Paint help

[PRR5406]

I used high temperature motorcycle paint on the smokebox of my Reading A5a. There is a shade of metallic gray which closely resembles oiled graphite, as was used back in the day. I also like to point out, unless a steamer was assigned to a regular passenger run or name train, it usually looked heavily repainted, filthy, and repaired. I am a bit taken back by people wanting their locomotives to appear with "autobody" shiny, polished finishes. No shame in a locomotive looking like a hard working machine, doing an impossible job. Obviously, mechanical integrity is foremost.

[NP317]

PRR5506:
I like to follow prototype practice:
Fresh nice paint job out of the factory, and let it weather from use.

RussN

[Greg_Lewis]

The late Cal Tinkham's first job out of high school back in the early '50s was in the SP shops in Sparks, Nevada. Cal told me that when a loco came out of the shop there was an old guy who repainted the engines by himself..... with a Hudson weed sprayer.

[Jerry_H]

As far as painting an engine, I never have. I've painted a house several times but that doesn't qualify as an engine either. So consider the source of this suggestion. There is a process that you can use to blacken metals, steel for certain and I think brass also. If you were to blacken the frame and the parts which you are going to paint black then if the paint chipped the underlying metal would still be black and would, maybe, not be noticeable.

Another comment, if the black for the frame and assosiated (sp) parts was not pure black but had a touch of white in it to lighten it up then detail in the dark areas would be more visible.
Just a thought.

Jerry