I have a mixed bag of passenger cars, all the same model, but different colors/road names. What is a good paint for painting them to match?

Painting over existing Bachmann paint has a history of being a bit of a gamble as to what will play well chemically with whatever the Chinese used on the Bachmann trains that specific factory made on that specific day.

For me, on the ones I painted to date, have had good luck with spray paints of Duplicolor auto primer, and Rustoleum bonding primer, and good ol Walmart 98 cent flat white enamel.

Have had bad luck with Krylon of several flavors, both color and clear.

Testors gloss brown model paint enamel went on fine over factory black Bachmann coach roofs.

–> Have had in past a number of people spit out that old line “Well why didn’t you test it on the paint inside the body casting?” Umm, excuse me, but There Isn’t Any Paint Inside The Body.

Come on people, think this through, if you were the accountant writing checks for paint for the production line would you prefer to buy enough paint to cover both the inside and outside of every casting, or just enough paint to cover the outside of the castings?

I repainted several Bachmann boxcars. I scrubbed them clean, then after they dried, I coated them with Krylon gray primer. It covered well with no adverse reactions. I put it on in light coats, so it wasn’t too wet on the model.

I did the same on the 3 passenger cars I repainted, again with no adverse reactions.

Once the cars had a nice even coat of primer, I was able to paint them with various model paints, or Krylon spray paint.

I agree with David. The Krylon Grey primer is the trick to painting over most any models (even unpainted- undecorated models can cause you trouble without it). After that I have successfully sprayed many over brands of rattle can as well as airbrush acrylics.

Hmm. Wondering what Krylon has against me. This could give me some kind of complex if it keeps up.

Don’t take it personally Forrest! It could have something to do with your location. I personally avoid Rustolium because I find that enamels are more sensitive to the high humidity levels we have in the Northeast.

My first paint job with Krylon Fusion; Crinkled.

Then the 2nd time I followed the instructions and it worked fine. I know, go figure???

Something about the time between coats…

Forrest Scott Wood said:

Hmm. Wondering what Krylon has against me. This could give me some kind of complex if it keeps up.

Heh. I experienced problems with Krylon (so maybe we’re on the same team? Or maybe we just suffer the same complex???) …crinkling and poor coverage had me switch over to Rustoleum.

I don’t use any of the specialty products from Krylon…i only use their basic acrylic line that they have made for decades.

The railbus I made, was originally a Bachmann Circus Train combine. I sanded off all the lettering and decorative script, primed with Testor’s flat grey primer (2 coats), wet sanded with 400 grit sandpaper, and applied 3 coats of a Testor’s Blue paint. Turned out well, no blistering or orange peel, been using it outside for 15 yrs now.

Yea, I am not really a fan of their Fusion line. I got varied results with it, so I went back to the original Krylon line. Like I said, I try and do 2 thin coats of primer, 3 when I miss a spot. If I put it on too thick, it obscures details, and can sag and run. And since its solvent based, it can soften certain plastics.

I like Rustoleum paints over Krylon and I have used them on all manner of train cars.

The $1 walmart paint works well too. The black has a nice sheen to it and the grey is pretty good too. They used to have a nice rusty red but now it is bright red.

I would suggest multiple coats one right after another until all is covered. Usually 10 minutes between coats is good. Start by turning car body upside down and give it 2 coats then flip it right side up and give it 2-3 more. The only problem I have had is in covering large lettering or logos. That usually takes multiple coats.

When your project is completely dry, I usually wait overnight the whole car gets a coat of matte or satin clear to protect it.

If you use rustoleum use all rustoleum products, I have found mixing rustoleum and krylon can cause bad reactions.

Okay, I’m not crazy.

Or we all are.

Anyway, here is one of my repaints of a Big Hauler train set locomotive, the PRR one from 2009.

Boiler jacket was sprayed with some flavor of Rustoleum metallic grey, and here almost a decade later I can’t recall what if any primer was used.

Or what the green used was other than it didn’t quite match Bachmann’s green.

EDIT: chipping white paint off wheel rims was a chore but it Had To Go.

–> Note: striped cab awning is semi-prototypical; in Model Railroader’s 1980’s edition of Steam Locomotive Cyclopedia there is an 1880s origin 2-8-0 of some PRR subsidiary which has cab awning with narrower stripes.

So, once I got a train of a scale large enough to matter …

Hey, thanks y’all. And since y’all are liking the Pennsy project here’s the Virginia and Truckee project. The real V&T 26 was a 1910-something locomotive and of course was not in the 1870 style fancy livery Bachmann made their set locomotive in. Ironically they made the cars in a correct yellow and green for the 1930s where 26 would have been used. Before the yellow and green they were yellow and brown.

So … liking the fancy loco paint I decided to backdate the car colors.

V&T used several colors on its passenger cars through the years including a light green and a wine red.

–> After what I said earlier about chronic Krylon misbehavior over Bachmann’s paint the red on the cars may well be Krylon but over Duplicolor auto primer.

Again this is a project which is happening very slowly and was begun around 2010 or so.

Note that this project’s goal is not 100% accuracy but rather to capture a flavor.

Once again photo is on Mike and Mary’s now gone because they retired and moved layout.

First the roof hatch and the electric generator had to go.

–> note: instead of painting over factory fancy stack I bought a plain one to use instead

Oh, and note the smokebox got shortened to look more woodburnerish.

In real life the extended smokebox had a coal cinder catching arrangement inside.

Last summer this White Pass & Yukon car was primed for painting to I haven’t decided which of my freelance roadnames yet.

And Bachmann’s factory people had for once securely glued the window transparency parts, most securely glued them.

Easy masking but time consuming. And lots of potential failure points when it came time to spray.

Even though there was no rust to stop that is the type of primer used. Plus my mind considers Bachmann’s factory paint to be a ‘difficult surface’. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

Sprayed inside clerestory roof area white so as to bounce around eventual interior lights.

Will have to sand or scrape paint off clerestory sides in order to install transparent parts which will not be the factory red ones.

Did not paint floor/frame or trucks.