Painting Help!

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Midnught Special

Midnught Special

Member
Ok im reading through the painting tips area and it looks mostly like things I can do, now Im going to try repainting the not so nice "fake" amtrak cars that are non realistic anyways...now I have painted walls to a house before so I know about masking and that type of thing, but I want to paint the light blue (im guessing its light blue) and the silver different colors, (I am thinking of keeping the silver tho so just consider that as a possibility here) and I am thinking either orange or red to replace the blue...

now question is, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should proceed, should I use primer? will that be over kill? or what? anyways any thoughts would be helpful, I may use my broken engine as the guenie pig for the heck of it as its well busted...so yea offer the color combos im open to other color ideas, so please SUGGEST away :D
 
I'd skip the primer unless I was going to a lighter base color. As for "reinventing" the Amtrak paint scheme, I'd try darker blues and reds. Perhaps a waving flag design down the sides of the cars with white stars on a blue field on the engine. You can never go wrong with adding some polished metal. However getting the polished metal paint just right is not an easy task.
 
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well these are supposed to look a little on the "budget" side as im trying to make them look like they were Amtrak protos that never went into service but were dont in Amtrak colors, and then sold to the NBR (check out my RR history/back story and you see where im heading with it all) and then the NBR being self sufficent and budget conscious kinda company (remember they are supposed to be a company that had its original fleet seized and they are essentially starting brand new in a new place) so the cars im wanting to kinda reflect that so if they arn't "pretty" thats fine with me, I would rather they not be 100% prstine and perfict as if it was a multi-million dollar budget job....its got to look like it was done on a small budget, just enough to get them out of the Amtrak scheme and into there scheme...

so with that woudl you suggest just quick slap some paint over the logo/Amtrak wording and make it say not match perfectly, one or two shades lighter/darker?
 


post a picture of the amtrak cars here in this thread...I know ive seen them but cant remember which thread it was...would probably help prompt some more ideas too.

Pesonally I have painted lots of models, use an airbrush, and I always prefer to start fresh when doing a repaint and use a light colored primer on the whole piece, and/or quite honestly I usually just wash the part/model real good, then paint the whole piece with a gloss white. It makes for layering different paints much nicer as a flat always has a very textured look and builds up quick after several layers. If I want an old look as the end result, I use a flat/dull clear coat. This too can be layered to get the desired dullness or roughness.
 
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ok heres the cars, enjoy and let the ideas flow, oh the engine(s) in the pics are not going to be done, they will be done later...oh and nothing too complicated as im still a novice when it comes to that type of stuff, im gonna keep this simple, plus its supposed to be a "budget" paint job type look...

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oh geez u have a great base color. You will never replicate the windows decal/sticker so I would think to tape over that, then paint 2 other colors, one above and one below the blue. Do you have an airbrush??
 
no I don't have an airbrush, and sadly i don't have a place to store one :( as for the windows there light up type, so I think I might be removeable, as for the amtrak and logo (amtrak) thats going away, the silver I think I will be keeping for now...
 
I was just playing on "paint "with your picture. The blue looks turquoise, leave that...I overlayed a cinnamon red color where the silver is.....then a dark pale yellow where the flat stripe is above the windows and an area below the windows. Looked sort of aztec color design...wheres this imaginary RR operating....midwest maybe LOL:D but it looked good...would probably look great all weathered out and beatup. haha now I want to do one up
 
Since you don't have room for an airbrush, just use some rattle cans to paint them. Testors has a wide variety of colors available in the cans, and they are easy to use.

If you can get them apart and the "windows" removed, I would first strip them in 99% alcohol, and paint the silver/grey color first. When that is dry, mask off for the stripe. Then paint it last. Remember, lighter colors first!
 


Midnught Special said:
what if I don't want them to be as pristine looking, should I just paint what I want and make it close but not perfectly matching?
Click to expand...

I would still go ahead and paint them "pristine", then after decal application, weather them to what ever grimy, dingy, dirty level you want. That's how just about everyone does it.
 
well I'm not everyone now I am I? ill give that a try, and if I like it ill keep it if not I can always find another set, any tips on how to make grimy?

and I'm speaking partly with sarcasm LOL
 
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Economy paint jobs, or simplified paint jobs were applied when a railroad wanted to save a bit of money. They still did a good job applying the paint, they just chose less colors (and cheaper ones too - black, white, no bright colors typically) and put on fewer or less 'fancy' markings.

You could paint the cars (after disassembling them) one color and apply one small railroad herald and number...instant 'simplified' paint scheme.

You said you wanted a low quality look to the paint? If you look at photos of trains, even poor paint job look pretty good from far away; I'd suggest trying to produce a 'good' paint job first(proper coverage, clean paint lines, etc...), a 'poor' paint job tends to look unrealistic and toy-like to me.

If you want to show history by retaining the original paint scheme a bit, cover any corporate markings from the previous owner with a simple rectangle. The logo may not be visible, but you (or most people familiar with railroads) will be able to tell who used to own it.

Look at pictures online for reference. I don't think those models are accurate models of a specific prototype, so not real expensive?). Learn by doing: Paint it, weather it, run it, then strip it and start over and do it a little differently. I'll bet each paint job will look better than the last and if you like your original scheme, repaint it into that scheme...it will be better than the first paint job and you will have gained a lot of experience! Who knows, maybe I'll be asking you for advice when I finally get around to painting my locos!

Good luck...stick with it!
 
delray1967 said:
Economy paint jobs, or simplified paint jobs were applied when a railroad wanted to save a bit of money. They still did a good job applying the paint, they just chose less colors (and cheaper ones too - black, white, no bright colors typically) and put on fewer or less 'fancy' markings.

/ / / / ~ ~ ~ / / / /

If you want to show history by retaining the original paint scheme a bit, cover any corporate markings from the previous owner with a simple rectangle. The logo may not be visible, but you (or most people familiar with railroads) will be able to tell who used to own it.
Click to expand...

Exactly, couldn't have said it better!

Johnny
 
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