ModelRailroadForums.com is a free
Model Railroad Discussion Forum and
photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
A question about painting metal handrails here. Mostly Athearn BB. I thought I read that the popular paint now, is using the durable paint that RC hobbists use to paint the lexan bodys. However, I dont believe they come in railroad colors do they? Should I just stick with the arcylic paints I used to use before I scaled back from the hobby in the early 90s? I came back to the hobby earlier this year and now its time to get back to painting some of these untouched locomotives. So in a nutshell, what type of paint would you recommend for doing metal handrails?
Chris, I've always used Floquil's railroad colors. Then dull-coated over that with good results.
For BB metal handrails, Floquil enamels are hard to beat. Metal handrails hold paint well. although acrylics don't stick quite as well as enamels. The tricky handrails are the slippery engineering plastic variety like celcon. Pactra Racing colors are made to stick to this kind of surface. Although they don't come in "railroad" colors, most handrails are pretty basic colors and you should be able to find a match in the Pactra line.
There's a flexible additive for paints, that supposedly works as good as the lexan RC paints. I've not yet bought it myself, and heck if I can figure out where I put that link. It's posted somewhere on this forum too...
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website
(Learn More Here)
