What to use for touch up paint - model, acrylic, or ? on Tender

What you want to do is match the sheen. I would use a black semi gloss. None of my model paints would match that without adding a glaze or gloss but I have some semi gloss in a spray can that I spray into the cap then apply with a brush. One model paint that might match is Scalecoat but I will leave that for others to comment on as I don't have any.

Pete

Acrylic is soft.  I would think enamel is best but that's just me. 

I know it sounds sacrilegious, but on black paint I've found a black sharpie does very well. You'd be surprised. I got that recommendation from AMCDave a couple of years ago. My uses have been primarily on postwar steamers and cracked dry transfers though. Here is a repair on the last s in pass i messed up.

Tom M posted:

I know it sounds sacrilegious, but on black paint I've found a black sharpie does very well.

Sometimes they can be used, but black magic marker/sharpies often leave a purple sheen when viewed from an angle, so I don't use them often.

I'm no expert, but my go-to is Krylon black satin, which seems to perfectly match much of the black that Lionel uses, even on their Geep chassis'. It's in a spray can, so spray a little on a piece of cardboard or plastic and use a fine brush to apply. I also often use an enamel flat black paint marker from a hobby shop as well. Tamiya or Testors. The flat isn't real flat. It works well on Lionel steam engines. I can practically guarantee that at the spot you want to paint on the side of that cap, you'll never notice the touchup.

Thank you everyone! I'm off to hobby lobby - I will pick up several items and then do some dry matching first.

Tom is on to my method.  For small chips, the black marker does an amazing job and is very easy.  The nice part about it is it's reversible, you can wipe it off with alcohol if it doesn't work.  Many times the marker will do a better job than trying to touch up with real paint.  My "secret" final step is to rub the touch-up with a damp finger, the oils take the sheen out of the black and really blend it in.

Black sharpie with the finest tip I could find did the job. One thing I noticed is that the middle one with the volume pot actually has kind of a fix on it as well almost like during QA the paint came off when they opened it and they repaired it. There is a slight darker color difference on each side of the hinge about the same size as my chip.

Thanks to all for the assistance today.

Not a great picture, but you would never notice it at all unless you knew about it.

Looks good.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Tom is on to my method.  For small chips, the black marker does an amazing job and is very easy.  The nice part about it is it's reversible, you can wipe it off with alcohol if it doesn't work.  Many times the marker will do a better job than trying to touch up with real paint.  My "secret" final step is to rub the touch-up with a damp finger, the oils take the sheen out of the black and really blend it in.

Interesting that John mentions this final step. Years ago I talked to a dealer who also did a lot of repairs to postwar steam engines, and he mentioned using doing this step as well.