CNW GP 7's page 3

CNW GP 7's 4142 and 4201 under construction page 3

my high tech abrasive blasting facility

parts washed and rinsed awaiting painting

models having white primer baked on

Now that the units were detailed out the way I wanted them, it was time to prep for painting.

I started out by disassembling the units into major subassemblies. Next, they went into the garage, where I proceeded to grit blast them. This minimizes paint chipping on engineering plastic (handrails and fans) and gets rid of any traces of paint left over from when the shells were origionally stripped. Nothing complicated or fancy to this step. I simply use a Badger air abrasive gun. Since I don't have a recirculating system, I don't use aluminum oxide or glass beads. I've found that baking soda in the abrasive gun shot at from between 80 to 90 psi works quite well. A little messy, but if shot over a garbage can, most of the baking soda ends up in the trash.

Next, after I gone over everything with the abrasive gun, I soaked and rinsed everything off with hot soapy water. After each piece was finished being rinsed, I rinsed it again with distilled water to get rid of waterspots from the crud in our water.

After everything had dried overnight, I proceeded to prime the assemblies of the body that would ultimately be CNW yellow. I've found that yellow is a very tempramental color to spray, so I primed with Scalecoat II White. This way, when the Des Planes Hobbies Scalecoat II CNW yellow is applied, it will be nice and vibrant.

I then took the just primed parts, placed them on a pan, and into the oven they went. There is a common misconception that you can only bake brass locomotives, however, as long as the heat isn't too high, you can expedite the process of drying solvent based paint. I've found that 140 degrees for about an hour works pretty well. Just make sure you check periodically to make sure everything is alright and nothing is warping.

After the paint was dry, I pulled everything out of the oven, let it cool down for a few minutes and then proceeded to spray the main body components with Des Planes Hobbies Scalecoat II CNW Yellow. After that, back into the oven the assemblies went.
Back to page 2
Next to page 4
In Progress Page
Home