Repainted Southern Crescent - videos added 04/01/12

Good job on the painting!

You are gonna put "Southern" or at least Southeastern Railway lettering back on that black workhorse aren't you Lee?? It won't run right on "foreign" rails.

Year, I do Southern some; I'm on the Gulf Coast and the Crescent Limited came through

Mobile back in the day (though not behind these Ps-4's) before my adulthood (adultry?),

but I like the looks of it black, too. And, Lionel painted the roof red, which SOU steamers

did not have (I painted the roof black on my MTH green Ps-4 and my Lionel T-class

Mountain). Why do they insist on this odd red roof?

The first Ps-4's were indeed black; it was a few years later that the Green Decision was

made (as everyone knows, the Southern Rwy - Britain - had green locos; but they were

a very different green...).

I have some SOU green steam because it is striking, and it's my part of the country, but,

esthetically, my fave is a NYC J3a Hudson. Plain or fancy.

Your loco looks very nice.

No, everything on my layout, except my Vision Hudson, is Santa Fe or Union Pacific.  I think it will feel at home in the western US.

Wow what a project. I would have freaked out starting this. I am assuming 2 coats of the spray was enough? Thanks for taking pictures of the process and posting.

I think that is pretty neat.  You will need dry transfers for lettering, since flat paint does not take decals very well.

Why semi-gloss followed by flat black? Why not all flat black? I don't understand the use of 2 different paints.

I agree...thanks for posting.  As for the Zett's two coats of paint question, maybe it's just the lighting in the photos (or it could just be my eyesight), but does anyone else see green still showing through the black paint?

Well, first, a thin flat coat over a thick semi gloss leaves just a trace of sheen, which I want - just a tiny bit.  

Second, and this is dangerous if you have not practiced: I've done a lot of practice.  I spray the semi-gloss very heavy and wet, and let it dry a short time - just 20 minutes exactly today.  Then, I spray a thin, "dry" coat of flat ( dry means from farther away - about 18-20 inches as opposed to a foot) over everything.  The new paint dries flat, which is what I want, with just that trace - a trace is all, of sheen.  

AND, THIS TOO: it causes a minute crazing- tiny cracking of the surface of the paint - the semi-gloss underneath is wet but the surface dried, the new wet spray - not too wet but good, leaves a type of patina I love - hundreds of tiny cracks per square inch that you can only see when you are an inch or two from the loco - looking from any further way very rough and scale "cast iron" and industrial.  

I'd suggest anyone who does this to practice first.  The potential to ruin a perfectly good loco is very high here if you wait too long - another ten minutes and the crazing would be rumpled, ruined paint, but when you get it right the look is just extraordinary - at least what I like.  I can't possibly put this in a photo but it is great.

Very nice, Lee.  You're obviously quite confident with these sorts of changes.  Personally, I don't have the experience or .... to try it.  Will you be blackening the operating rods?  I'll be interested to hear how you do that.  Thanks for posting.

Ron, the newbie

Thanks.  I was pretty confident it would work out because I've experimented and tested a lot.  But I was also motivated by really wanting this loco as it is now . . . this one "modification" - repainting it as I did -- changing it from something that would be sure to sit on the shelf all but maybe an hour a year to a loco that will be on the layout all the time and run nearly every day. That was worth some risk. 

I was longfully staring at my Vision Hudson last night (the loco I run most of all) and wishing it had this look, too.  As to confidence - I'm going to have to think a bit more before I do this to a loco costing nearly twice as much as the Southern Crescent, but eventually, I probably will.

Lee: Nice Job. Having done lots of painting over my many years, crazing usually occurs when going from one paint to another, such as enamel to lacquer. Is that what you did here? Thanks.

The crazing effect is from the heavy wet coat having a surface skin that's dry and the top coat's solvent softening it.  That's a really tricky technique and I'n not sure I want to know how long it took to perfect it. 

To much top coat (too heavy or too close) and you get a "crackle" finish and too little/to far it just looks like the top coat.

Comments to Casey LV and to Chuck.

Casey LV: The paint is the same brand and type for both coats: Rustoleum Ultra Cover 2x - a heavy coat of semi- and 20 minutes to dry and a thinner flat over it.  This causes a very slight crazing and pucker ing of the surface.  

---->There may be better paints, or not, but I have experimented and tested with this brand and type and I would not try this "trick" with any other paint unless I had experimented with both the spraying and timing. I did this the first time, for real, on a Williams ten-wheeler I modified about two months ago.  And then only after I had tested on plastic and metal sheets, and bought four or five old cast iron locos of various vintages - nothing special, and practiced on them.   I have only done this on this one Lionel and two Williams - never determined if MTH paint would be different.  

Below is the bottom picture in my original post.  At the very center you can see a tiny bit of blue and green - wires inside the loco.  Move up at about 1:30 as on a clock face to the inside of that pipe that comes from the left towoard the right and makes a U down and back toward the front to enter a valve or something attached to the boiler.  The light is just right inside the surface of the boiler there to show the patina and texture i wanted - very much like cast iron.  

Chuck, you are correct that this is a very tricky timing, and spraying: the thickness of the coats, as you observed is a key factor in if and how they craze, not just the timing: in particular the bottom coat has to be nearly uniform in thickness, and wet, everywhere, for this to look good.  I had training forty years ago and did some auto body paint and all at a very upscale shop, so I felt I could do it.

Still, I expect some day this is going to backfire on me.  That would either ruin a loco or require that I take the body off and remove all the paint, etc. - monstrous work if I could do it well (I know I could do the paint work even if a hassle, but could I disassemble and re-assemble a Vision loco?.  The main reason I have not tackled doing this to my Vision Hudson: there is confidence, and then there is confidence . . . 

Beautiful work and thank you for sharing.  Very nice effect, especially when you throw in it's done with rattle cans!

I could see why that would be a tricky technique, First starting with the Heavy first coat without any runs. I just might leave mine in original paint. Thanks for the explanation guys. Regards, Casey

Lee you might try a automotive Satin Black . It's not gloss but it's not flat either it's got just a little sheen to it. You see it a lot on hot rods. You can get it from Eastwood in a rattle can and it's a very high quality paint and very fast drying. That way you only have a 1 part paint process instead of the 2 part.

To much paint and you start to cover up tiny details and down the road as the paint gasses out you can easily get cracking not to mention dealing with the runs.

Try Eastwood .com they've got alot of nice stuff these days they didn't have 40 years ago. I still remember shooting Imron ..... I'd rather just shoot myself and get it over with.
Nice Job

David

Thanks.  I love the satin black on some cars.  Saw a Lamborghini that looked particularly good in it.

I will try eastwood.com

Worked for Earl Scheib for years LOL Your $29.95 paint job included Vaseline instead of masking tape.

David

BLASPHEMER !!!

Beautiful job Lee!

Can you post some more photos of the locomotive on the layout or with some scenery - 'in action'?

Re your Hudson,  have you considered a very light coat of satin clear for starters?

PS  Congratulations on your article in OGRR! Wanted to write but lost your email (not in your profile)

As you state that your layout is a Western-centered one, but I feel that the Ps-4 does not look at all Far Western (UP, ATSF, even SP - nope, no way); I might point out that it does

indeed have, in black, a very pronounced Missouri Pacific look, which is a railroad

that had some of the most handsome steamers in the US. It is also very seldom

modeled, which I don't get. It was a "Western" road, pretty much.

Someone has described MoPac steam as having a NYC look, but on a larger scale

(no tight clearances). They do favor, with differences, of course.

Your loco would look great with an oil tender (easy change; styrene, wire and there

you go) and "Missouri Pacific Lines" on the bunker. 

c. sam -here are two short videos of it in action.  I also did the lettering as can be seen in this.  I love this loco: it rivals the Vision Hudson and (the still broken down) Lionmaster Big Boy as my favorite). 

A

Nooooo! You killed it... argh!

Actually I commend you on such a daring achievement. It came out very nice

Lee, That is real nice. Thanks for the video's. Casey.