painting a loco


W

wright2626

Member
about to paint a couple of locomotives in a two tone scheme, yellow and blue. wondering if i should paint the blue first, or the yellow first. using the tru color paints, and the fort worth and western scheme, and what the difference in painting one color over the other.
 
Always paint the lighter color first, and depending on the color of the body, you may need to apply a primer first. Yellow and red are some of the hardest colors to get decent coverage with without a light or neutral primer. If the surface is black, it may be that to get decent coverage of a color like yellow, that the coats get so heavy that detail is covered. When painting colors like yellow, or red, I always start with a primer coat of a light grey, or tan. This allows me to get at the most a 2 thin coat coverage of yellow that completely covers without hiding detail.
 
I agree with Carey, always do the lighter color first, and prime with a lighter color if the base is dark. If I were you I'd prime the whole thing, shoot it with yellow to the desired look you want the yellow to be, mask the stuff you want to keep yellow, and spray a light coat of yellow over the edges of the masking material. This will prevent the blue from bleeding under the masking material and give you super crisp clean paint lines between the colors!!! Good luck, have fun, and post pics when your done!!! ;)
 
PlowGuy said:
mask the stuff you want to keep yellow, and spray a light coat of yellow over the edges of the masking material. This will prevent the blue from bleeding under the masking material and give you super crisp clean paint lines between the colors!!! ;)
Click to expand...

That rates as a Top Tip.
 
I also agree with Carey. Paint the yellow first. My fleet is painted yellow, and starting with an undecorated shell, I airbrushed sometimes as many as six extremely light coats so as not to hide details. Yellow is one of the hardest colors to get good coverage with.

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If you are using TruColor paint, a lot of the typical "rules" can be tossed out the window ! This paint is unlike another other. The coverage is very thin and very opaque. I've painted both yellow and white OVER black in only a couple coats ! I've never seen anything cover like that stuff. I switched to TruColor paint back when they first came out and now that's all I use.

As a side-bar .... don't bother using their thinner - it's way overpriced for what it is. Hardware store brand ACETONE does the same job for a fraction of the price. Don't try thinning this paint with anything else, you will end up with a mess.

Mark.
 
I agree with Mark, I paint exclusively with TruColor. I would highly recommend using a primer before hand. They mix their colors in a way that the primer is actually part of the final color. You will find that the finished product will be much closer to the paint chip that way.

I do love that you can shoot it straight out of the bottle with no thinner if you want. I still like puting some thinner in for good measure. I'd rather do ten thin coats and keep the detail than two thick blobby coats over lift rings. But seriously, the stuff is good enough to keep N-scale rivet detail.
 
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