Reasonable paint match for Lionel steamer black?

This may sound crazy, but I've actually used a black Sharpie to cover up some small fixes.  Someone will probably blast me for this suggestion but it seemed to work out well. 

Weaver has the Scalecoat line of paints you may want to check into.

Jim

Not crazy at all, Jim. I have an S gauger buddy who consistently uses Sharpies in various colors to touch up small areas. He's even submitted the idea with a short article to a magazine and had it published.  I wouldn't suggest it on antiques with collectible value (whatever that means...), but I think it's a rather creative solution for really small nicks and rubs.

A good black Sharpie works for small nicks and scratches and there is nothing wrong at all with doing that in my book.  For deeper scratches, try something as simple as Testor's black or flat black, depending, and a fine detail brush.  It may not match perfectly, but shades vary in my experience, even among recent Lionel models, much less those that have faded over years of use, and any fill in of a bright-metal scratch with black makes it much less prominent to the eye. 

As to when it's more than scratches, I typically respray the entire loco rather than try to match one new section against the old.  Sometimes I remove the body but often it makes sense to just spend, say, four hours masking the loco carefully and in detail, rather than take it apart.  Here, I always use rattle cans from Ace or Lowes hardware, etc.  I buy BBQ (flatter than flat), flat, satin, and gloss and through that and how I spray, try to match the original if that is myh goal, or the look I want if not.  

Recently however I did one match where I did not spray the entire loco: I removed/replaced the top and sides of the cab on the new Lionel Legacy Berkshire - why isn't important here - anyway, by first playing with various options (testing four or so rattle cans bought at Ace, Lowes, Home Depot, etc.) on test samples, I found one that matched the color and patinia of the Lionel paint perfectly (Ace Hardware store brand satin, sprayed rather heavy and wet) and used that

A real good paint for Lionel steamers is Krylon's semi-flat.  It's not available in stores, but you can find it online. Due to shipping I bought two of them.  It's a spray paint, but you can use it for touch ups as well as a complete repaint.  To use it for touch ups just spray a little into a paper cup and apply lightly.

Alan

I agree with Alan,

I've used Krylon's semi flat black for years.  It's too bad you can't buy it in stores anymore?  Why?

And spraying into a cup or the lid and then applying with a pointed brush is perfect for the nicks on older steamers.  I even let the paint start to get thick, then apply it.

Other than the Krylon, I use "SEM", and Valspar tractor implement black. Both looks like Lionel paint after drying a while. For just touch ups, Poly Scale steam power black is dead on.

Rob

I have found Scalecoat touch up pens to work really well.  They have a very large variety of colors, including some rail line specific colors, such as PRR Brunswick Green.  You can check out available colors on the weaver website.

George