Painting a brass superdome in Canadian National

[cnrglen]

I was recently given this to paint:

   

   

I discussed the paint job with the owner. He wants the car painted like Canadian National's 1954- 1962 scheme.

   

I have both the paint and the decals for the project but I've never painted a brass car before. From the looks of it it has a clear coat from the factory since there is no sign of tarnish or oxidization. I suppose I can just paint directly over the current finish, possible scuffing it slightly to give the paint a bit of 'tooth'?

[Charlie B]

Hi Glen

     I have tried removing the original lacquer with no real success. I think it is best to leave it alone and scuff it for some tooth. I would suggest 1200 d wet sandpaper or a fine grade steel wool. I also found that with this primer isn't needed.  I know results vary but that is my suggestion. 

     Charlie

[Ensign]

Hi Glen, best of luck with painting this superdome car!
I would be hard pressed painting such a car for myself, never mind for someone else.

Greg

[nachoman]

Following!!!

[cnrglen]

I think what I'll do is scuff the finish lightly, then airbrush the car with Vallejo acrylic primer. Then I'll just paint it as I have my other passenger cars.

[cnrglen]

I started to prep the car for painting, taking it out and giving it a quick examination.

   

on closer inspection I don't think it has a clear coat of laquer. Instead it was plated or anodized in either nickel or some other silver finish. Realizing this it made the painting job a bit easier.

   

The trucks are also brass and plated.  The wheelsets are permamently installed. I'll have to figure out the painting procedure for this. I'll probably lightly primer and paint everything and the clean the wheel treads after. You can also see the coupler mounting pads on the right. I had to fit couplers onto the car as well. 

   

A Kadee coupler pocket screws right onto the coupler pad. They even supply the screws for instalation.

   

and the coupler height is spot on.

   

Dissasembly is pretty easy. I Rapido car this isn't. There's just six screws holding the bottom the the shell. The trucks have small bolts, nuts and washers holding them on. I baged all the hardware and set it aside. I left the coupler screws to keep the threads clear of paint fouling them.

After dissassembly I scuffed the shell and underframe lightly with a very fine scotch bright pad, washed all the parts to be painted with some dish soap, rinsed throughly and let the air dry.

   

I primered the shell with Tamiya fine surface primer, both inside and out. It took about four light coats to cover without filling in the detail. I'm pretty happy with the results.

   

On the other hand this stuff is pretty nasty if you have any resperatory issues. I used it in my ventalated paint booth and felt the effects for a bit afterwards. I understand that it was just banned in Canada so if you have any breathing issues, take percautions when using this stuff.

[TMo]

I'd suggest a liquid mask applied to the wheel sets rather than having to scrape, but the primer looks great!

[cnrglen]

Maybe I'll try that.
I'm pretty happy and relieved that the primer turned out the way it did. I'll wait a week or so before I paint the green. I'm not sure how fast the Tamiya primer takes to cure and I'll be using Tru-color paint on top of it.

[cnrglen]

I painted the CN green on the sides:
   

When I bought the Try-color paint, I was told that it was airbrush ready. It wasn't. I had to thin it about 4:1 with the tur-color thinner before I had satisfactory results and it didn't clog my airbrush. It took about 3 coats to cover. In a bit I'll mask off the green and applt the black to the lower 3rd of the sides, ends, and roof/dome parts.

[Amalynn]

Looking great!

[cnrglen]

Thank you. I've been busy painting and decaling the car this past week.
   

Using my Rapido 'e' series sleeper and some photos I found online as a guide, I masked off the green to paint the black on the car. The lower lounge windows are lower than the sleepers so the green-black break goes through them.

   

I used model master engine black for the car and Tamiya masking tape for the masking job. The tamiya tape seems to work the best, producing a clean line every time.

   

I sprayed the whole car in Vallejo acryilc gloss clear before adding the decals. This lets the waterside decal blend in and adhere to the car body. The decals are from Black Cat but look like they were made by microscale. 

The three stripes are actually different from each other and they have to be pieced together to make the entire length. 
   

after applying all the decals on one side I brushed micro-set on them to settle them down over the etching on the car sides and remove any silvering on the edges. After that had all dried, I did the same with the other side. 
I then sprayed the car down with the gloss clear again to seal the decals. In a few days I'll respray in a clear matt finish.

[tompm]

Nice job. It is comin along very well.

[cnrglen]

I finished the car a couple nights ago:
   

I'm using Vallejo clear matt finish in a spray can as it's final clearcoat. I'm probably getting to the end of the can as it didn't coat evenly and it took three tries before I got a decent finish without 'splotching' 

   

I ran it on the layout with my Rapido cars and it matches fairly well. If it was mine I'd probably look for a way to put the glass in the windows and maybe have some sort of interior. As it is now, you can see right through the shell.

[TMo]

Great tip on the clear gloss prior to decal addition. I never would have thought of that one. As usual, stunning work!

[Ensign]

Nice work! Glen.
It's strange that this observation car didn't come with windows, especially for the dome.

Greg