Painting the Boiler
After repairing the boiler the next step in the process is painting. Since there were numerous modifications to the original locomotive there were a bunch of holes that needed to be patched prior to painting. After patching the holes with white putty I sprayed the boiler with primer to verify the quality of the hole patching. Where needed I sanded and filled a bit more and then locally sprayed a bit more primer. I repeated this process until the patched areas could no longer be seen.
Here are a couple of photos showing the primed boiler:
The next step was to paint the firebox and smoke box areas in a metallic color to simulate the hot metal areas on the locomotive. In past projects I have used Testor’s Burnt Metal metalizer paint, but this paint is tricky to work with as you can’t mask it with tape as it lifts off very easily. For this project I decided to try something new after I heard about Alcad II, a lacquer based metalizer paint that makes claims it can be masked, and in addition it doesn’t require a sealer.
I used the color “steel” and sprayed the firebox and smoke box areas first. Then I used a combination of Micromask and tape to mask off these areas. I then sprayed the rest of the boiler with a mixture of two parts Floquil weathered black and one part engine black. The boiler was then placed in a warm oven for 12 hours to cure the paint. After drying the window sashes and the injectors were hand painted with caboose red. The arm rest on the window was hand painted coach green. When everything was dry the entire boiler was sprayed with a couple of light coats of Testor’s Glosscoat in preparation for decaling.
Here is a picture of the “glossy” boiler after the decals have been applied:
The lettering came from San Juan Decal’s fine set of Espee steam decals. After lettering I sprayed several light coats of Testor’s Dullcoat to seal the decals and to dull down the boiler.
Here are a couple of photos after Dullcoating:
Note how the “black” looks so much different just as a result of the change in the sheen of the paint.
Here’s a close up shot of the cab lettering:
Page 6 - Last updated September 3, 2005