by Travelsonic
Ok, so I have these Arnold / Rivarossi Amtrak passenger cars - a mail car, some sort of diner or sleeper, and an observation lounge, all in N scale.
I am in the process of modifying them - from the trucks/couplers, maybe even to finding a way to light them. In the process though I was thinking of re-painting one [or more] cars in Amtrak's phase III livery, replacing the phase I scheme the car[s] came with. The thing is, I've never pained something this small. I've done a model rocket [Estes 1:100 scale Saturn V rocket], and a model of the Titanic, and for the most part, the painting was not as precision demanding as this will be - or for those few parts that were, I had help.
I was, first off, thinking about using typical model paint - the kind you use on model rockets, model cars, etc. Is this a right first step, and if so, what brands do you recommend in terms of longevity, not being prone to easily getting washed off, etc?
Fortunately, the roof and window plastic are all one piece, and the roof, removing my fear about being able to avoid painting that, but where do/should I go from there?
I was thinking about starting out by painting over the phase 1 stripes/Amtrak logo with metallic paint that matches the car body as-is [while retaining the car number, blue box with "Amtrak" written in silver lettering], then using something like painter's tape to cover the parts I don't want to paint over and slowly doing each of the three stripes within the confines of the height/width of the phase 1 scheme the cars came with - that is, with the overall 3-even-stripe phase III scheme being as "tall" I guess as the phase I scheme it came with.
Is this a good approach, if not, what do you recommend?
I am in the process of modifying them - from the trucks/couplers, maybe even to finding a way to light them. In the process though I was thinking of re-painting one [or more] cars in Amtrak's phase III livery, replacing the phase I scheme the car[s] came with. The thing is, I've never pained something this small. I've done a model rocket [Estes 1:100 scale Saturn V rocket], and a model of the Titanic, and for the most part, the painting was not as precision demanding as this will be - or for those few parts that were, I had help.
I was, first off, thinking about using typical model paint - the kind you use on model rockets, model cars, etc. Is this a right first step, and if so, what brands do you recommend in terms of longevity, not being prone to easily getting washed off, etc?
Fortunately, the roof and window plastic are all one piece, and the roof, removing my fear about being able to avoid painting that, but where do/should I go from there?
I was thinking about starting out by painting over the phase 1 stripes/Amtrak logo with metallic paint that matches the car body as-is [while retaining the car number, blue box with "Amtrak" written in silver lettering], then using something like painter's tape to cover the parts I don't want to paint over and slowly doing each of the three stripes within the confines of the height/width of the phase 1 scheme the cars came with - that is, with the overall 3-even-stripe phase III scheme being as "tall" I guess as the phase I scheme it came with.
Is this a good approach, if not, what do you recommend?