Please look at the areas to the left and right of the doors. It looks as if John Smith's crew painted over a 'Chief' box car. I have a set of black Santa Fe MicroScale decals and would like to copy this effect. Can anyone recommend a water base paint which when watered down (40%?) could be used to obtain this effect? Or maybe use 75% water and keep adding layers until the desired effect is attained. Thank you, John in Lansing, ILL.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Any type as in brand name? You could use any type of paint, water based, laquer, enamel, as long as it's thinned down enough. No one is going to be able to tell you an exact ratio because there just isn't one. Every type of paint is different and the problem with silver is it covers very quickly, even over dark colors.
I would start with at least 50/50 and try it on some scrap first. I don't use water based paint for spraying. Just like weathering though, as in creating the "fade" thin your paint really thin apply in coats like you were thinking. When you get the desired effect, stop. That's all Santa Fe did, was actually paint over old equipment with silver, and many times you could still see the old lettering underneath. It's a really cool effect and should be very easy to duplicate. If I was going to do it, I would use Scalecoat II silver and thin it down 80/20 to start.
I am but no means an expert on painting. I usually work with solvent based paints. Either Scalecoat or True Color. In using water based acrylics. Not sure if thinning with a lot of water is a good idea. You might want to add the silver to some sort of clear coat. This would give you the normal mix of the paint as far as ratios for spraying. Silver doesn't cover that well and should be able to get the effect your after. As mentioned. Every paint is different as well as everyone's equipment. Practice on something your not to fond of first.
I picked up some Testors Model Master paint at Michael's for a quick project. Seemed easy to work with.
The best way to get that effect would be to paint over a car that was screen or pad printed in the original scheme you want to paint over. The reason the previous scheme would be visible is that the original lettering would be a different layer or level of paint and it would show up as a "shadow" under the new paint. A decal would not show the individual lettering unless each letter was applied separately, it would just show the shape of the entire piece of decal film.
Bill in FtL
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
