Painting Plano Brass?

[macjet]

I have some Plano etched metal walkways that I will be adding to some older Intermountain kits. I am assuming that these are brass parts.

What is the best way to paint these?

Do I have to use a primer?

How do I prep the surface?

What is the best sealant?

Thanks!

 

[RCH]

Mac,

They are stainless steel walkways, and if you're applying them to covered hoppers, leaving them unpainted will be appropriate for most prototypes.

If your prototypes do require paint, you might sand them with 400 grit paper to give the surface some tooth. I paint with solvent paints, such as Testor's Model Master line, Scalecoat II, Floquil, so paint adherence isn't much of a problem at all, though you may have different results using acrylic paint.

Unless you're painting them yellow or other light color, I wouldn't worry about primer. And I'd only use it as a color undercoat to make the color coverage more complete, but not for any other reason you might have for using primer.

 

[macjet]

Thanks.

I'm painting two Rock Island and two Rio Grande covered hopper walkways. According to IM the Rock walkways are blue and I haven't checked the RG's yet. All of my paint is acrylic. I'll try the sanding and hopefully that and the flat clear will keep it on.

 

[Smoke]

Sand blasting would also give it some good tooth. Badger's blaster works great for this.....

 

[macjet]

Sand blasting would also give it some good tooth. Badger's blaster works great for this.....

That would be awesome except that I blew the next few months "play" budget at Sears yesterday. 50% off Craftsman tools!!

 

[macjet]

Mac,

They are stainless steel walkways, and if you're applying them to covered hoppers, leaving them unpainted will be appropriate for most prototypes.

I need to research this some more. I'm also adding Plano walkways to three Rock Island P2K 4427 Kits. I need to find some roof shots.

 

[RCH]

Check out Fallen Flags:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/ri/ri.html

PS 4427s are near the bottom of the page in the 130xxx and 131xxx series. It appears the walkways are painted the body color.

This photo seems to confirm the body color applied to the walkway:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=658387

This PS 4427 low side also appears to have the walkways painted the body color.

 

[macjet]

Thanks! Looks like I'll be firing up the paint booth today.