Athearn F-45

Here is an undec I finished painting this weekend. It's missing the front windshield glass as that was missing as well as the porthole glazing when I received the engine. Athearn is sending me the missing parts.
Painted with Floquil acrylics. I am having some difficulty getting a good gloss base finish for decal application and hence have been fighting with some silvering. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
It's an interesting paint scheme with all the alternating red and yellow on the steps, handrails etc.

 

Paintjob looks great. I ahve a BN unit on order. Not sure you can do too much for the silvering. Have you tried a massive amount of solvaset. May be able to poke some small pin holes in the decals so the solvaset flows through.

 

Sorry I can't answer your question about your decal issue, but I have a question about what you did. How do you glue your windows in without the glue fogging the windows up?

 

Thanks Tony, I did that and it helped. I still need to find a better gloss to use for the decal application and some fresh decal solvent.

Cf on the windows... I use Floquil clear gloss acrylic to hold the windows in place.
I take a round toothpick and apply the gloss around the edge of the window opening then
press in the window. The stuff is very sticky when wet and drys clear.

 

Yeah the Kristal Kleer works as well.
A gloss cover coat before decaling is where I'm having issues with finding a good gloss to use. The Floquil gloss I've been using in my opinion isn't glossy enough.

These are great engines by the way! Athearn has a winner here.

Great Falls Montana is my home town! Steinhouse and Howards Pizza was my second home lol!

 

Craig, excellent paint job on that unit!:thumbs_up: Of course I'm partial to the Kodachrome scheme. And forgive my ignorance, but what is silvering?

-Mike

 

I used to use Accupaint (not Accuflex, totally different) gloss as a finish to decal over, nice gloss and dry to the touch to decal over within 30 minutes, I could paint and decal a two colour paint scheme in an afternoon. If I used Accupaint as the main colour it was a good enough finish to decal straight onto. Don't know if Accupaint is still made though, haven't been able to get it in Australia for a few years now. I've tried other gloss finishes but nothing really measures up to the Accupaint.

 

Have you tried either Testors Model Master Clear Gloss Acryl or Tamiya Clear Gloss? They have both worked for friends of mine in the static model end of the hobby. Also, as a last resort, you could try either Future floor polish, full strength from the airbrush (another static modeler's secret, and one we use A LOT for airliner models!), or, and be VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS STUFF, Alclad Lacquer Clear Gloss Coat. Teh AlClad WILL give you a gloss coat, but it will EAT bare plastic if you get even a TINY puddle, and WEAR A GOOD FILTER MASK RESPIRATOR when airbrushing it!
It's a total PitA to work with, but the results are INCREDIBLE!
Future is a lot easier, but gives darn near as good results; only thing is, with the Furute, it's almost as "clean out the airbrush RIGHT NOW!" critical as acrylics are; if that stuff dries in the airbrush, it's time for a new airbrush, period, no questions, throw it away!
I know; found out the Hard Way.:tb-mad:

 

Thanks Mike! Silvering is areas on the decal that don't bond to the paint, leaving a silverish looking area. It's really delamination of the decal to the surface. The decal film doesn't disappear into the paint like you want.

Wesfalen and Mad yank thanks for the input. I will try some other brands for gloss on future projects. Lacquer is out of the question and the Future sounds like a PITA for sure.

I did get a fresh bottle of Solvaset today and it did the trick with removing the silvering.