Painting a K-36

Painting a K-36

Jim Brown with Bill Adkins

My model of D&RGW K-36 #488 is a 2nd run PBL model that I bought from Mike's Narrow Gauge Models at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Salt Lake City in September, 2001. I had installed my usual array of lighting, DCC decoders, and a speaker but had procrastinated on getting it painted; however, after some - actually, LOTS - of encouragement from my very good friend Bill Adkins, I plunged into this project during the 2002 break between Christmas and New Years. As I progressed, I drew heavily on Bill for both his time-proven techniques and suggestions, and thought that I would share these with those who may ALSO have a locomotive to paint...

As almost all of the dialogue was conducted through email, I will intersperse Bill's comments and italicize them. My first note to Bill outlined what I intended to do...

PROLOGUE

"My past efforts have seen me using just plain ole Floquil and letting it air-dry for a week. But this time, I believe that I'll follow (what I believe is) your recommendation and go with Scalecoat, and bake it. What I'm striving for is a reasonably glossy finish (in order to better seat the decals, for one thing), and then do my final weathering with Floquil a la Kelley Morris' article that was in the "Gazette" many years ago.

I think you will be pleased with Scalecoat--it handles differently than Floquil and appears to be more forgiving.

So Vincent, lend me your ear (a FIGURE of speech, okay?). My intention is to first bathe the disassembled model in lacquer thinner to remove any coating and/or solvents.

Jim, personally I don't think I would use lacquer thinner. If you have access to an ultrasonic cleaner that would be the way I would go. First, 5 minute bath would be in hot soapy water. First and second rinses 5 minutes each would be in clear water. Do the running gear as a separate project to remove the grease. Now if you don't have an ultrasonic clearer I would still use the water vs. lacquer method mainly because of the hassle of removing ALL of the lacquer efficiently. On the other hand, there are a whole bunch of folks who swear by the lacquer method.

Once done, the green cab interior is next - with a suitable color to be determined.

This is where I use a Floquil color--I can't remember which one right now but I think it is their Light Green. I like it a little lighter to see the detail inside when one lights the cab.

Then on to the Black? WHICH Black do you recommend, as my memory is that there are several to choose from?

Scalecoat offers several blacks--I'm not sure it matters I think I have used both their #1 and #10 (?) and they make for a great gloss finish when baked.

And what about the Silver (or Aluminum?) for the smokebox and firebox areas? Alternatively, should those areas perhaps be painted BEFORE the Black is applied, and masked off? And what about the lights? My original thought was to forego baking the smokebox front, removing it and letting it air dry only so that I didn't have to mess around with the classification lights...this area shouldn't really be subject to much wear once assembled, right?

Use ALUMINUM not silver! And experiment with mixing it with a little black to achieve your preferred smokebox and firebox colors. I spray the smokebox, including front, cylinder heads and firebox with this mixture first, the green interior of the cab and cab front in one setting and then bake. Then it is masking time--ugh! Followed by the black spray. I hand paint the marker lights, headlight, handrails, etc. black later on if I can mask around them and spray them. If your model has class lights installed the air dry method should work. . . just make certain it is good and dry.

I guess I should also ask what pressure that you spray at, and the approximate percentage thinner that you use. What about Glaze or Clear Gloss - do you add any to the Black?

I don't use glaze or gloss with Scalecoat but do add about 5-10% to Floquil. For spraying I use between 40% and 60% thinner depending upon the color. Lately I have been shooting at lower pressures maybe 15 to 20 lbs. but all of this depends upon brand, color, thinning, air brush and the weather.

My other thought was that I might just start off and experiment with the cab first, until I'm satisfied with the end result and confident that I can duplicate it on the rest of the model.

Why don't you head down to the hobby shop and purchase a sheet or two of K&S brass. Then spray and bake to your heart's content - it may seem like an unnecessary exercise but it is a lot better than trying to strip any part of a model locomotive.

I'm also debating on whether I might forego totally tearing down the running gear and just spray it intact, carefully rotating it to ensure total coverage? I believe that Don Rose told me that is how he did his models. Any thoughts, other than the obvious (i.e., "you lazy s.o.b.!") ? I guess that drivers and any other wheels should be spared the oven in any event - does Scalecoat require baking to properly cure, or would perhaps Floquil be a better choice for these?

I no longer strip down the running gear other than the obvious: pilot truck, gear box and motor and drawbar. The rest gets spraypainted - maybe several times if necessary to achieve perfect coverage with baking at 140-160 degrees F for about 30 minutes each. I have yet to have a problem with loose tires or what ever. I leave the side rods on and paint them with NeoLube for the metallic look."

DAY 1 - DISASSEMBLY & CLEANING

"I've completed my disassembly to the stage you see, and am now going to fire up the ultrasonic cleaner for its first run! I'm also going to run a few 2" x 0.016" brass strips through as well, to use as practice pieces for painting as per your suggestion. I found a few loose bits already, and have resoldered as required.

Don't be a bit surprised if you discover a few more...frankly, one of the best things about an ultrasonic cleaner is that it identifies most loose parts before you get to that final over coat and assembly!

Do you figure I can get away with spraying the locomotive chassis more or less intact, without further disassembly? I thought I'd give the gear a quick wash with some lacquer thinner to take off most of the grease, but forego trying to strip anything else. I removed the smokebox front and am going to just stick with an air dry method on it - or a VERY brief oven exposure - as I didn't want to pull out all the classification lights, headlight, and resistor bank (which is mounted on the inside of the smokebox front) if I didn't have to.

Yes, just throw it in the ultrasonic cleaner by itself with soapy water. You will be amazed just how much grease/oil the soapy water will take off. But a pre-wash with lacquer thinner won't hurt. As far as the treatment for the smokebox front, that sounds like a good idea although a bake at less than 140 degrees probably won't hurt...better you experiment on your locomotive than mine!

I vacillated about leaving the tender trucks on, as re-attaching the truck chains looks like it may be a bit of a romance; however, I came to the conclusion that it would be almost impossible to get decent coverage without taking them off, so I did...

As far as masking, do you bother masking the wheels or do you just clean them off later with lacquer thinner? About the only other points that I can see that should be masked are the bolsters and mounting blocks for the tender trucks on the tender, the areas on the loco frame where it is attached to the superstructure and the inside of the number boards (I removed the bulbs) where I will need to solder the ground leads back on. And of course, the axle gear!

Jim, I mask the wheel treads of all wheels as well as the bolsters and mounting blocks on the tender as you described. You will still have a little clean up to do but second to masking, clean up of the wheels is one of the most time consuming jobs. Just remember to take your time, any places missed can be repainted after a baking.

Well, remember how you told me that the ultrasonic would find any loose parts? That it DID! When I took out the loco running gear, it seemed to be quite stiff...turned out that was because one of the crosshead guides had got a bit askew...because it was no longer securely soldered into the cylinder! Not too tough to repair except that it pretty much entails removing the cylinders...bummer! In the process of messing around with this, I managed to twist off the lubricator linkage as well. At this point, I began looking a little more critically at the reversing gear linkage, and decided that I may as well see if I could improve the operation of THAT as well..." in for a penny, in for a pound" as they say!

So, three hours (with an hour off for dinner) later, the running gear is BACK in the cleaning solution! Hopefully THIS time will see everything come out both secure -AND- free-rolling!

I just pulled it out of the cleaner again, and it seems like it's tightened up a bit...any ideas? Do you think this is just a case of water being an inadequate lubricant on a steel axle, maybe? I'm going to go ahead and put it in a rinse cycle and see what it's like in the morning after it's thoroughly dry..."

DAY 2 - PAINTING BEGINS

"It seems just fine NOW...guess the cleaning solution might have been the culprit, as when it was in the rinse cycle you could see the mechanism slowly rotating just from the cavitations of the ultrasonic action! And it was noticeably freer even after removal from the clean water. This morning - all dried out - it is exactly as it should be: silky smooth - WHEW !! I tested all the lights that were on the smokebox front, and one of the marker lights had failed so I replaced that now; the rest were fine. Do I understand correctly that you apply the Green to the interior of the cab and the interior front wall, and the Aluminium to the smokebox, piston covers, firebox, etc. WITHOUT any masking? Obviously, the intent would be to make sure that coverage is acceptable in the desired areas, but not to worry about any overspray, correct? What about the tender steps and journal boxes - hand paint AFTER the Black? Or do it now, and mask? As for masking, if I paint and bake for 30 minutes at 170 F. as discussed, how long should I leave it before masking - perhaps overnight, or close to 24 hours? Wouldn't want to jeopardize damaging the painted areas that I wish to retain!

You are exactly right when it comes to the application of green and then the aluminum. I usually hand brush tender journal box covers and steps BUT there is no reason you couldn’t spray them—the steps I mean, IF you think masking them is worth the time. Don’t be surprised when it comes to hand brushing aluminum (as well as the white running board edges) that you will be doing two coats with a baking in between. Just the nature of light paint over dark.

I bake just as you described but I do let everything set up overnight, most of the time. A second reason is that I like to mask, spray, tack bake and remove the drafting tape in one relatively quick session. Sooooooooooo....after you clean the aluminum out of the airbrush - be thorough - mask the tender under frame bolster and tender truck bolster, pilot and tender truck treads and anything else that gets a shot of black. Believe me, tomorrow when you mask all the aluminum and green then paint it will be a full day.

Then tomorrow you can concentrate on the cab, boiler and running mechanism and go back to what you painted black today and do your touch-up airbrushing.

What do I mean by tack bake? I usually put the masked locomotive parts into bake for about 20 minutes, remove the parts - and while still warm, I deftly remove the masking tape while the adhesive is a bit soft with tweezers. Then I just may slip it back into the oven to back for another 10 to 20 minutes for the heck of it.

I use drafting tape vs. masking tape, as the latter is sometimes too tacky and is more difficult to remove. Once in a while some of the adhesive will remain on the surface. To remove it I take a fresh piece of tape, roll it sticky side out and dab the surface where the recalcitrant adhesive is and 99% of the time it lifts off just fine."

"I sprayed the cab interior green (Floquil Light Green with about 15% Glaze added, and then thinned about 25% with Diosol) and the smokebox, firebox, cylinder covers, and tender steps with aluminum (Scalecoat S47 Aluminum, thinned with about 50% Scalecoat S48 Paint Thinner). I sprayed both at about 20-22 psi. Then into the oven:I set the timer for 10 minute increments so that I could monitor the smokebox front in particular and make sure that I wasn't melting any wires for the lights. As you can see in the attached photo, I blocked everything up so that none of the painted surfaces were in direct contact with my hardboard "cookie sheet". I left everything in for a total of 30 minutes as per your recommendation, at 170 F. which is the lowest temperature setting that our oven will go.

While the above items were in the oven, I masked the wheels on the lead, trailing, and tender trucks. I also remembered to mask the center of the tender truck bolsters where they sit on the frame. I then loaded up the airbrush with black (Scalecoat S10 Black, thinned about 25% - this seemed significantly thinner out of the bottle than the Scalecoat S47 Aluminum) and sprayed them to get a bit of a jump on tomorrow so that I could start painting the journal covers with their first coat of aluminum then. I guess that I could have painted the tender body, but I thought that I'd now experiment a bit with my sheets of brass to make sure that I was satisfied with the end results from my spraying technique. The trucks are obviously less critical as they will be subject to a fair degree of weathering. As per the previous items, I did two 10 minute shots and then took them out to remove the masking tape; then back in for a final 10 minutes to bring it to the full 30 minutes of baking time.

Bill, with respect to the various details on the smokebox sides that are to be painted black, would you recommend painting these FIRST - before masking the smokebox area and painting the rest of the boiler - OR - to mask off the smokebox, firebox, and the inside front cab wall and paint the boiler first? I'm somewhat inclined to take the latter approach and paint the black details on the smokebox later on, in conjunction with the cab details and running board edges, but thought that I'd see what you thought in case the preceding logic is flawed...also, I think that I will have to thin down the Scalecoat S47 Aluminum somewhat to brush paint - have you found it necessary to do this as well, with that color?

I tend to mask the smokebox completely, with the possible exception of the headlight, and then hand brush the black piping. Even the headlight can be done with a brush, but usually takes a couple of coats with baking in between. Try brushing the Aluminum on the journal box covers, etc. undiluted...too much solvent and you will have aluminum everywhere. BTW: If you slip a little with hand brushing, a quick swipe using tweezers with a small section of paper towel dampened with Scalecoat solvent usually takes care of the problem - that's one of the advantages of baking between each coat of paint. Just be careful of the aluminum, it seems to have a mind of its own some days!"

DAY 3 - MASKING & PAINTING THE FRAME

"I didn't get QUITE as far as I hoped but it was nonetheless a fairly productive day. The tender trucks and locomotive lead and trailing trucks are DONE - two coats of aluminum on the journal covers and twice baked...move over, Martha Stewart! <G> I also finished off the smokebox front, this time using black to paint over the various details: headlight, classification lights, handrail, hinges, etc.. This was also baked, and yes, the lights all still work - I did check!

I masked the locomotive and tender frames while the above were cooking. I think the piston valve covers turned out quite well! And those big cast tender steps on the K-36's - this is most definitely the way to go with these! I did the initial coat to both frames, baked them, and then followed up a couple of hours later with a quick touch-up coat to fill in some thin/missed areas. Then another bake, removing at the 20 minute mark to pull off the masking tape and then back in for a final 15 minutes. My last task for the afternoon was to go over the various wheels with a Q-Tip dipped in lacquer thinner to clean up the tips of the wheel flanges where the masking didn't quite cover.

Tomorrow will - hopefully - see the cab and boiler masked and then painted. We progress...slowly."

DAY 4 - MASKING & PAINTING THE LOCOMOTIVE AND TENDER

"Well, I think I made up for yesterday today! I masked the boiler and cab and finally got some paint on these last two remaining pieces. With each successive use of Scalecoat, I'm getting more comfortable with it and seem to be able to come up with fairly consistent results.

After the initial 20 minutes, I pulled the masking off of the front cab wall and the interior of the cab, and then popped everything back in for another 10 minutes. I left the masking in place on the smokebox and firebox, as I felt that this might be damaged once the white edges were painted on and then the Adkins/PBL trick of dusting on some more black at a low angle from the top was done.

White trim: I particularly like it on running board edges although several locomotives had aluminum edges at one time or another. Jack Walton asked me to relate Bill Peter's trick for painting the edges. Brush paint Scalecoat White on the edges twice, with a baking between coats. Likely there will be some white that bleeds on to the top and bottom surfaces. To clean it up, hold your airbrush at an acute angle to the top of the running board with the airbrush over the boiler and spray away from the running board edges with black paint. You should just catch the top of the running boards - spray with a light mist - and the white comes out clean and crisp. [But what if you get a little black overspray? Before you bake, use a small piece of cloth soaked in thinner to quickly wipe off the black - works 99% of the time.]

Finally, Jack also asked me to comment on Billy P.'s method of removing small glitches (lint) that may get trapped under the paint - most likely on cab roofs and tender sides, where they can REALLY be appreciated! The first and most important is to NOT wear flannel shirts when painting! As a matter of fact, I often wear a nylon windbreaker when I paint to protect the locomotive from lint as much as myself.

If worse comes to worse and you need to remove the lint: After the paint has baked, use a very small piece of 600 grit or finer sand paper held in tweezers to lightly sand it off. Use a gentle touch and when it is gone, respray the area much like you did to clean up the running board edges and then re-bake. More likely than not the surface will look great...and remember, weathering covers up a number of sins.

Once out of the oven and cooled, I gave both the loco and tender frame two coats of white for the running board edges, dutifully baking between each coat. I also remembered that there is a short section of running board on the loco chassis by the pilot that needed edging, and also the front steps should be silver so I did that at the same time.

I then did the top dusting to clean up the edges - boy, does that work SLICK - and once done, finally removed the masking from the smokebox and firebox areas. So that's where we're at tonight - I feel like I've done more baking than good old Martha, that's for sure! My plans for tomorrow are to start to detail paint the cab interior, and put some Scalecoat Clear Flat on the locomotive and tender frame and the various trucks. And maybe even start decaling...

Traditionally, this is how I have done my overcoats:

1. I apply and set the decals over the Scalecoat without additional gloss coats.

2. [GLOSS FINISH] I over coat the decaled surfaces with Floquil Crystal Coat. One trick Billy P showed me is to shoot a light coat of Crystal
Coat at a very acute angle to the decaled surfaces and towards the decal. The idea is to fill in the fillet between the paint and decal surfaces. You can dry this coat with the air from your airbrush and proceed with the complete over coating of the surface. I am not sure that this is really necessary with the "Thinfilm" type decals but the technique sure helps with thicker decals.

3. [FLAT FINISH] After the above is baked I spray the locomotive running gear, pilot truck, trialing truck and tender under frame and trucks with
Scalecoat Flat. After baking you will need to clean the wheel treads.

4. [SATIN FINISH] I then spray from directly overhead the tender, boiler and cab with a mixture 50:50 mixture of Floquil Flat Coat and Crystal
Coat.

The idea of the above is to mimic the various levels of gloss seen in most locomotive photos: the cab sides and tender sides often glossier than the rest of the locomotive and the running gear being the least. Several of Brian's locomotives have variations of this theme but I like the above the best for a newly shopped locomotive as opposed to using one type of overcoat for the entire locomotive. I suppose the best approach is to find a locomotive photo you want to match and use the various overcoats accordingly.

I am also certain that other manufacturers products will do just as well. However, you might want to stay away from the amber-colored gloss coats as they will shift the colors. As an example, I once over-coated a maintenance-of-way grey flanger with Floquil's Gloss producing a really ugly greenish flanger. Yuck!"

DAY 5 - CAB DETAILS, FLAT COATING THE UNDERFRAME, AND REASSEMBLY BEGINS

"Not a whole bunch of progress today, other than spraying the loco and tender chassis and ancillary trucks with Scalecoat S51 Flat Glaze. I did a LITTLE bit of masking, but didn't bother doing all the wheels again, electing to clean them up after the mandatory 30 minute bake with a Q-Tip dipped in lacquer thinner. I did have one problem though, as a drive rod dropped off the back of a crosshead as the shoulder on the hollow pin had either worn off or had loosened through the ultrasonic cleaning process. Not wanting to undertake a major teardown to remove the valve gear, I elected to mount a replacement pin from the back OUT, and flared the external end. A pin prick of solder to cover the hole and a few swipes with a miniature jeweler's file to flatten it and you would never know the difference.

I painted the cab backhead details, following the 'standard' PBL finishing plus a few suggestions from Steve Amitrano. The last thing I did was to put a drop of PBL's 'Trick' Super Oil on the axle bushings and the main valve gear components; some PBL 'Trick' Molylube on the axle gear, and some oil on the gearbox bushings, and then reinstalled the gearbox, driveshaft, and motor. And it still RUNS! (Whew...you KNOW it should, but you always fear that something will have, somehow, got out of alignment, or...??) Next steps are to apply the decals, reinstall the train number board lights, and then start final reassembly including reinstallation of the decoders, etc.. Although the urge to see it back in operation on the layout is strong, now is the time to go slow and not risk messing something up!

This experience has confirmed my intention to never undertake a complete teardown of the mechanism of a locomotive again, if it can be possibly avoided! This partial method seems to have worked out just fine: I hooked up my tender frame once the trucks were installed and towed it around behind #485 to make sure that I still had contact - which I did - so I'm not anticipating any problems with the loco."

DAY 6 - DECALING AND REASSEMBLY OF THE LOCOMOTIVE BOILER

"Today, I started off by decaling the cab, front number board on the smokebox, and the tender. The above photo shows how it looks with a couple of coats of Microsol on it. No problem getting the Thinfilm decals to lie right down on the Scalecoat Black. I'll maybe give them one more coat this afternoon, and then a final coat of just clean water to make sure that there is no chemical residue left from the Microsol this evening. I'll wait until tomorrow to give them the thinned-down Floquil 'Crystal Coat' protective over coat..

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...as the decaled surfaces were drying I started in on re-installing the train number board lights. Once done (and checked, to make sure they were working!) I carried on and installed the smokebox front back on the boiler. As the classification lights are grounded to the smokebox, I added a grounding wire from inside the smokebox to the back of the smokebox front, as I was concerned that there may no longer be positive electrical contact with the painting. Once done, I checked ALL the lights - again. I then hooked up the decoder to the loco chassis and motor in order to do a quick test run on the layout. All was well, so I brought it back to the bench and proceeded to fit the decoder back in the boiler and connected all the function leads back up to the lights. I completed the motor connections, and then was able to finally reinstall the superstructure back on the chassis...Hooray!! Everything seems fine and the loco is circulating around the layout as I write. I also reinstalled the locomotive brake rigging and reverse lever.

The classification light lenses still need to be installed, but I'm tempted to leave that until after the final weathering. Probably the next step is to install the DSD and speaker which I hope to get to tomorrow, plus the forementioned over coat on the cab and tender superstructure."

I know that you're well familiar with an "M Roadster", but thought that you might enjoy seeing a photo of its oft-overlooked predecessor, the "K Roadster"...

DAY 7 - FINAL REASSEMBLY

The completed (except for weathering, coal load, and the rear headlight number panels) D&RGW #488, fresh from the Gunnison shops...

...and caught running light downgrade, from Cerro Summit.

Credits as follows:

PBL - for a truly great model; miscellaneous lubricants.
Branson - ultrasonic cleaner.
Badger - great little paint mixer. Looks like it could be used for cocktails, too!
Aztek - airbrush. Nice to clean, easy to use.
Campbell-Hausfield - compressor, with tank and gauges to regulate air pressure as desired.
Scalecoat - super paint to work with, on all exterior surfaces.
Floquil - great paint, for the cab interior and Crystal coat overspray.
South Park Finescale - headlight number panels.
Klondike Mines Railway - train number board panels.
Lenz - LE080XS 'Silent Drive' motor decoder.
Soundtraxx - DSD-150 Sound decoder, miniature connectors.
Conductalube - motor bushing lubricant.
Samuel Adams - great beer...(burp!)

AND these great friends, who have all contributed advice, ideas and experiences:

Bill Adkins - what can I say? Thanks for EVERYTHING! Couldn't have done it without ya!

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Steve Amitrano - the master detailer, a bottomless pit of ideas and inspiration.
Dave Woodrell - who lead by example, and showed me that this COULD indeed be done! And who has graciously dispatched a pair of "488" headlight number panels for the tender by Pony Express...
Brian Pate, Jack Walton, and George Mackie - all of who continued to encourage me that the effort was going to be worth it.

January 2003

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EPILOGUE - July 2003

FINALLY weathered, coal load added, and the rear headlight number panels installed! I always refer to Kelley Morris' classic article in the January/February 1980 issue of the "Gazette", and generally follow the same procedures with a few variations. I use Floquil paint for this work but with a base weathering colour of 60% Grimy Black and 40% Engine Black. And instead of Foundation, I use Freight Car Brown to spray around the drivers. I also augment the painted weathering with Bragdon chalks as a final touch. D&RGW #488 running light, arrives at Sapinero...