Two questions:paint for PRR and Big Boy smoke unit

The buzzing noise is 99% likely to be the fan motor, it's easily replace and a cheap part.  I use the MTH smoke motors as a rule, they have been pretty reliable for me.

Once you open it up, you could find that the impeller is hitting either the top or the gasket, that can be fixed by slightly trimming them.

Testors has a graphite grey in a spray that replicates a generic smoke box coating.  You probably would want to dull coat the finish for a more realistic appearance.

PRR tended to stick with darker grey shades that lightened with age and heat.  This equates to varying dark finishes depending on how recently the loco was out shopped.

Bruce

PRR steam painting instructions as published in the PRRT&HS magazine were pretty complete and a little complicated.     They state that the frames and undercarriage, I think the pilots, and the truck frames on the tender were to be painted black.    The boiler, cylinder covers, cab, tender tank were to be DGLE, Dark Green Locomotive Enamel).    Basically everything above the frames was to be Dark Green and the frames and down black.    IF you look at the dark green next to black, you can see the difference.    When it stands alone, it is very near to black to the eye.   

The Cab Roof was to be a mix of brown and freight car color (boxcar red).     I forget the mix but it was a little darker than freight car, so a reddish brown might work.

If you really want to get fancy, they window frames on the cab were to painted bright red.    

I have a friend who has been very successful using Krylon spray bombs.    I have used them some on buildings and it worked fine.

ScaleCoat Paint now sold in hobby shops and made by Minuteman had the PRR colors in bottles.   I don't know if they also do spray cans.

A nice touch is to also decal the loco number on the sides of the headlight and backup light.

I just did a search for Scalecoat paint and the MinuteMan website came up.   They did list that they have spray cans of some of the paints including PRR "Brunswick Green" and Loco Black along with a freight car red.

I did not look but in the bottles, they used to have a smokebox grey which I used on my last two projects and I liked a lot.   The "graphite" I had been using migrated to a very dark grey that was almost black.

A final thought, the PRR did not use Tuscan Red on any freight equipment including cabooses.    It was reserved  for Passenger Equipment based on everything I have read.

I've posted these before: this is available (I would think) at any store that sells (wood) stove accessories...

I used it the smokebox of this Flyer K5; as you can see, it matches the color of the Lionel H9 pretty well...

Mark in Oregon

Something I mentioned before: Preval sprayers. Instead of buying rattle cans of paint for what are small and infrequent paint projects, i buy the small bottles of Scalecoat paints in appropriate colors. I then have a Prevail (preval.com) sprayer which i picked up at my local ACE hardware that i fill with whatever paint i'm spraying in the needed quantity. It saves buying rattle cans which are usually way too much paint and go to waste! EXCEPTION: I do buy Tamiya primer in rattle cans as it's my go to primer. HINT: Always keep a spare Preval cartridge on hand as running out of air while painting at 9:30 in the evening can ruin a perfectly good day.

The Preval spray can sounds like a great idea and it appears to be at our local HomeDepot.  I did take apart the Big Boy and I think the fan was hitting the gasket so I reinstalled it and that made it a little quieter.  It appears the motor and fan blades are swaged or pressed together (?) 

gunrunnerjohn posted:

The buzzing noise is 99% likely to be the fan motor, it's easily replace and a cheap part.  I use the MTH smoke motors as a rule, they have been pretty reliable for me.

Once you open it up, you could find that the impeller is hitting either the top or the gasket, that can be fixed by slightly trimming them.

I did take apart the Big Boy and I think the fan was hitting the gasket so I reinstalled it and that made it a little quieter.  It appears the motor and fan blades are swaged or pressed together (?) Did you have to pry yours apart? 

The impeller is simply pressed on the shaft, you just grab a blade with needle-nose pliers and pull it off.  When you replace it, just press down with your thumb, making sure you don't seat it too deep and the bottom rubs on the impeller.

If you need to replace the motor, under the impeller you'll find two very small screws.  Also, make sure the motor runs CW (when viewed from the top) when you install a new motor.