Painting Locomotive Trucks

[Agatheron]

Hi All,

I've posted on other boards, but this is the first and best place that I've found for advice on weathering N-Scale equipment.

My question has to do with a locomotive I cobbled together through a series of ebay purchases. I had been looking for a Kato C44-9W in Canadian National colours for some time. I was successful in finding a shell, and then a chassis on 2 separate auctions within a week. The shell requires additional decalling for road numbers and designations... that doesn't frighten me as I've already painted a locomotive from the plastic up... My question is more on the trucks. The chassis unfortunately came with grey trucks as opposed to black... but since I figured I'd be weathering it anyway, I could paint it while I was at it.

I've never dismantled locomotive trucks (or even rolling stock trucks)  before as I am still new to this hobby. Otherwise, I am an experienced modeller/painter, but I am a little leery about paint and working electrical devices... Any suggestions as how best to proceed?

Thanks in advance...

[pedro]

The truck frames snap off as a whole unit.  You just spread the sides apart gently and they will pop right off.  Be careful as the brass contacts may come off with them, they are loose so they have a tendency to fall out. On a Kato Dash-9 the wheels and gears will stay put in the trucks. Getting everyting back together can be tricky, the contacts don't usually want to stay put.  It takes some patience to hold everything in place whole snapping the sideframes back on, but it's relatively straightforward. I find it's easier to remove the fuel tank and the long frame contacts before trying to put the trucks back together. The parts diagram that came with the engine should give you an idea of how everything fits together.

Hope this helps,
Pete D.

[nscalesteve]

I've never dismantled locomotive trucks...

g'day, is it a N or a H0 scale C44 ?

[Agatheron]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that earlier, it's an N-Scale Dash-9... I just acquired a DN163K1B decoder to put in it, so I figure I'll add the decals, paint up the trucks, and do some weathering while I am at it.

In order for the trucks to come out, I will need to loosen the frame a bit? Is there anything else that is at risk of falling out of the frame?  ???

[engineshop]

You can paint the trucks with an ordinary brush and black paint if you don't have an airbrush. There is not one flat surface on a trucks that could show paint brush strokes especially since you want to weather the trucks anyhow. Make sure you clean the plastic very well with dishwashing soap since you could have some oil on them. An old toothbrush works fine.

[Iain]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that earlier, it's an N-Scale Dash-9... I just acquired a DN163K1B decoder to put in it, so I figure I'll add the decals, paint up the trucks, and do some weathering while I am at it.

In order for the trucks to come out, I will need to loosen the frame a bit? Is there anything else that is at risk of falling out of the frame?  ???

Yes, you will want to loosen the frame.  You might have the motor fall out, which can be a pain in the rear to get back in correctly polarity wise.  As before, it is straightforward to put it in, you just have to have it the right way, otherwise it will go backwards relative to all the other locos.

I don't know how much exposed equalizer a -9 has, but you may want to roughen up some of the flat areas with sandpaper to make the paint stay better.  Be carefull not to take off detail!

[Agatheron]

My plan is to us a black hobby primer on the external parts of the trucks... I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with Games Workshop's line of paints, but their hobby primer nicely shrinks to details on plastics... it allows for other paints to get a really good bite on it. The problem, however, is making sure I don't get paint on the inside of the trucks to gum up the gears...

Wish me luck, but I won't be starting this for a week or two yet...

[Iain]

As was suggested, take the sideframes off the truck, then you don't have to worry about the gears getting paint in 'em.