[lownote]

This is a humble effort--very humble. It doesn't even come close to the beautiful pieces of craft that so many people here pull off. It might be useful to someone though.

My wife and I have a small layout that runs mostly east coast, mostly 1:29. I've always liked the B&O blue and gray, and when I got set of Aristo B&O heavyweights I decided to repaint my (SP) Pacific to match. On the advice of Davy Cormack I went with Badger B&O Royal Blue, which is an excellent match.

Trying to spray it with a preval sprayer turned out to be a disaster, a long story, and I had to quickly back and fill and ended up painting it with a brush, getting much worse results than I'd hoped. But it's blue and it passes, I think, the 10 foot test. I didn't try to make it accurate--partly I ran out of paint, and partly I wanted to see if I liked keeping the white stripe on the side.

I sprayed it with Krylon semi gloss, to see if I'd like the look. I kind of do, although it's a bit toy-trainish. I think it'd be effective to dull it down in some places while leaving it glossy in the places most likely to be washed. It need some weathering, which I have no idea how to do. The stripe, if I keep it, should be gray, not white

 

[Pete Thornton]

RE: repainted B&O Royal Blue

It need some weathering, which I have no idea how to do.

It looks great! The prototype nice, shiny new B&O Royal Blue would look a bit toylike so don't worry about that.
The drivers could use a coat of flat black - I use the 'grimy black' which is pretty grey-ish.

There's lots of ideas here for weathering - check out Mr EBT's latest boxcar. (http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/8/tpage/1/view/topic/postid/23750/Default.aspx#23750.
My favorite method is to simulate a few months of dirty rain. With a water-based grimy flat paint, dilute it about 5 or 10 to 1, and then liberally wash the mix over the engine from the top down. Use an almost dry brush to soak up any big pools. The mix will settle in the gaps and joints just like the real thing, and the flatness will take off all the shine. Then let it dry!

 

[tbug]

Just jump in on weathering. Learn from the many ways it gets done here, and start w/ the ones you feel most comfortable with first. Maybe find a cheap piece to use for practice at a local flea market or even a smaller scale piece. A lot of these methods are affordable and forgiving. I have found the india inks/ alcohol mix, along w/powders to give excellent results that get better w/ each try. Dry-brushing is my next venture in weathering.

 

[lownote]

Thanks very much!

I'm going to wait a bit on the weathering, and let the Krylon finish curing. I will definitely paint the wheels at some point, and I think I'll go after the finish a little. Meanwhile I'll research all the weathering threads

 

[Torby]

RE: repainted B&O Royal Blue

I think they'd have spent some effor keeping a passenger loco like that pretty.

 

[Terl]

RE: repainted B&O Royal Blue

A special passenger engine like this probably was kept prettly clean, so I wouldnt do too much weathering to it. I would paint the inside of the smoke stack flat black. Color pictures I have studied of steam engines even when the engine was all clean and shiny, still had some dirt and dust on the drivers and wheels. After painting the wheels flat black, a light dusting with with some gray powder on the wheels, valve gear and trucks would give a realistic appearance.

Terl

 

[lownote]

I took the engine into the shop last night to have at some of the "orange peel" left by the krylon. Also painted the wheels and running gear with "neolube," which is pretty interesting stuff. On some surfaces it looks great. If the sun comes out today I'll try to snap a picture