OK OK...(slaps self). When you're wrong..you're wrong and it sure looks like I am/was. My apologies. Thanks for the education. Even I am not too old to learn something...and I did.
$150 is reasonable all things considered. You definitely get what you pay for. I would also want to know the person like Lou on here you get to see his work and it is consistently spot on; so even if you have to pay slightly more with Decals, Stripes and all it's well worth it. Just my thought and N Scale is tiny so not that easy
As has been credited to Curly of the Three Stooges: "I resemble that remark!" I "retired" from custom painting (more or less) after fighting my way through a PRR 5-stripe E8 (well before Kato released theirs), inventing new swear words in the process.
I was assuming in my response that it was $150 for the painting only, locomotive not included. I didn't know that he (Hobby Smith) had a custom run still available. I'd assumed that they were long gone. $119 is really not bad at all considering the MSRP of the non-special run diesels these days.
Yellow is VERY transparent. It takes ALOT of yellow to cover ANY color. I have a RR that I model that takes me several coats of yellow just to cover a grey primer. Now with the SP&S, that is not actually a black that is on the upper part of the body. It is a VERY dark green that appears black. The bottom sill is however black, as well as the trucks and fuel tanks. $150 does not seem unreasonable to me to paint this loco. The locos I have painted I have sold for around $150-$200 range, depending on how much work is involved. Best Regards Ryan
Then we end up easily with somewhere in the $200-300 range tied up, or more, for one unit. I can see where that steps well beyond the budgets of many folks.
I heard years ago from a fellow modeler, "If you are going to buy a custom painted loco plan on paying double the standard MSRP for that loco."
George,one of these C628's is a factory Atlas,one is mine..I'll let you try to guess which is which,LOL!! Hey,Merry Christmas you guys!!
Bye the way,let's not ignore that a set of decals are over 6 bucks these days..I've gotten to the point where I'm buying locomotives I really need yet based on what decals I have "in stock"..
Normally I do paint the lighter color first, but on some models such as this ACL FTA, I don't. Even the small stripe is painted on. I find that using Erie Lackawanna yellow over black gives the right shade of yellow...it works for me, anyway! So, yellow is not always that hard to paint over a dark color. Sometimes it works very well!
I custom paint n-scale locos and cars and have done quite a few of each for many people on this forum. I guess I am charging way too little for what I do. I normally charge anywhere from $45-65 for a loco and $20-40 for a car depending on complexity. Of course I am not making a living doing this and I do it to support my hobby. You supply everything but the paint. I also have an Alps and can print decals. Everything I quote is based on complexity and what I have to do. I do not detail locos (grabs, etc), I just paint and decal. As I said there are many of my locos floating around. I just finished up 2 FEC ES44's for a gentleman down in Florida and I only charged him $50 apiece and I had to print some decals too. Of course some people may say you get what you pay for. You would have to ask my "customer's" opinions but I think you may just be getting more than what you pay for in my instance. Anyone is welcome to IM me or email me at jagowers2000@gmail.com and we can talk about painting. I can also provide pics (and I have posted some on here showing the finished product). Just my opinion. Yes I support buying trains with the money I make but I also realize people are on fixed budgets and of course there are some with deep pockets also (not me).
JDG does excellent custom painting at a very good price. I can't tell you how many locomotives he has done for me....... See - http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...-E-units-Containers-and-NS-F-units&highlight= The Phase II AMTRAK E8 photo in the thread was done for me, along with another small fleet of other E8 AMTRAK both A and B units. All of them are amazing. And the costs were below the $150 fee the poster was quoted. There are others as well who do a great job at custom painting with detailing and without. Send me an email or message me here on Trainboard and I can provide you with links to other custom painters who do great work at reasonable rates.
JDG has done a ton of locos for me, all exceptional. The FEC units are stunning, not correct as they are not C-4"s. Bob. How do I post pics. Bob.
Nice I was going to try to find something positive to say but really wanted to bash you. I don't remember what he, (Hemi / Trainboard member), charged to do these but it was not enough: Wish I could afford his services again. More of his work: The GN never had U50s and the CP never had FP45s but I do.
