Model Railroading > Painting Brass

My first stab at painting brass will be quite humble, some square brass tubing. But I want the paint job to be durable, so any suggestions?

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

Bake it in the oven after you paint it. I use around 170 degrees for about 1 hour. Paint comes out like glass and the temp is not hot enough to distort any of the solder joints.

chessiegp39 Wrote:
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> Bake it in the oven after you paint it.
Yep.
Also, prep the surface well before. Solvent bath of your choice or better yet, grit blast it.
scrub with warm soap and water with a old tooth brush. Let dry. Paint

Degrease, and then use 2000 grit sand paper to sand it so paint will really adhere to it. then bake it.

What kind of paint are you using....

I use just regular Floquil.

Steve,
I think the secret to having paint stay on brass is to have the brass immaculately clean. Sanding is OK but some steel wool will do it also. After cleaning keep one's fingers off it, handle it with cotton gloves or use a small cloth or paper towel to hold it. Primer is not really necessary if you've followed this. ScaleCoat paint does quite well but others may also be used. Tacoma Hobbies for ScaleCoat paint if this is a RR project. Paint will take a few to dry completely unless baked, if the piece will fit into your wife's oven.

dnuck in Gig Harbor

BE VERY CAREFUL IN USING ANY OVEN!! THE ACCURACY OF THE THERMOSTAT IS VERY QUESTIONABLE!! I'm done shouting...If you get it too hot, you have scrapped the engine..the solder lets go. I constucted a curing box using hard insulation 1" thick ( the 2 sided foam with metallic foil on both sides( found at Home Despot) and HVAC tape. My box is appx. 28"x16" and it sits on a base of the same material. I added a piano hinge and a side hatch. It's kind of like an Easy Bake Turbo Oven! You use a light socket, and a bulb of sufficient wattage. ( With mine, a 60 watt bulb produces a temp of 174 degrees after a 30 minute warm up. A digital thermometer can be purchased for 25.00 or less that has an overtemp beeper..It averts a potential tragedy. I have had mishaps before on cheaper items..Be careful!!

I have used an infared heat lamp which works quite well, just don't get it too close to the object...at least a couple of feet away.

hmmm, putting it in your wife's oven, YOUR WIFE'S OVEN, without her knowing ahead of time, may make it the very last thing you ever see coming out of that oven. Sure the smell will go away in a few days, but sleeping on a cot in the basement until the smell goes away is not a good time. Then again you will have plenty of time to keep telling yourself that Model Railroading is fun.

Thanks all for your input.

So just to tidy up some fine points.

Very little solder is involved. This will be brass monument posts and the total amount will be less than 24 inches of 1/8th inch brass square tubing. Each post will have a pointed top, so only a little solder to hold the points together and some solder to hold brass rods in the other end.

So the fine points: Degrease with ???

What paint am I using? Hoping for suggestions here. It looks like Scalecoat I or Floquil.

No worrys about the oven, I'm not putting a brass locomotive in there. I will take my chances with this project though.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

n6nvr Wrote:
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> hmmm, putting it in your wife's oven, YOUR WIFE'S
> OVEN

and forget about it until your wife starts the oven again and sets it 475 degrees. She later finds brass parts with liquid solder at the bottom of the oven! My buddy rick (a Great Painter) did this with a brass caboose. He then had to strip, rebuild, and repaint the caboose. He didn't make money on that job! I like to use on old (Garage sale) large toaster oven.
Dave

I'm looking at a bottle of Scalecoat II Loco Black; it says on the back "For best results, shake well. Direct from the bottle isexcellent for brushing. Use only Scalecoat thinner with Scalecoat II paints. Paint should be thinned using equal parts of paint and thinner."

"On the back of a bottle of regular Scalecoat (NP green) it says the same thing, and says that a good starting mixture would be 2/3 paint to 1/3 thinner."

I have just recently spray-painted two NP F-units and used Ace Hardware Lacquer thnner (high strength) availabler from your local store. And it also says that "Thins lacquer finishes and epoxies. "Removes oil, tar, ink, glue, marker, crayon, grease." I can also attest to using this thinner to remove the final remnants of finish on a brass passsenger car.

You should have no problem painting those pieces with Scalecoat and a small brush; or spray them. Need help? Call me.

dnuck (Doug in Gig)

Thanks Doug.

I'll let you know if I run into trouble.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography