First, the good news: The cab looks great as does the sand piping.
The bad news: +3-3=0 
BTW, I stopped raking leaves when I stopped mowing the yard. Now a “service” does it all…so you CAN’T make me feel guilty about something I’m not SUPPOSED to even DO!
(Yes, the yard IS CLEAN AND the grass IS MOWED!)
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HAha! Thanks guys, and roger all that!!
Bruce, I used a micro tap of yours with a finger knob on it, but can’t find where you got them… Thoughts?
But for bare taps, I just saw this 4-size (00, 0, 1 & 2) set by Gyro (also via M’Mark) for $30:
However, the same set can be ordered through Home Depot for $18, with free shipping:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gyros-High-Speed-Steel-Model-Railroad-Tap-Set-4-Piece-93-04101/204626125
They also have a tap and die set from 00 thru #6, pretty nice…
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gyros-Mini-Tap-and-Die-Set-with-Tap-Wrench-and-Die-Stock-16-Piece-93-16103/204626128
Wait. You want me to THINK? To remember stuff? Yeah…right.
Anyway, glad you found something. I really don’t recall where I got them from. Amazon is my typical goto, just because it comes so quick. BUT, Mcmaster-Carr was a very close second. I usually did an internet search and then weighed the pros and cons for price vs shipping vs delivery time.
MC doesn’t have them, and I couldn’t find them on Amazon or anywhere else. But thanks for giving your brain a workout for that answer. 
Thanks Dan.
And thanks for not asking about the 3 problems that I created.
Cliff
I think you MIGHT have left out the Unicorn-Fairy-Dust site? 
If I lived closer, I’d offer to come over and airbrush the locomotive for you. All this work and then to be rattle canned. Yikes!
Um, Ebay? Nope, couldn’t find them there either.
But no prob! I just invested in the Gyro tap & die set. HD’s price was half the retail price.
Still… your taps with the knurly finger knobs weren’t quite standard threads… but they (well, one now, since I broke the other this afternoon) seem to work well with the same-diameter micro lag screws… Huh.
OK, sorry, just talking to myself.
But if you remember what that UFD site is, please let me know. 
Yeah, yikes.
I sold my unused airbrush kit to my daughter to paint her model horses. That was two years ago. She picked up airbrushing right away, and I was amazed.
So, Craig, how many hours might it take to learn to use an airbrush, if I had the equipment in hand?
I agree. Rattle cans cratered a work project this summer; it took so much sanding & etc. to make things work. And with these confined model spaces (in the cab especially), I feel like I’m dooming the whole thing.
Cliff,
The best way to learn how to airbrush is pretty simple: practice practice and more practice.
Seriously Badger recommends the following method and I wish I would have learned like this ( I still may do it as some point to get better control).
- Go to the dollar store and buy a variety of kids and adult coloring books. Start with the paint by number type.
- Head to the grocery store and get some food dye. Mix food dye and tap water. Color said coloring books.
I’ll paint it up if you want to mail it off across country!
Craig as someone who has spent a lot of time behind an airbrush, and for the details it can’t be beat. But learn to rattle can the right way and nothing beats them for large surfaces. The key is many many light passes. The tendency is to spray on way too much. Hold it a long way away and just put a heavy most on.
I will challenge your airbrush against my rattle can on large detail void surfaces anyway. And its cheap and easy to clean up afterward, you hold the can upside down spray a second or two put on cap.
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Fantastic work, Cliff! It’s going to be a real beauty when it’s done!
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Devon,
It’s not just the coverage it’s the paint size. Rattlecan paint is typically large paint pigments vs smaller paint pigments of hobby paint. I agree that you can get a decent rattlecan job done if you don’t flood the model. Heck I use rattlecan clear coats on my models.
Properly prepared surfaces is also a key ingredient in a good paint job.
Btw, it takes me maybe 30 seconds to flush my gravity feed airbrush. Dump the color, add thinner, wipe clean with a rag, add more thinner, crank up the PSI to 60-80, spray thinner. Put the airbrush away.
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It is a large paint, ill give you that. And that’s why it isn’t good for details. Or for areas that have lots of lines or cuts or areas that can fill up.
It will never be better than airbrushing. But it can come very close on featureless large areas and for people who don’t want to invest in airbrushing and learn its techniques, they shouldn’t be deteried from using rattle cans.
I love my airbrush and have plenty tied up in the equipment to use it. Nothing is better. But I don’t consider it a necessity for large scale trains.
Thanks very much Ray, much appreciated!
Today was all part prepping for painting. Mainly final sanding, with the odd hole filling or repair with more sanding; then final cleaning with alcohol.
FWIW, hole filling with resin prints is fairly quick and easy, by dabbing on a little 3d printing resin and hitting it with a strong UV light (for maybe 15 or 30 seconds), repeating until filled, and sanding the excess away.
Here’s all the parts to paint:
And since the little bits have tended toward scrambledness, I sorted them out – hopefully in anticipation for a final-final assembly, woo hoo! (ok, wishful thinking that)
Onward to masking and priming, hopefully tomorrow. I’m grateful to guidance from Doc W. and Jerry B.
Since some of the brass parts need to look black-painted just like the main parts, I’ll use the primer Jerry suggested (after steel wool and alcohol wiping):
https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/auto/primers/self-etching-primer
I’ll test this also on resin scrap, and if it’s fine, will go with that. If it doesn’t bite well, I may use this product which Doc used on his amazing mogul:
So that’s it for today.
Happy New Year to all my friends here, and cheers,
:88> Cliffy
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After masking a few parts this morning, I threw together a temporary cardboard paint booth. It’s connected to the vacuum line I use for the laser, and it seemed to work quite well.
I decided to go for it with cans, mainly because that’s what I’m familiar with. I hope to make a decent version of this booth down the road, because with rattle-canning in the garage I’m always getting dust, wind, high humidity, or cold temps.
The overnight primer test went well, even for the resin parts. So I did the whole enchilada.
That’s it for today, more tomorrow maybe.
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