What paints and dulling spray do you use for live steam engines. I currently use scalecoat weathering colors for my plastic models but need advice for live steam.
Good question Mike. I am currently rebuilding my Aster light mike. I am waiting a new boiler shell to convert to a heavy mike. I just tried a light grey Duplicolor rattle can to lightly spray the drivers to make it look like the sand caused it. Came out OK but more work needs to be done. A great friend, Don Ball Jr. did this on a 1:1 loco back in the 70’s for a photo op at Steam Town. The engine was very very dead and cosmetically restored. Turned out great.
Maybe Charles and Ryan will chime in on this since it is part of their services. I will post their info as soon as I collect it off the “other” site. Oh what the heck, Bob won’t mind. Go to My Large Scale and under forums go to Live Steam. Click on their sponsor link. I am thinking of trying Doc O’Brien’s weathering powders or Vallejo pigments from Micor Mark.
Regards
Noel
I’m thinking, the only difference would be the prep to get the weathering to stick better. A good primer that will stand up to heat and humidity would hold anything added over it just fine as long at it could stand the H&H as well.
I have found you really dont need any special paints. I have used the high temp grill spray paint and regular krylon spray paint, even the folk art acylics will work and air brush paints . I have yet to use a primer. All these paints will be able to handle the temps. You have to make sure you get all the oil off. I use simple green to clean everything, Then I will spray or paint my desired colors. The key is to make sure the metal you are spray painting is warm. Cold metal the paint wont stick very well. After each coat I use a hair dryer to dry the between. This allows me to spray on more coats sooner. Give it plenty of time for the paint to dry really well. I will even bake the metal parts in the oven. You want to avoid wiping the engine down after steaming as the paint can get tacky. But that can happen on factory painted ones as well.
I used a variety of paints and techniques on my LS Shay. Here is an old thread from 2010 of how I did it with pictures.
i use the same techniques on live steamers as I do with the sparkies–acrylic washes and powders. The powders do eventually come off with all the oil and stuff, but they’re easily re-applied. I do not seal my weathering with any kind of an overspray, as that ruins the effects of the weathering. Examples:
I’ve seen good stuff done with airbrushes as well, if you’re looking for a “dust” look on the trucks and wheels and such.
Later,
K
Like Kevin, I just use the same as on my electrics. Acrylics from Michaels ‘washed’ down the boiler look very authentic as dirt! (The wash is approx 50:50 water and paint.) This EBT #12 was splashed with black/grey mix in various proportions with water. The smokebox has more grey, so it is more of a graphite color. Compare it to the straight-out-of-the-box glossy black Accucraft locos behind it.
The back of the boiler, which extends out of the wrapper in to the cab, was a bright copper color, but a coat of black acrylic (not diluted) toned it down and the paint shows no signs of problems due to heat.