Train Tutorial 3

Making a Train...Start to Finish

Part 3 - Painting

Part 4 - Attaching Axles, Wheels, and Connectors

Part 3 - Painting

The order in which you paint your components (trucks, wheels, locomotive, etc.) doesn't matter, obviously. I usually paint everything all at the same time to reduce down time during drying periods. I find that I can get to the point where I'm ready to paint relatively quickly but painting takes days and days since I'm always waiting for a coat of paint to dry.

First I paint the trucks. I give them two or three coats. I use cheap, water-based, acrylic paint throughout this tutorial.

Next I paint the wheels. I don't like setting freshly painted wheels on a flat surface to dry. This is because the outer edge (curved surface) of each wheel gets painted too and invariably sticks to whatever surface the drying wheel is set on. I use a 2x4 with a bunch of holes drilled in it and some cut off cotton swabs to mount each wheel during painting. In this manner I can paint the top and side surfaces and let them dry without sticking to anything.

I give the wheels about 3 coats of paint.

Next I coat the whole locomotive in white acrylic paint. Basically this is my primer layer. The more soft wood you use the more important this step is. The primer coat causes the grain of the softer wood to raise. Then I take a fine grit sandpaper to it so that I have nice smooth surfaces.

This train is loosely based on the Santa Fe Blue Goose. A silver stripe runs the length of the locomotive. Intuitively, you might think that painting a stripe would involve first painting the rest of the locomotive, then masking above and below where the stripe is supposed to be, and then painting the stripe last. I think there's an easier way to do it. First I paint on the stripe color. Then I put a mask over the stripe and paint the rest of the train. Hopefully the pictures will explain it better than words. One more thing to note is that whenever a layer of paint is going to be masked, I spray on a light coating of clear varnish first. I find that water based acrylic paint tends to seep under the mask if it hasn't been sealed.

This is the masking tape I use. It's painter's tape which supposedly has a special coating that helps prevent paint from leaking under the mask. I'm a believer. I think it works better than regular masking tape or the typical blue colored painter's tape usually found at Lowe's or Home Depot.

I use a simple paper cutting tool that belongs to my wife to cut a piece of the masking tape the width of my desired stripe.

I put the mask in place and procede to paint all the rest of the surfaces. Obviously it's no big deal if I get sloppy and paint over the tape.

Peel off the masking tape and--viola! A beautiful, silver stripe with laser sharp edges. Things don't always work out this well. Despite my best efforts it's still not uncommon to occasionally have leakage under the mask. Very delicate touchups can resolve those problems.

To make windows against light colored paint, I usually draw them using a very fine tipped Sharpie marker. A small combination square can be very helpful in drawing window outlines that I simply fill in. To me these windows look good enough. I think a dark grey window with a drawn on outline looks better than these all black windows, but that requires detailed masking and is more work than I'm usually willing to put into it.

IMPORTANT: If you use a permanent marker to draw details onto your train, this next step is critical. Even though a Sharpie's ink is supposedly permanent, I find that that painted on laquer or varnish will make the ink run and create a horrible mess. You must seal the ink with a couple light coats of spray on laquer. But even sprayed on coatings, if applied too thick, will cause the ink to run. So cautiously spray several light coats over any ink you apply to your train before moving on to your final finishing coat.

Now I apply several coats of protective finish laquer. Although technically this isn't laquer. It's some kind of water-based "polycrylic". I like this particular product because it's very low odor and is water-based so it makes for easy clean up. There's lots of other finishing options out there. I like to give my trains a nice glossy finish so I apply anywhere from 4 to 8 coats on everything--the locomotive body, trucks, and wheels. The smoother my surfaces are to begin with, the fewer coats I'll need to reach a high gloss.

This locomotive gets a decal on each side. I make my own custom decals using a system by Testors. See this page for a little more information about making your own decals. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about decals in this tutorial, but here's a quick summary. On my computer I create the words and/or numbers in a word processing program like Microsoft Word. In this case, I downloaded a free font from a website (dafont.com) called RR Railroad that I thought was a good match for the Santa Fe font of the 1930s. I printed the text onto the special decal paper using an ordinary HP ink-jet printer. Note that I printed a variety of sizes. This is because I'm never sure how the font size will translate from my computer screen to the train. After printing, special spray on sealant is applied to the decal (if you don't use enough sealant, the ink will dissolve away in water). Then I cut out the individual decals, soak them in water, and apply them to the train. After the decals have thoroughly dried, I apply one or two final coats of laquer to the whole thing (including the decals).

I forgot to take a picture of the locomotive after the decals were applied, but this picture of the finished engine gives you an idea.

Now on to the final steps involving the axles, wheels, and connectors!

Part 1 - Building Articulated Trucks

Part 2 - Building the Locomotive

Part 3 - Painting

Part 4 - Attaching Axles, Wheels, and Connectors