I will be painting/decalling/detailing a 50' boxcar in railbox form. I am wondering what color paints will be most accurate and if acrylics or enamel will work best. I already found floquil railbox yellow, but what will I need for the door and roof? I do NOT have an airbrush. Thanks in advance.
Any black for the door should be just fine (maybe even consider the acrylic craft paints like Delta) and an aluminum or Amtrak Platinum Mist for the roof.
great thank you! i am waiting on a few atlas railboxes and am looking to match them so i'll give that a try thanks!
You said you paint without a airbrush? What technique do you use and could you post a example of the finished product?
to be honest, i dry brush buildings and so forth, but painting rolling stock will be a first for me. would aerosol be better? i just don't see myself coughing up the money for an airbrush setup anytime soon...
How far is Bloomburg PA from Jersey? I have an airbrush, brand new you can have. Nothing fancy, just a external mix, single action, but it will be better than brush painting.
If you are willing to be so generous, I can send you money for shipping in paypal. But to answer your question, I'm about an hour west of the jersey border. I don't have a compressor though... send me an im
I've never done airbrush painting either, so far the only custom job I've done was a NYC RS-3 (black except for a white stripe along the walkway and yellow railings) which I did with krylon grey primer and gloss black, I bought some krylon paint pens but found the tips were WAY too big so used them to make puddles which I dipped a pointed toothpick in for painting the railings. I then applied glosscote, decals, and then another layer of glosscote to seal them.
The most important thing about these boxcars is rust. Yep, rust. Back east, cars travel under bridges and get salt from the roads all over. They got nasty real fast! The best rust I found was a color called Antelope Brown, an acrylic color that comes in an inkwell at crafts stores. Apply with a toothpick along the roof line, and use your finger to draw it downward. To get the scab look, where rust starts to peel off metal from behind, put some on a toothbrush and then use your finger to spray dots on the side (just a couple), then let it dry. The brown has a great green tinge, so much you'll want to get a tetanus shot just looking at the car! :tb-biggrin:
Go the airbrush route if you can. For many you can use compressors, CO2 or aerosol. Even a cheapie from harbor freight will work (very well to be honest). I've been fortunate enough to get a couple airbrush specific compressors over the years for free or next to nothing. Pawn shops, thrift stores and yard sales are great places to look if you work on a budget like I do. IF you decide to just used spray cans, make sure the can AND your model are nice and warm. I prefer them to be around 70-80 degrees. The rough part is if you shoot it outside, the 12 inches or so between the can and your model can really destroy the finish if you live in a cold climate.
