Continental Conversions, Repaints and Weathering

[Buntobox]

the SBB kept their engines clean

Actually Michael, they didn't, at least they didn't before about 1980. I have hundreds of photos showing locos and coaches so utterly filthy you can barely tell what colour they are! Here are a few examples:




Look at the van just behind the loco!







This is the look I'm striving for. I just love it and it makes the models look so much more real than the shiny "out-of-the-box" look most models display.

Alan

 

[Buntobox]

After another longish break in which SWMBO had me decorating, I'm back to painting and weathering. I've got a Lima EW1 on the bench at the moment. It had the modern <+> SBB CFF FFS emblem on it and I wanted to take it back to the original SBB + CFF one. My main problem was paint. The green used by the SBB is an NCS colour which is almost impossible to source in the UK. The nearest equivalent is RAL 6009 which is almost equally difficult to find. A bit of research however threw up a supplier in Cheltenham that specialises in car models and they do the full range of RAL colours in 60ml jars called Zero Paints that are pre thinned for airbrush use. They're toluene based so a bit dangerous to use on plastics unless they're fully primed but that said Halfords rattlecan primer suits. I have gone down that road and it works just fine. My EW1's bodyshell was stripped of the factory finish, primed with Halfords white primer and gently rubbed down afterwards to give a perfectly smooth base for the colour to be applied. So far I've sprayed the interior the correct cream and I have to say the paint produces a beautiful finish if sprayed directly from the jar at 18psi. I'll do the green tomorrow and keep you posted but so far I'm impressed.

 

[Buntobox]

I'm afraid I haven't done the green yet as I had a bit of a disaster yesterday. I was shaking the bottle in readiness for setting up to spray when it slipped from my hand and smashed on the floor...all over the grey porcelain dining room tiles and the edge of a 8' x 5' woollen rug. Mrs. B was not best pleased to put it mildly and threatened me with my life if I didn't fix it. It took me about an hour with a bottle of cellulose thinners, two rolls of kitchen paper and a scrubbing brush to get it off the tiles and out of the grout... but half the house smelled like a paint factory and the rug was a write-off. I had to spend yesterday finding her a new one...and paying for it! It arrived about ten minutes ago and earlier today so did the replacement paint. Mrs. B is now happy but my God it was a close shave! The green goes on the coach body tomorrow, and has to be shaken well away from the dining room table!

Not my finest hour.

 

[Buntobox]

Now finally, to business.
I finally managed to get the new Zero Paints SBB green (RAL 6009) onto my Lima EW1 bodyshell yesterday and I have to say I'm mightily impressed with it. It went on like silk and has produced a finish that is arguably the equal or even better than a factory finish. It's exquisite. Although they say it goes on matt it's actually a beautifully smooth satin sheen and for me at least needs no further treatment until after the lettering has been applied. I've been trying to find this quality of finish for a very long time and it has, up until now, mostly eluded me. Thinning paint in tiny quantities for airbrush use is never an exact science and it was something I always found hit and miss at best. This toluene-based paint is already thinned for spraying and unlike the Vallejo Model Air I previously used, can genuinely been sprayed straight from the bottle. It's the best paint I've ever come across by a country mile and since all my models are continental outline they all are painted in RAL colours and the Zero Paints people do the entire RAL range, something I never up until now found except from Europe and getting a hold of them was nigh on impossible given the restrictions on posting such things. I'm therefore cock-a-hoop at never again having to make do with the nearest alternative colour to what I'm actually after!
I'll post a photo later when Mrs. B comes home and tells me where she's hidden the camera.

 

[adrian]

I finally managed to get the new Zero Paints SBB green (RAL 6009) onto my Lima EW1 bodyshell yesterday and I have to say I'm mightily impressed with it. It went on like silk and has produced a finish that is arguably the equal or even better than a factory finish.

Glad to hear about the results, I've been using Zero paints for all my recent builds and likewise a satisfied customer.

 

[Buntobox]

Sorry chaps. I tried to photograph the finish on the coach but my photography skills just aren't up to it. The finish is beautiful but when I tried to capture it, it looked like I'd painted the thing with a loo brush. Photos to follow when it's finished I think.