handle allows me to hold the shell and easily reach every angle with the airbrush. Set your compressor at 16-18 PSI under load. If your using an Aztek, use the White nozzle #9341C. If you are using another brand of airbrush, use a #3 needle as acrylics require a wide flow to go through. Stir, don't shake the Caboose Red, I use the handle of a small detail paint brush. Shaking will not mix the paints resin, solvents and pigments together, so stir until you see no more globs on your stiring stick. Mix your paint with Polly Scale #F546008 Airbrush thinner. The Polly Scale Thinner is manily alcohol base but has a reducer in it to help the flow of paint. Mix the Caboose Red 75% paint to 25% thinner and stir. I use a color cup and literally just dump paint in and add a bit of thinner, its like cooking. When you start measure everything, after a while you know how much the recipe needs. I have used eye droppers or syringes in the past, I still use the syringe so I can drop in a few drops of thinner. With your compressor, airbrush and paint ready make a few light passes on to your shell. Hold the brush 3 inches away from the model and move at a smooth steady pace. Build up the coats, don't cover it on the first pass! If you do develop a run, acrylics are easy to fix. If you are using a dual stage airbrush, perform what I call the Moses trick. Hold the trigger all the way back and lightly hold down the trigger. This will give you more air than paint. Spray the run in the direction of the bottom of the shell and spray the run like a welder welds a bead. The excess dry air will dry the area behind the run and the small amount of paint will help the run roll off the shell. When dry, Polly Scale levels and you will have a hard time seeing where the run was. With the red done your shell should look like this...


Normally I would paint the light color first then the dark, such as orange then green on a BNSF engine. However the gray colors although lighter will cover the darkest of colors. Considering the scheme here, lets make it easy on ourselves. Notice however I tried to keep the red on the sides only.

[BNSF7173]

have a couple questions--I am by no means a professional painter, but I have my share of models in N. I have always washed in not-quite-hot water, and rinsed same. What's the deal with cold water?

When you allow models to dry--do you have issues with water spots on the models? I did, and resorted to using my airbrush, (minus paint, of course) and pressurized air to dry it...
If you have water spot issues, how do you fix/avoid that?

Partly on- topic--is Polly Scale paint a Testors product?

Hemi, welcome and thanks for the questions. Both of your questions can be answered with the same answer. Without getting all lab on you, the cold water helps disperse the soap and completely rinses the shell. The warm water just remixes the soap and that is what develops the spots you see. Cold water will push without re-desolveing the soap, off the shell. Try on a project sometime, I have not had a problem with spots ever since.

Keep the questions coming if you have any, I hope this is of help to you!

[BNSF7173]

Partly on- topic--is Polly Scale paint a Testors product?

Yes when Floquil was in Amsterdam NY it was owned by RPM, which also owns Rust-Oleum, Bondo and Testor to name a few. Floquil was never bought by Testor as RPM owned both companies, but its operations were moved over to Testor. Polly S was the original Floquil Acrylic for years, then in 1994 we developed a more user friendly version called Polly Scale. So yes short answer Polly Scale is part of the Testor family.

[BNSF7173]

Polly Scale acrylics dry relatively fast, but for best ahesion allow at least a couple of hours before masking. You can use a hairdryer to help the process, basically a warm, dry air helps acrylics cure up. I usally play it safe and waith until the next day. In this case, I sprayed the red on Saturday the 2nd. On Sunday the 3rd I was ready for masking. I have used a lot of masking mediums through the years, but I learned of this product from an armor modeler. Tamiya makes this low tack masking that has an increadible sharp edge to it. You can further the sharpe edge by purchasing the holder/applicator seen in the picture below. No prep work is neccesary with the tape, just pull, cut and apply. Using my CB&Q book as a guide I placed the tape just below the real grills and followed a nice even pace around the shell. Notice I left the cab on for the first step. Since the color seperation is on the cab, I left the cab on to get part of the sides even with the hood. Once this was done, I carefully cut the tape between the cab and the hood and lifted the cab free. I now had a guide to continue the color seperation around the cab. Tamiya tape is somewhat flexiable, so use your photographs as aguid to get your color seperation line even, you don't want the line to go up or down hill. Most of the time you can use the hinge doors as a guide like I did here.


With the color line established, cover the other areas you do not want painted gray.

[BNSF7173]

Here we have the cab and the hood in the spary booth ready for the gray color. Notice on the cab I have made a tab of masking, this will help remove the masking later when you have to work fast. I leave a bit of excess masking loose, then with tweezers, I loop the masking onto itself to creat a pull tab. Testor sells a set of locking tweezers under the Model Master name, part number 50632C. These work great for holding small parts for painting. On the right you can see the foam brush I talked about earlier. I'm not too concerned with covering the inside cab area of the hood as this will be painted gray later.

Set up your compressor, airbrush and paint. Remember, 16-18 PSI, wide flow nozzle or needle, 25% thinner to 75% paint and your ready to rock-n-roll! When I paint a second color with a mask, I spray at the lowest PSI possiable, in this case 16. This keeps the overspary down to a minimum and makes the paint smooth. Also spray away from the mask, this makes a much sharper line as the paint will not build up and seep under the masking. If you look closely you will see I burnished the edge of the masking all the way around so that it would conform to the doors, hinges etc. This can be done with a blunt toothpick, don't rub too hard, just enough to snug down. I sprayed a few light passes on the sides first then went to the top, one pass down the length of each side, then one pass cross way, front and back to get all those fans and exhaust stack completely painted. Do enough passes to build up to a good coverage, but don't go to heavy, otherwise you'll create a "paint bridge" between the color and your masking. This will lift the paint you just sprayed. I have a rule in my shop: If you think it needs one more pass, stop!

The next step is also important for a nice sharp line, removing the mask. This can make or break all your hard work, so you must work fast and carefully. As soon as you put down your airbrush start removing the mask. Make sure your hands are free of paint and use a pair of non-locking tweezers to grab the tab you made earlier. Start to pull, hold the dry part of the shell with clean fingers and pull the mask torwards the paint you just sprayed. If you pull the mask torwards the masked area, you risk getting a small amount of gray on your red. By pulling the mask towards the area you just painted, any paint that bridged itself on the mask will lift off and fall on the wet paint you just sprayed. Many times this paint will disolve back into itself and will never be seen again. This is the first reason why I do this step now. The second reason? Should you have to much paint on your mask and it drys, it will lift when pull the masking and give you a jagged edge. Carefully pull all the masking towards the area you just painted and dispose of the used masking, being carefull not to get any wet masking on the shell.

[BNSF7173]

Now our shell should look like this........



You should have a nice even and sharp line around your two colors. Notice the small bottle on the left, this leads us into the next phase of this project, decals. In order for our decals to look like they were painted on, they need a nice smooth surface. If you have ever decaled a model, sealed it with a flat clear and seen a frosty outline of your decal, you are seeing "silvering" If we colud shrink to a microscopic level and looked at the paint on our CB&Q GP30, we would see that the paint would be like a jagged moon scape. It make look smooth from a normal level, but it is really a rough finish. This is the nature of flat paints. Gloss paints when dry are a smooth finish. Here is an example. Lets say we have two gardens, one made with soft rich soil (our gloss) and theother made with small marble chips (our flat). Now lay a piece of clear plastic sheet, one on each garden. After a while you will see condinsation form on the inside of the plastic between the garden and the plastic sheet. Notice for the most part the condisation is even on the soil garden (gloss) and sporadic on the rock garden (Flat). We want the decal to be flat all over the surface so we don't want silvering or ghosting to appear so here we will add a clear gloss coat.

For this step I'm using Polly Scale Satin (semi gloss) #F404103. The Polly Scale Clears do not require any thinning, so just stir it up and set your compressor for? That is right, 16 - 18 PSI! I concentrate on the areas that will have decals for the next step. Just a few light passes and your done.

As a side note, I have had many people say that this additional step will add too much paint to an N scale model. Remember that the airbrush only lays down a fraction of amount of paint that a spray can or brush does, and as you can see no detail was lost. You can also add the clear gloss to your reciepe of color to avoid this step. Rather than doing the 74% paint to 25% thinner, use 50% paint, 45% clear gloss and 5% thinner.

Once you have sprayed the clear gloss, let it set at the minimum of a few hours, decals solvents can and will attack the surface of an uncured gloss coat, don't ask me how I know! Just play it safe and spray and let it sit overnight.

[BNSF7173]

Ok, well in this class we have learned some basic prep work, airbrush set up, paint set up and masking. We also learned a bit about the first steps of decals. My next post will be all about decals and how to get them to behave. Your probably asking me, "What about those pesky delrin platforms and handrails? How do I get paint to stick to those?" Well, we will cover that and more subjects in the next few days as we finish up this N scale tribute to Galesburg IL.

Until then, if you have any questions on what we covered here today, please post a question for the benefit of you and other Trainboard members.

Jim W.