Painting
In their later years the cab forwards had three different colors in their paint jobs. The basic color overall color was black, the hot areas (smokebox and firebox) were a graphite-grey color, and the lower portion of the cab front was aluminum.
For the black color I used a one to one mixture of Floquil engine black and weathered black. I used Floquil’s platinum mist for the cab front, and mixture of graphite and old silver for the smokebox and firebox areas.
Here’s a picture of the boiler after the graphite-grey and aluminum color had been painted.
The photos above also show all the other parts after being painted black. After painting each color I baked the parts in a warm oven (125 degrees F) overnight to thoroughly cure the paint. I painted the wheels in a separate batch (sorry no photos) after covering the tires with micro-mask. After the baking I came back and sprayed an overcoat of Testor’s dullcoat on all the black painted parts. On the areas where the decals are to be applied I sprayed Testor’s glosscoat instead.
After the paint had been cured, I came back and masked off the graphite-grey and aluminum colors on the boiler and cab. I used masking tape where convenient and micro-mask for the odd shaped areas. After masking I sprayed the rest of the boiler black.
Here are pictures of the boiler after the black color has been applied:
And the ends of the locomotive:
When I finished all the spraying I went back and painted the injectors and valve handles red. The cab area was also sprayed with a light overcoat of glosscoat to prepare for decaling.
Page 10 - Last updated April 25, 2004