Started a few paint jobs today, a couple of which are from Sancheng. One is a Jubilee in Factory finished green and the other a brass Crab.
I will try to show and explain how i go about finishing these locos. First job on the painted loco is to improve the factory finish which is poor. The colours are all wrong (the blacks ok
and are also far too flat and have a gritty texture.
The first job is to dismantle the model into its basic sub assemblies then mask off the cab roof and smokebox. Then I give it a coat of cellulose red oxide as a base coat. This is celly paint not primer. Only cellulose paint works, experience has taught me that it is the only type of paint which will bond to the factory paint work.
Now a coat of cellulose deep bronze green can be applied, this gives a lovely smooth gloss finish.
When compared to the original factory finish its easy to see the improvement. This procedure takes only half an hour from start to finish and is well worth the effort. The loco is now left for a couple of hours for the cellulose to fully harden.
The above picture shows repainted finish on left and factory finish on right. Although the colours look similar , they are quite different, just my average photography skills.
The Crab has been scrubbed with viakal and will be left to dry off overnight before a coat of etching primer is applied.
Start the lining tomorrow.....
Warren