Grey primer is my choice of paint - everything gets a coat unless brown primer is a better choice.
Then I’d leave the smokebox flat grey if the rest is going to be gloss. And yes, the cab would have been painted the same gloss black as the boiler.
Yep I wasn’t sure if I was going to mention his name, don’t know why I thought that way.
Thanks, Pete! Those colors are ready-to-hand.
Eric;
I believe the flat silver finish on real smokeboxes was actually a mixture of re-refined motor oil and graphite. I tried it once on the 4-4-0 on the Dry Gulch RR. PHEW!!! The evaporating oil made a fine stench until it was all gone! Of course, the smokebox was a good distance away from the cab on a full-sized locomotive.
Regards, David Meashey
Thanks, Dave, but I think we weill take Pete’s suggestion and just leave it flat grey. If we need to “metal it up,” maybe we can dust some ground up pencil “lead” onto the smokebox.
Eric.
Update:
Kid-zilla selected the remnants of a broom handle as raw material for the missing steam dome. I got out my arch-nemesis, Sabre Saw, and cut off a chunk. After the ritual critique of my less than straight cut, he went at the thing with a Dremel.
I got called away and found that he had made this:
Pretty good for someone who has never tried this before! He has since sanded and sealed the wood.
I decided that he needed an enthusiasm boost, so I told him we could prime ex-North Star / Pre-Commissioned Unit (PCU) Golden Star. He had elected not to try and remove the clear plastic inner-walls that form the windows, deciding the glue was too tough, so I showed him how to mask the windows.
!
The inner wall cut a cursory masking, too. We will have to use some black paint later and touch it up.
Then it was off the Palm of Spray Painting for a grey undercoat.
!
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He was feeling pretty good, then I told him he needs to prep the tender, so it was back to screwdrivers, soapy water, and old toothbrushes. He discovered the old B’mann trucks were broken, so we salvaged leftovers from leftover parts from last year’s Submarine Transport for the Triple O and added them to the project bucket.
I thought the painting was premature, as we need to add stanchions for the handrail, a whistle, and a pressure relief, but he really needed to see the red plastic disappear so that he could see the proud Golden Star in the array of bits instead of a sad Christmas loco.
Brass for missing handrails, gold paint pen for detail parts, decal paper and dry transfers for lettering, are all on hand. I need to get cotter pins to serve as stanchions, and he needs to find something to serve as a whistle and something else for a relieve valve. It’s hard to believe we are closing in on reassembly and commissioning!
Eric
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He corrected me…it is to be commissioned as Golden Star.
That is great. Kid Zilla you knocked that out of the park. 
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Update:
We had a busy weekend, but PCU Golden Star did make it to the Palm of Spray Painting.
First, I found out that Krylon does not play well with Rustoleum when I tried to put a flat coat on the smokebox door.
The undercoat had bee drying for a week. A bit of wire brushing, an new coat of grey, and all is well.
Kid-zill had the tender prepped, so it got its undercoat.
The chassis will get flat black later. The sides will be gloss black, and the top will be flat black to allow the coal to have glossy contrast. We will also paint some of the wood, like the fireman’s platform and the planks restraining the coal, a dark, smudgy grey…or brown. He can pick.
We did haul out Golden Star’s various bits for a coat of flat black. He masked the smokebox first, of course, as well as a part of the sand dome (I think it has the original number).
He tried his hand at spray painting…
…found that he has some sanding and refinishing to do!
He took it in good stride, actually.
When everything is done, we’ll add the brass trim and then give the boiler jacket and cab exterior a gloss finish. It should look pretty sharp!
Other than that, the cotter pins are on hand to make the handrail, so hopefully we can start bending brass bits this week. Kid-zilla can almost see this thing heading a train on the Triple O!
Have a great week!
Eric
Mine sometimes look like that. 
The solution is to always start a pass from the side, and move slowly or quickly across the piece being painted.
Thanks…his solution was to give the can to me! His next project will be a rocket, so that he can practice on a more forgiving subject!
In the meantime, sanding, spraying, masking, detailing, and touching up continued today. Pictures to follow. I am trying to get him to slow down a bit to prevent accidents from rushing the last mile!
Aloha,
Eric
Pretty sure we’ve all been here so I’d say he became a member of a world wide club. 
Oversprayers Anonymous? Slow Sprayers of Hawaii?
I was thinking more WHOOPS ( We Have Our Own Paint Splotches ) 
You mean that spraying one heavy coat, and then sanding and scraping the runs and sags isn’t normal ?
Update:
We are well positioned going into 4th of July Holiday Week.
Kid-zilla removed the making from the cab…
…and, after locating something that could serve as a whistle / pressure relief valve, quickly discovered that the rounder, smaller, and more dirt colored the part, the more likely that gravity will not push directly downward.
I showed him how to mask the boiler…
…and he used a paint pen to color the brass. I had to restrain him a bit from finding brass everywhere! He was so excited, the he did a partial reassembly.
Ummm…wow? We were blessed with a modern donor chassis, but I am amazed what a couple cans of spray paint and a marker can do to transform an abandoned and junked toy into a model.
This weekend I hope to bend the various brass railings. Cotter pins are on hand to make stanchions. We will install them after the mail packet arrives with epoxy putty. Kid-zilla is anxious to see Golden Star on the rails, so, while there are things I’d like to do, this is his model, and I am going to move towards buttoning this up over the next two weeks.
We have to:
- Decide if the boiler jacket should get a gloss coat or stay flat.
- Decide on the lettering.
- Test and wire in the headlamp and smoke generator.
Updates to follow!
Eric
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