I have some USA built cars and they look nothing like that.
Jim
I purchased the two LCCA cars last year and they exhibit the same paint job Sean mentions (both are made in the USA). This pic isn’t great, but I think you’ll get the idea (if you enlarge the pic, it does appear a bit clearer).
On the BNSF Car, the majority of the body in orange has a “pearlized” paint job - it almost reminds me of textured reflective paint. The green is a more tradition texture.
The UP car is sort of reversed... the green body has the traditional style paint while the door and the graphics at the right have that “pearlized” look.
One other observation - which shows why, unlike Sean, I shouldn’t do product reviews... as with his Scooby-Doo car, the BNSF car lacks the rib details which are usually visible on most boxcars... something I hadn’t noticed until he so kindly pointed it out. It isn’t clear in the picture, but there are VERY faint lines representing the ribs.
All that being said, I still like the cars, but would prefer the standard paint texture.
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ed h posted:The newer process has been around for a few years now. Take a look at the 2015 Macy's boxcar, same type of finish.
Some time back (a year or two ago?), my wife wanted to buy some clear protective spray paint for some outdoor plastic furniture or decorations or something like that. So we bought a couple of cans of matte clear spray paint, compatible with plastic.
A few weeks later, she decided she didn't want to paint her stuff. Hard do believe, huh? 
Fast forward to a train show last fall, I find a really nice REA reefer. So it ended up coming home with me. The only thing, the black roof had a pretty fair "shine" to it, and I wanted to dull it down a bit. Not being one to waste things, I decided to try this clear matte spray paint we had bought. So I masked off the car body and gave the roof about 3 or 4 light coats of clear.
I wasn't too pleased with the results. I need to wet sand it down, and apply some different brand of matte clear that I have had much better luck with.
Comparing my roof pictures to the Lionel cars, I wonder if they aren't using these exact same spray bomb cans to do their final coatings? Looks virtually the same to me.
Not good. No sir, not good at all. Least not in my opinion. 
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I think we can end the thread now.....
Yes from all the pictures people have posted I can see this is not a new thing with USA made cars.
The more people post pictures the more I dislike it. That Macy's car looks horrible to me.
I will not Buy made in USA cars. I am not sure how anyone at Lionel could think these look good.
But I learned a lot, so thanks everyone.
Mixed Freight posted:ed h posted:The newer process has been around for a few years now. Take a look at the 2015 Macy's boxcar, same type of finish.
Some time back (a year or two ago?), my wife wanted to buy some clear protective spray paint for some outdoor plastic furniture or decorations or something like that. So we bought a couple of cans of matte clear spray paint, compatible with plastic.
A few weeks later, she decided she didn't want to paint her stuff. Hard do believe, huh?
Fast forward to a train show last fall, I find a really nice REA reefer. So it ended up coming home with me. The only thing, the black roof had a pretty fair "shine" to it, and I wanted to dull it down a bit. Not being one to waste things, I decided to try this clear matte spray paint we had bought. So I masked off the car body and gave the roof about 3 or 4 light coats of clear.
I wasn't too pleased with the results. I need to wet sand it down, and apply some different brand of matte clear that I have had much better luck with.
Comparing my roof pictures to the Lionel cars, I wonder if they aren't using these exact same spray bomb cans to do their final coatings? Looks virtually the same to me.
Not good. No sir, not good at all. Least not in my opinion.
The issue is you applied more than one coat. You will get orange peel surface when you apply the second coat and it wont go away until you sand it
Matt Makens posted:Mixed Freight posted:ed h posted:The newer process has been around for a few years now. Take a look at the 2015 Macy's boxcar, same type of finish.
Some time back (a year or two ago?), my wife wanted to buy some clear protective spray paint for some outdoor plastic furniture or decorations or something like that. So we bought a couple of cans of matte clear spray paint, compatible with plastic.
A few weeks later, she decided she didn't want to paint her stuff. Hard do believe, huh?
Fast forward to a train show last fall, I find a really nice REA reefer. So it ended up coming home with me. The only thing, the black roof had a pretty fair "shine" to it, and I wanted to dull it down a bit. Not being one to waste things, I decided to try this clear matte spray paint we had bought. So I masked off the car body and gave the roof about 3 or 4 light coats of clear.
I wasn't too pleased with the results. I need to wet sand it down, and apply some different brand of matte clear that I have had much better luck with.
Comparing my roof pictures to the Lionel cars, I wonder if they aren't using these exact same spray bomb cans to do their final coatings? Looks virtually the same to me.
Not good. No sir, not good at all. Least not in my opinion.
The issue is you applied more than one coat. You will get orange peel surface when you apply the second coat and it wont go away until you sand it
Since it had been a few months, I couldn't quite remember which paint had done it, although I suspected it was the brand in the photo. So I took a piece of black styrene stock I had, and give it a quick squirt of paint (one shot). I thought I would check before posting my findings.
Sorry, but it did the exact same thing on the bare black styrene.
Did you ever think that the paint wasn't compatible with what you were spraying it on?
Big Jim posted:Did you ever think that the paint wasn't compatible with what you were spraying it on?
Hi Big Jim,
Not sure who you are talking to. But if me, did you ever think you didn't read my post very well?
Quotes:
"So we bought a couple of cans of matte clear spray paint, COMPATIBLE with plastic."
"Sorry, but it did the exact same thing on the BARE black styrene."
"Bare", as in plain, unpainted styrene. No prior paint to be incompatible with the new paint. "Compatible with plastic", as in styrene plastic, as in one of many plastics on the market.
I thought he was talking to Lionel. 
My apologies if so.
Otherwise, I stand as posted.
I have both the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th boxcars, made in the USA. Both were fed through Lionel's "inkjet" printer and have the same lousy, low-resolution, orange peel texture. You can't even read the text on the doors with the sloppy inkjet splatter. Hopefully, Lionel will get themselves an upgraded printer soon. For the time being, I don't think there is another economically feasible method with these low volume production runs.
Mixed Freight posted:Big Jim posted:Did you ever think that the paint wasn't compatible with what you were spraying it on?
Hi Big Jim,
Not sure who you are talking to. But if me, did you ever think you didn't read my post very well?
Quotes:
"So we bought a couple of cans of matte clear spray paint, COMPATIBLE with plastic."
"Sorry, but it did the exact same thing on the BARE black styrene."
"Bare", as in plain, unpainted styrene. No prior paint to be incompatible with the new paint. "Compatible with plastic", as in styrene plastic, as in one of many plastics on the market.
Obviously it is not "COMPATIBLE" with plastic!
Big Jim posted:Mixed Freight posted:Big Jim posted:Did you ever think that the paint wasn't compatible with what you were spraying it on?
Hi Big Jim,
Not sure who you are talking to. But if me, did you ever think you didn't read my post very well?
Quotes:
"So we bought a couple of cans of matte clear spray paint, COMPATIBLE with plastic."
"Sorry, but it did the exact same thing on the BARE black styrene."
"Bare", as in plain, unpainted styrene. No prior paint to be incompatible with the new paint. "Compatible with plastic", as in styrene plastic, as in one of many plastics on the market.
Obviously it is not "COMPATIBLE" with plastic!
Yes Big Jim, obviously.
I had said earlier that I like it. While that holds true for the Scooby car, seeing the other cars in this thread, I do not care for that finish and wouldn't buy one except for the Scooby car or something similarly non-prototypical.
Sean, btw, I watched all 4 of your recent lion chief videos and enjoyed them and found them helpful. I am now pining for all three of those sets, God help me. 
I think a lot has to do with what kind of lighting is involved. I do like the cars as "one-offs". I agree that the texture finish does look odd and I would hope that this is not the way normal rolling stock should look. However, the lettering/images are very crisp and makes for an attractive car...at a distance.
My only real concern is that the process used only paints/prints at 90°. As you can see on the Macy's car, any surface that is not flat on to the paint/printer does not receive any paint. Note the red on the ladder and such.
Be prepared, all of the cars with special designs like this (my new Navy Submarine Service Box Car) will have this type of finish.
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Now that looks a heck of a lot better.
General observation on the process (sorry, but I'm deviating a bit more from Scooby here ). I looked at my 2012 Christmas Boxcar (USA version), and I think (based on just a minutes worth of thought - so maybe I missed something) the process maybe is a little different at the factory they are using now vs the earlier one they used back then (which I think was around the first offerings of these USA assembled cars).
That car has red roof and ends, with a silver base to the side graphics. Opening the door, it looks like the car was molded in this silver color. (or painted in such a way that the inside is coated as well)
The ladders on this silver sided car do not exhibit the "it can only print straight down" issue described in many posts here. The top of the ladder rungs seems to be silver as well.
I can't guess exactly how they did it (not sure if the original color was silver or red as the base of the car), but I found this difference interesting. I will try to dig out some of the early President boxcars in the next few days to look at them, I think they were among the first USA cars from the same time period.
Maybe it's nothing, and it's just a less obvious scenario than some where the ladder rungs give it away.
-Dave
As an owner of The Mystery Machine set, I had a similar reaction when opening the Scooby Doo add-on car. Not that it’s bad, but the graphics have a different look and feel.
I also own the USA made Disney Bambi, Jungle Book and Happy Halloween box cars that appear to have the same printing technique. In my opinion, the colors seem dull compared to other Lionel Disney cars, such as the Disney Villians series.
With that said, I’m still looking forward to the two Scooby Doo add-on cars. It’s a fun set that receives many positive comments at club runs.
