01-30-2011, 05:17 PM
The baking bit is just something that I started doing back in the mid-seventies. I was having a problem with Floquil (as well as the original Scalecoat) rubbing off the brass anywhere the locomotive was touched where there were sharp edges or raised detail ... like the tops of handrail stanchions (still a problem without baking!)
I went through all kinds of gyrations in an effort to beat the problem. I ended up in some cases stripping the clear lacquer off the brass, soaking the brass bodies in vinegar (to give a slight etch), washing in mild soap and very hot water, air drying (sometimes force-drying with a hair dryer if in a hurry,) shooting primer, baking, shooting main color, baking and then any and all masking and painting, followed by Dullcoat and another bake session. That solved the rubbing off problem, but the extra steps and time effectively had me paying the customers to paint their engines! But no one ever complained that the paint rubbed off! (And I had plenty of repeat business.)
I didn't do the vinegar deal this time, but I did go through the other steps. It's a whole bunch like work! But I just don't like "touching up" ... the spot where you touch the surface with a paint brush always has a different texture (often a slightly raised area where the paint is a couple thousanths thicker) that I can see ... and it bothers me!
On the LED front, I have PM'd "MGWSY" (Mark G.) re: the LED's and techniques that he used when he did the lighting in his beautiful diesels (I think it was back in September ... can't remember ...) and he requested photos of the interior of the OMI GP39-2 shell prior to commenting. I took some photos this afternoon and will be dragging out the dial face calipers to try to get the measurements of those little round openings. I'll be emailing the whole brace of photos to him this evening and I'll then I'll just have to wait to hear his suggestions and recomendations.
I have an idea that I'll probably be using some SMD 0603 LEDs, glued in behind the Classification Marker Lights with some "canopy cement." That is, If I can see well enough under the Optivisor's #7 plate to solder a pair of "magnet wires" onto the pads of those teensy little buggers!
I'm determined to have this be the best painted, best detailed, best lit, most prototypically weathered (as per a photo of the same numbered unit) that I've ever done. Of course, it will also be the first locomotive that I have with a decoder and a speaker ... so it will have to operate and sound absolutely awesomely, as well!
I am now officially obsessed!! This thing has taken over my every waking hour!
I went through all kinds of gyrations in an effort to beat the problem. I ended up in some cases stripping the clear lacquer off the brass, soaking the brass bodies in vinegar (to give a slight etch), washing in mild soap and very hot water, air drying (sometimes force-drying with a hair dryer if in a hurry,) shooting primer, baking, shooting main color, baking and then any and all masking and painting, followed by Dullcoat and another bake session. That solved the rubbing off problem, but the extra steps and time effectively had me paying the customers to paint their engines! But no one ever complained that the paint rubbed off! (And I had plenty of repeat business.)
I didn't do the vinegar deal this time, but I did go through the other steps. It's a whole bunch like work! But I just don't like "touching up" ... the spot where you touch the surface with a paint brush always has a different texture (often a slightly raised area where the paint is a couple thousanths thicker) that I can see ... and it bothers me!
On the LED front, I have PM'd "MGWSY" (Mark G.) re: the LED's and techniques that he used when he did the lighting in his beautiful diesels (I think it was back in September ... can't remember ...) and he requested photos of the interior of the OMI GP39-2 shell prior to commenting. I took some photos this afternoon and will be dragging out the dial face calipers to try to get the measurements of those little round openings. I'll be emailing the whole brace of photos to him this evening and I'll then I'll just have to wait to hear his suggestions and recomendations.
I have an idea that I'll probably be using some SMD 0603 LEDs, glued in behind the Classification Marker Lights with some "canopy cement." That is, If I can see well enough under the Optivisor's #7 plate to solder a pair of "magnet wires" onto the pads of those teensy little buggers!
I'm determined to have this be the best painted, best detailed, best lit, most prototypically weathered (as per a photo of the same numbered unit) that I've ever done. Of course, it will also be the first locomotive that I have with a decoder and a speaker ... so it will have to operate and sound absolutely awesomely, as well!
I am now officially obsessed!! This thing has taken over my every waking hour!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln