Any of you had paint flaking on the body of a USA diesel?
If so, and if there was a re-paint, what was done to the body to prevent a repetition? I have cracking and flaking on my seven year-old USA GP 38-2 – Santa Fe colors.
The color match appears to be:
Floquil UP ARMOR YELLOW
and
Polly Scale UP DARK GRAY (184)
I had this happen to an F3a. I was able to brush on some polly scale to fill in the holes in the stripes. Looked fine from a few feet away, of course. Have you considered doing a heavy weathering job instead?
As to a weathering effort, I have “patched” in much of the flaked areas – some 1/2" in size – with the Polly Scale Dark Gray and a few areas in the yellow. The visual effect is definitely “weathered” showing the obvious that this loco has served its time. Chip off some paint, fill in with the new, and you will see the craters in the body.
The question remains have others had the same problem and what prep did they use for the repaint? These “patches” likely will not remain for the same reason the factory paint didn’t.
One conclusion is the plastic itself resists the paint – apparently previous practice in China manufacturing was to reuse plastic “shavings” and “floor scraps” mixed with virgin plastic. If this is the case, with this particular run of locos, there will need be a remedy to overcome whatever is in the body material that resists the paint over time.
I had never heard of this on that model. I couldn’t help too much there. I do have another engine that the paint seems to flake off easily on just by rubbing. Luckily it is just on the gas tank right now and even a black marker might do with some type of weathering to cover. Sounds like some type of special primer is needed. That of course would require a whole new paint job. I’m hoping the rest of the engine’s paint won’t flake off on mine.
Anyway you could post a photo so others could see what’s happening?
Happens all the time on the F units, have had it happen to about 4 of them for me. The plastic underneath is very slick feeling, so my guess is that there are runs where something like mold release was not removed, only speculation, but the flaking is very common.
Greg
Wow 4 of them, This would probably explain all the spare body’s Roe sells off down at the ECLSTS.
Ive never seen it on mine, but I will pull out my F-3 s and checked them. I just looked at the other stuff thats here and it all looks good including the Aristo stuff. I guess a lot of Manufactures at one time or another most likely go thru this. I see MTH has the same issues not to long ago with some of there stuff as well, but I’m sure most manufactures if the have spares will make it rite. I would hope so anyways. Greg were they the painted or Chrome versions ?
I’ve had very good luck in using Krylon’s standard gray sandable primer. This will allow you to test whether or not you’ve fully repaired the spots, and you can always sand and re-prime the areas. It dries very quickly, allowing you to fully prep the loco in less time. Start off with very light coats and work out until it has a uniform gray color. Afterward, you can continue on with Krylon paints, or even use airbrush acylics.
I think, however, a full repaint is probably not worth while if you still want the loco in UP colors (and you have other UP engines you want it to match with). Being 7 years old, you might be better off selling it on ebay as-is (for much more than you’d expect) and then use that money toward a brand new unit in UP.