Painting A Brass Locomotive for Erieman

[ACL1504]

Y'all ought to see these beauties up close. I love to run them, especially with the new WOW sound in them. 
But the problem is, Tom won't let me high-ball them. I have to faithfully follow all of his speed restrictions.....or else. He only allows me to do high speed with my engines or his old Varney loco! 

Evidently, Mrs. Langford didn't raise no dummies.

Chip,

Well, some may not agree but I agree with you. Hopefully you were referring to me and not any of my three sisters.


Thanks for stopping by.

Tom

[ACL1504]

The paint has been baked and I started to clean the driver tires. I use cotton swab Q-tips dipped in Acetone to remove the paint from the drivers. The third driver from the top still has the paint on the driver tires.



You can see in the above photo that I also removed the paint from the journal pockets on the loco frame.



You can see in the photo above that I go through many Q-tips.

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

When I received the loco from Frank, it didn't run very well due mainly to the broken Waist Sheet. Another source of the problem was the journal wire. A great majority of Brass builders use journal springs in the journal boxes.

Two manufacturers that I know of used a piece of wire for the tension spring. Overland and NJ Custom Brass are the two. To my knowledge, no other manufacturer used the wire. This brass loco is a NJ Custom Brass model.

Anyway, I said all that to say the wire tension isn't the best method for journal springs on brass. It is however, effective but not as good as the journal spring.

So back to the loco not running well. Remember I showed a photo where the last painter of the loco didn't completely disassemble the loco prior to painting. Here is the photo I'm referring to. You can read what I said on page 2 of this thread if you missed it.



By not removing all the parts when painted, the tension spring got painted as well and this causes a loss of contact between the frame sides and journal sleeves. These are electrical contacts on the loco.

In the next photo you can see the two tensions wires. The one on top is how it came off the loco. The one on the bottom was removed and the paint stripped by me. The other one was stripped after the photo was taken.



Continued after a Diet Pepsi break.

[ACL1504]

In the next photo you can see the proper placement of the tension wire. One goes on the inside of each side of the loco frame.



The four drivers are then placed in the journal boxes on the frame and on top of the tension wire.



The bottom plate is then screwed to the bottom of the frame. The bottom plate forces the driver axles down onto the tension spring. The photo below gives you the best look and understanding as to how it works for the greater good.



I then reattached the pilot. I painted the rubber air hoses a Polly Scale Tan and the glad hands Floquil Old Silver.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Time to attach the side rods. Remember I mentioned you should take a photo of the model prior to taking all the parts off so you know where they all go back on? Well, a photo wouldn't necessarily help you here but knowledge of how the side rods work would.

In the photo below, all the side rods look the same don't they?



They aren't however. Look at the next photo.



The two side rods on the left are different lengths.

You more than likely didn't notice the difference in the driver spaces. No problem, look at the next photo.



The driver on the left in the photo is the front driver and you can see the spacing on this one is wider than the other three. This is where the longer side rod goes. Easy Peasy!

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

The photo above shows you how the side rods go together and the photo below shows you the side rods on the loco.



More later this afternoon.

Time for a longer break.

[ACL1504]

After the side rods were attached, I added the steam chest. I hand painted the steam chest piston covers with Scalecoat Aluminum. I painted the valve handles on the steam chest cylinders with Floquil Signal Red.





Time now for the main side rod, eccentric crank, etc. on the locomotive. These were a bit "tricksie" to reinstall but everything went on as needed.





In the next few days I'll be adding boiler and tender photos.

Thanks for following and for all the past comments.

[donatode]

One word .....




...... WOW !!!!

[jimmillho]

Y'all ought to see these beauties up close. I love to run them, especially with the new WOW sound in them. 


But the problem is, Tom won't let me high-ball them. I have to faithfully follow all of his speed restrictions.....or else. He only allows me to do high speed with my engines or his old Varney loco! 

Greg,

Thank you for the kind words on the brass paint jobs. You can run them any time as long as you follow the speed restrictions as you said.

High ball the old Varney all you want.   Wait, I don't have an old Varney.

Tom

I do

Jim

[Erieman]

One word .....




...... WOW !!!!

Donato,
I'm with you . Actually I can think of a couple of other expletives, but they are not to be used on the forum for fear of getting kicked off. WOW is perfect.

Now we are going to have to address him as SIR Tom or Sir ACL 1504. Beautiful job.

Frank / Erieman

[ACL1504]

One word .....




...... WOW !!!!

Donato,

Thank you, much appreciated. I'm glad you like the progress and painting.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Y'all ought to see these beauties up close. I love to run them, especially with the new WOW sound in them. 


But the problem is, Tom won't let me high-ball them. I have to faithfully follow all of his speed restrictions.....or else. He only allows me to do high speed with my engines or his old Varney loco! 

Greg,

Thank you for the kind words on the brass paint jobs. You can run them any time as long as you follow the speed restrictions as you said.

High ball the old Varney all you want.   Wait, I don't have an old Varney.

Tom

I do

Jim

Jim,

Good, bring it to the next SBG and Greg can burn the motor out. Maybe it will survive at light speed, then again I guess it won't.

Thanks for following along.

Tom

[ACL1504]

One word .....




...... WOW !!!!

Donato,
I'm with you . Actually I can think of a couple of other expletives, but they are not to be used on the forum for fear of getting kicked off. WOW is perfect.

Now we are going to have to address him as SIR Tom or Sir ACL 1504. Beautiful job.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

Thank you very much, I appreciate the kind word and support. I'm very much thrilled at how this is turning out and I'm happy you approve.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Quick update. I forgot to mention after the basic coat of black paint was applied and baked, I sprayed the loco and parts with Scalecoat Satin finish. The Satin finish is a special mix I've been using for years to seal the basic black paint. The Satin finish is a mixture of the Scalecoat Flat and Gloss paint plus a few parts of Scalecoat thinner.

All the locomotive parts assembled as shown above, have the Satin Finish.

I used the blue tape to cover the smoke box. I then painted the loco boiler and cab areas with the Loco Black mixture. I then baked the paint @ 170 degrees for 1 hour. The photos below show how it looked after coming out of the oven and prior to the Satin finish added.

You can see all the piping needs to be painted the loco black.





Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Prior to spraying the Satin finish, I used a very thin brush to hand paint the piping, number boards, etc.. After these have been baked, I'll paint a few more details on the loco boiler. I'll show these areas later this week.