painting

I nominate Dupont automobile lacquer as the very best paint for painting brass locomotives. For steamers, the dark gray primer has a very pleasing lighter than black shade with a very slightly reddish warm tone (much nicer than the grimy black greenish or weathered black purplish cast). I find it is extremely easy to apply, always producing a smooth coating and never leaving "orange-peeling" or other surface blemishes. It seems to be very insensitive to variations in ambient temperature and humidity when applied. It seems to bond very well so it does not need a separate primer coat, and is very durable over long term use of the finished loco. I like that it is not a micro-thin layer when dry so it does not seem to accentuate surface scars or sanding lines the way Scalecoat does. Another advantage (?) is that it only comes in quarts, so you only need to buy it once in a lifetime.

For weathering, I like my old solvent-based Floquil. It is dead-flat so that I can apply it after decaling and covering the decals with Dull Coat. (I find that weathering before the final flat clear coat tones down the weathering so it is hard to apply the weathering to the degree desired.) I like the variety of colors available for weathering, and that it thins down very well for applying fine shading.

For Diesels, I like Scalecoat. I find it is a little less forgiving to apply, but I like the thin, durable, gloss finish as a base for applying the usually more elaborate decals needed on Diesel locos. Geezer

Unfortunately, auto paint isn't available in any lacquer based paints. That leaves the solvent based paints just for our models, Floquil and Scalecoat. Scalecoat is more of a semigloss so it doesn't need to be glossed up before applying decals but either paint is good. Water based paints are nice on the spray gun but unfortunately, they end up thicker than the solvent based paints.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?