Best Of The TP56/TP70 Kitbash thread N scale

[u18b]

With construction done, time to move to painting.

I air erased the shell.  I had two things in mind.  The stanchions and especially the guitar strings need to be roughed up to hold paint better.  But I also thought that this would serve to clean any residue off the shell.   I had hope that this might hide the striations.... and it did, a bit, but not a lot.

Of course, I did not want to overdo it and ruin the shell.




I used Testor's Model Master Acryl water based paint.




Since I'm focusing on the interior of this switcher, I needed an interior color.
Looks like a light tan to me.




Hobby shop had Random Tan FS33613 (F).



Since the motor projects into the cab, had to paint it too.



Then the tedious hand painting.
Aluminium headlights, side windows, and door knobs.
White railings.

I painted.  And then had to change colors to touch up.  I then had to touch up the touch up.  And then..... 
I finally had to accept less than perfection.  My hand just isn't that steady.






I was worried about brush painting white over the black.  But it turned out well.



I'm nearing the end, but it looks like decals may slow me down.

Went through my box of almost 100 decals and nothing was just right.

I'll keep working on it.

[peteski]

Went through my box of almost 100 decals and nothing was just right.

I'll keep working on it.

I know what you are thinking  . . .   

This is a simple decal set. If the artwork is print-ready, printing is easy and doesn't take much time. 
But good solid gray is really difficult to print on Alps (bordering on impossible). Masking and painting that area gray would be the easiest solution.

I'm curious why you didn't use Tru Color paints or try to prime the body to try to hide the 3D printing artifacts?

[u18b]

I know what you are thinking  . . .   

This is a simple decal set. If the artwork is print-ready, printing is easy and doesn't take much time. 
But good solid gray is really difficult to print on Alps (bordering on impossible). Masking and painting that area gray would be the easiest solution.

I'm curious why you didn't use Tru Color paints or try to prime the body to try to hide the 3D printing artifacts?

I had wondered if gray would be pure or have that stippled effect.

OK.  I had three other options.

1.  Paint a gray box.  I will if I have to, but a decal would have smoother edges.

2.  I thought about trying to print my own.  I have some of that Testors home ink jet decal paper.  And gray was one color that it might be able to do OK.  The disadvantage, is that since the decal base is white, when I cut it, there will likely be a microns wide white border around the edge.

It's possible I could then go back with a black touch up.

3.  Use a gray decal as a base.   It looks like NYC lightning stripe gray.   I may buy an HO or O scale decal sheet if needed and get some gray off of it.   Probably can go back through my decal collection on the hunt.

Then I could just get someone to print the numbers and letters in white on clear film.   

I'm not worried about the yellow safety stripes.  I probably have a CSX sheet that has something.




As for paint choice.... 

1.  Tru-Color is petroleum based.  I have not read enough about B-HDA to know how it would do.   And I didn't want to bother with a primer.
2.  So spraying waterbased seemed good.
3.  I really like these paints- wish they came in RR colors.
4.  As water based, I could airbrush inside my house!  The weather has been awful here on the Gulf Coast this summer.  We normally get 65" inches a year (sub-tropical rating).   But this summer in just 2 and a half months we have had about 40".  It has rained almost every day.

So indoors seemed good.   

[u18b]

Interior is done.

[metalworkertom]

I had wondered if gray would be pure or have that stippled effect.

OK.  I had three other options.

1.  Paint a gray box.  I will if I have to, but a decal would have smoother edges.

2.  I thought about trying to print my own.  I have some of that Testors home ink jet decal paper.  And gray was one color that it might be able to do OK.  The disadvantage, is that since the decal base is white, when I cut it, there will likely be a microns wide white border around the edge.

It's possible I could then go back with a black touch up.

3.  Use a gray decal as a base.   It looks like NYC lightning stripe gray.   I may buy an HO or O scale decal sheet if needed and get some gray off of it.   Probably can go back through my decal collection on the hunt.

Then I could just get someone to print the numbers and letters in white on clear film.   

I'm not worried about the yellow safety stripes.  I probably have a CSX sheet that has something.




As for paint choice.... 

1.  Tru-Color is petroleum based.  I have not read enough about B-HDA to know how it would do.   And I didn't want to bother with a primer.
2.  So spraying waterbased seemed good.
3.  I really like these paints- wish they came in RR colors.
4.  As water based, I could airbrush inside my house!  The weather has been awful here on the Gulf Coast this summer.  We normally get 65" inches a year (sub-tropical rating).   But this summer in just 2 and a half months we have had about 40".  It has rained almost every day.

So indoors seemed good.   

Not sure where on the Coast you are but it has been raining everyday here in Baton Rouge for nearly 3 months. No end in sight as far as I can tell. As long as I don't flood again I can deal.  GREAT Job on this Little Critter.

[u18b]

Thanks.

I'm down the road from you outside Pensacola.

[peteski]

I had wondered if gray would be pure or have that stippled effect.

OK.  I had three other options.

1.  Paint a gray box.  I will if I have to, but a decal would have smoother edges.

2.  I thought about trying to print my own.  I have some of that Testors home ink jet decal paper.  And gray was one color that it might be able to do OK.  The disadvantage, is that since the decal base is white, when I cut it, there will likely be a microns wide white border around the edge.

It's possible I could then go back with a black touch up.

3.  Use a gray decal as a base.   It looks like NYC lightning stripe gray.   I may buy an HO or O scale decal sheet if needed and get some gray off of it.   Probably can go back through my decal collection on the hunt.

Then I could just get someone to print the numbers and letters in white on clear film.   

I'm not worried about the yellow safety stripes.  I probably have a CSX sheet that has something.

Yeah, Alps gray would not be good enough to make justice to this model (it would show the halftone dots).  I could mess around trying to layer spot colors (possibly spot white over spot metallic silver) to get some sort of gray, but I'm sure I'll have adhesion problems in that combination of inks. Plus that requires time to experiment.

A white lettering on clear will be the easiest solution for decal. Since you worried about masking and painting, how about cutting the gray rectangles out of the gray decal film, then applying the white lettering decal on top of that?  No fuzzy edges that way.

Another, even easier way wold be to feed the gray decal film into the printer then print white letters on that.  The paper needs to be around 4" X 6" for the printer to accept it.  The yellow stripes would be a breeze to print (if you want to design them for exact fit on that model).  There are no problems with yellow over white ink.

As for paint choice.... 

1.  Tru-Color is petroleum based.  I have not read enough about B-HDA to know how it would do.   And I didn't want to bother with a primer.
2.  So spraying waterbased seemed good.
3.  I really like these paints- wish they came in RR colors.
4.  As water based, I could airbrush inside my house!  The weather has been awful here on the Gulf Coast this summer.  We normally get 65" inches a year (sub-tropical rating).   But this summer in just 2 and a half months we have had about 40".  It has rained almost every day.

So indoors seemed good.   

I was thinking of the primer to fill the printing artifacts and smooth the shell's surface before applying the final color. I've seen good results of primer over FUD and FXD, I suspect that it would also dramatically smooth out the surface of this material.

[u18b]

Didn't think of the primer filling any irregularities.

But this one is black and it is hardly noticeable at 3 feet.
Only really shows up in macro photography.

Now, those doing the green version (or a non-black freelanced) may want to primer.

(email sent)

[peteski]

Didn't think of the primer filling any irregularities.

But this one is black and it is hardly noticeable at 3 feet.
Only really shows up in macro photography.

Now, those doing the green version (or a non-black freelanced) may want to primer.

(email sent)

Email received - another unplanned project is afoot. 

[u18b]

I drew the box and the letters/numbers for the TP70.

It just so happens that they fit inside a NYC Lightning Stripe  MS  60-49.
The gray is a little light, but OK.  So it could work if needed.




The yellow safety stripes and the F came from a GATX loco set  MS 60-601.
There are TWO size stripes as you can see here.  I used the smaller ones.

[nkalanaga]

Gray box:  4th option:  Paint a piece of clear decal gray, then cut out the piece you need.

[u18b]

Gray box:  4th option:  Paint a piece of clear decal gray, then cut out the piece you need.

Great suggestion Nick.
Thanks.

[u18b]

Added windows, rear view mirrors and sunshades last night.

Cab is finished... except for decals.

[tehachapifan]

Awesome!

[u18b]

Thanks Russ.

I assembled it and I'm almost done except for the decals.

The rear headlight leaks into the cab-- and sort of looks like an interior light.

I kind of like it, and might leave it.

Except for the light leak at the bottom (because of the slightly curved Shapeways shell), I like being able to see into the cab.







Except no, as often happens, extreme macro shots are a problem.
The guy looks like he has a bad rash.