Repainting Rail King Heavyweights

Bobby OgageOGR Forum Member

A lot has been said about stripping, painting and lettering trains. Using what I have learned from many posts on this forum, I am posting my technique so you all can throw darts at it.

The trains I am repainting are MTH Rail King 027 heavyweight cars to mimic Long Island Railroad P54 commuter coaches. Here's my untried plan to get it done using rattle cans:

1.100% disassembly;

2. Many of the cars have color schemes for other railroads. Considering I am using rattle cans, paint thickness is a concern, so I am going to strip the cars using 91% Isopropyl Alcohol;

3. Wash in soap & warm water;

4. Car body mods to add owl eye windows in the end bulkheads;

5. Spray basic body and roof colors using Krylon rattle cans. No masking is necessary as the car bodies will be all Tuscan Red or all Medium Gray. The roofs will be all black or all white.

6. For Pennsy cars that came from MTH in Tuscan Red, use 600 grit abrasive paper to remove the lettering, keystone heralds, gold stripes and car numbers;

7. Spray a gloss clear coat in areas that will receive decals;

8. Apply decals with a solvent or dry transfer lettering;

9. Top coat the car bodies and roofs with a satin clear coat;

10. Re-assembly with passenger figures & LED lighting.

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11/10/139:26 AM

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Burlington RouteOGR Forum Member

Originally Posted by Bobby Ogage:

7. Spray a gloss clear coat in areas that will receive decals;

I strongly suggest you coat the whole car so there's no oddball shading or glossy areas afterwards! Folks have said they had issues with doing "spot" glossing for decals even after a final clear satin/flat finish was applied- it didn't even out the base finish because they were different glosses.

Try to glue a tiny strip of plastic on a bare spot, if any are available, inside the car to see if the glue you have is compatible with the car body for those owl eye windows. If it works you can then box cut the old windows out and install the new ones flush with the outside of the body.

11/10/1310:16 AM

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challenger3980OGR Forum Member

I had to paint a set of these for my Nephew, because MTH in their infinite wisdom, never did these in Santa Fe. I too did them with rattle cans. These were my First(and so far only) repaint project. I got the C&O cars for a good price, and the roofs and bellies were already the black that I was looking for, but being inexperienced, I had no idea just how hard it was going to be to cover the yellow areas. It did take enough coats of primer and green , that I was getting concerned about paint thickness obliterating rivet and other details.

I used Champ decals, which were designed for scale size cars, the Santa Fe decal on the baggage car just fit between the doors, any longer on the decal or closer on the doors, and I would have had to slice and dice the decal to fit. I did fully gloss coat before decaling, as well as after to seal the decals.

They may not have matched factory quality finish, but for a first attempt, I felt good about the results, and my Nephew was Thrilled with them.

If anyone knows of a source of Champ P8 (P008) ATSF Passenger car decals, I would Love to get more, for a set for myself. If I had gotten my MTH Raiking Imperial Northern before I had given these to my Nephew, He may never have gotten them. Unfortunately, Champ has since gone out of business and specific decals are very hard to find.

Doug

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11/10/131:13 PM

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Bobby OgageOGR Forum Member

Bob,

Thanks for the advice.

Doug,

Those Santa Fe cars look really good.

11/10/137:57 PM

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Burlington RouteOGR Forum Member

Doug, those look fine - eventually I'll repaint all the different roadnamed RK cars I have into silver CB&Q with black lettering, once I can get a hold of enough lettering....that or leave them and paint an engine gold and call it an excersion train.

11/10/138:09 PM

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challenger3980OGR Forum Member

Thanks Bobby and Bob, I had no Idea when I did up those cars that I would want a set for myself in the future. I normally model the Union Pacific, with a strong and growing interest in Southern Pacific. I have gotten my Nephews Hooked on trains. I have one collecting Santa Fe, one collecting New York Central and another collecting Union Pacific.

Last Christmas Season I was doing some (Iron) Horse trading with my LTS, and I happened to see the MTH RK Imperial Northern in the display case, I just kept going back to it, and finally found more to trade for it. Now I just need to find some more decals, my Nephews cars looked Great behind that locomotive.

Well, I couldn't NOT have any NYC to run when Little Sal visits, so I ended up with Lionmaster Hudson, and a K Line Empire State Express Stream-lined Hudson and a 7 car train of the 15" K Line Aluminum ESE passenger cars.

Hi, My name is Doug.....And I have a Problem