How do you paint them

I note that on a couple of my Townstreet building casts that they use etched brass windows. The instructions suggest installing them from inside once all the painting of the building is complete. However, what is the best method and materials to use on brass for the purposes of painting / finishing, including any primer coats.

Any advice great fully appreciated.

Cheers

Toto

I don't bother priming brass window etches as I find it makes the framing look too thick. A good clean with Cif is all that's necessary and then a coat of Humbrol satin white enamel.

Thanks Trevor,

I'll maybe try to create a dirty off white I think. It will match the rest of the filth that will be evident

Cheers

Toto

Yeah I agree you can give them a quick very light over pay of grey etch primer that way when you apply a light cat f white the paint it not to thick and is n bright white looks dirty.

Hope you are going to show us a picture once you have done

If you are keen to undercoat/prime the brass, use a metal primer available from an automotive supplier. This will not matter if it is acryllic, as the enamel will stick to it, unlike the other way round.

Cheers, Gary.

Trevor,

I will start a thread on at least one of the builds and keep reference photos of my progress once I get started. At the moment I will be restricting,yes elf to the practice scrap pieces as I will no doubt be bottling it to start the real thing. I want to be sure "I'm ready of it" before I run the risk of screwing up the real deal.

It also have to learn how to " upload" onto the forum as well. Lots of new skills to learn but I'll get there. I'll probably use the test forum section for the uploading practice.

Again, I work away through the week so progress will no doubt be slow but hopefully this will encourage me to manage a better job of it rather than possibly steaming in there.

Watch this space

Toto

As a general rule/policy, I like to prime pretty much everything before painting.  I use a car primer that says it is suitable for plastic - I get it at an auto parts chain here.

So, certainly metal but plastic as well.  I haven't done any plaster models, but I'd probably prime that too.

I think it provides a good key to the top coat and also give a uniform undercoat.  It can also highlight imperfections in the model allowing correction before finishing.

Consider the topcoat when deciding on the primer.  For browny/red colours I use bauxite, for blues & greens - grey.  When the top colour is very light, like cream, an intermediate step of a light spray of mat white means that the top colour will probably not require more than one coat.


 John

Hi John ,

The  general rule with these plaster castings is the use of thin washes where possible. Apparently, the detail  on the finished surface is too fine to take thick coats of paint. Sobe itenamelsor water based paints they will need thinned down with either thinners or water. I don't no if you would get thin enough results using aerosol type paints.

I suppose the practice pieces would be donated to finding out.

Cheers

Toto

Well, as I said Toto, I haven't done plaster models so I'm not going to second guess.  As for paint thickness, I think aerosols provide a nice even covering and, done right, are not too thick. 

Brush painting unthinned enamels tends to, in my experience, apply quite thick coats so I would avoid that. 
 
Acrylics can be brush painted with good results, particularly the better quality ones.
 
Where a smooth professional looking finish is necessary (coach or loco), I would always spray either using aerosol or, even better, airbrush (particles sizes are finer than aerosol).

John

Hi Toto,

With the plaster cast Townstreet models, why not try the method used as in 'Painting/installing retaining walls'. Try this on a scrap piece first, or just cast a section of plaster, scribe it them paint with washes. The method here describes dabbing the watered down acryllics then sponging to take away the excess, as to make each colour not too heavy.

Cheers, Gary.

I've been doing quite a few etched windows, doors and other bits and pieces, I'v found that fine line paint markers do the job, I got mine from Ebay, but Amazon and other outlets stock them as well, and also thicker tipped ones.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNI-BALL-PAINT-MARKER-PEN-FINE-PX-21-/290638684544

Only drawback I can see is a comparatively small range of colours, black, white, yellow, green, blue, red, gold and silver,  mixing to get say orange from red and yellow, is not very successful as they are fairly quick drying so you could only do small areas at a time, and those would not be very evenly cololured. BIG ADVANTAGE - no brush to clean just put the cap back on!

Being paint rather than ink in other markers it covers better. For etched items I spray with a primer, then colour before assembly where possible, having learnt the hard way that trying to paint doors and windows after assembly is not a good idea, you either don't manage to get right into the edge, or you get paint on the surrounding area. or if it's a window you get some on the glazing.

You shake these "pens" like a spray can, they have a stirrer ball rattling inside, the tip is spring loaded and to get the paint flowing it needs a bit of pushing in and out on a scrap of paper, or other surface, preferrably not your cutting mat though unless you're into that sort of decoration. If you hold the pen down you can get the paint to flood a bit,handy if working on something like a planked etch so it flows into the recesses.

I've yet to try doing brick work flowing "mortar"colour into the grooves then  doing the surface in "brick" with less pressure so none flows into the grooves.  I've just done some Etched greenhouses (from Peedie models)  a light coating with a grey spray primer then white frames for the glass, and a coloured planked base, Initially I had grey lines between the planks which I covered by flooding, had it been a brick base then I would have gone for just surface colour and hope the grey would look enough like mortar, probably acceptable in N gauge but may look a bit odd in larger scales

These are probably a similar thing to what I found in my local art shop, Mike, although mine have a plunging nib allowing paint (yes paint) to flow.  Very useful things to have.

John

A tip i had from Jeff(Gwent rail) was to heat the aerosol paint can in a saucepan of hot(not boiling) water for a few minutes. This thins the paint a little .  Warm the item to be sprayed just a little if possible.

Just found another use for the paint markers, I'm making some buildings from card with each sheet of card being a different colour (it was very cheap!) as it's covered in stone paper the only place it shows is edges and corners, usually I'd use a felt tip on plain card, not quite so good on coloured card though so I'm doing the window and door openings with the white paint marker, the windows and doors are etched brass also painted with the paint markers.

Great idea Mike.  Sometimes felt markers can bleed through when colouring edges.

John