repainting rolling stock and locomotives

helo

i have a question on painting locos that are not available. i know z scale does not have the abundance of locomotives but i ran across some where that some one repainted a loco that was unavaileable. i belive he got decals and matched the paint and it looked good. is painting possible considering z scale is so small? i cannot find anyone that makes decals of anysort(custom made?). i have painted several cars some motorcycles and stuff in my day so im not afriad to give this a shot and learn it. but i think i might be impossible ti paint stripes at that small a scale. where can i find decals?
also anyinput would be welcomed also

Steve, the hardest part of repainting is the decals. What we do is adopt n scale decals to see if they fit. Sometimes its a little bigger then we want. It would help if we know what you want to repaint, because there are some custom decals. Theres isnt too much, but there is some.

Steve,
In another direction, to some extent you can make decals on your ink jet printer. Since inks work differently than paint there are some limits but you can do black on a clear stock and colors should be on the white.
When printing on white, you'll want to printer the desired image plus the background color as a border. If you use this technique, try to size the decal so the background ends at a detail such as a panel edge. It's really hard to get the background color to match the paint and by ending the decal at a detail makes it less noticable.
Finally don't discount parts of commerical decal sheets from larger scales. You need to know what physical size you want and need to do some research of the commerial sheets and have access to a train store that will let you take measurements before you buy. For example, I've found that an HO scale "door" logo is the same size as the "nose" logo I wanted in Z.

Hope this helps,
Mark

Steve,

I just completed my first Z locomotive repaint project. I learned quite a lot in the process. For painting the body, smooth even coats with an airbrush are key. Good masking will save you a lot of touch up time.

Decals are going to be the biggest issue. As you found, there are no commercial Z decals available. Using HO or N decals can work very well. Some of the smaller decals are perfect for Z. Another option is to create your own decals. This is what I did. Many of the logos for railroads can be found online. Railroad fonts for some railroads are also online. The key is to be able to scale them to the accurate size. Shown below are my P&LE and Monongahela GP38 repaints. The Mon logo stated with one we found online. John Cubbin cleaned it up quite a bit and add the Mon text, but having a starting point was great.

I was advised against using white decals. I printed the yellow P&LE on transparent decal paper. I added the black around the P&LE since the shell was black. I applied the decal over a white patch with the black edges of the decal overlapping the black shell. Black was easy, but if you are using other colors, you may need a little trial and error to color match the decal to the painted body. Other tips, apply decals over gloss. I sprayed the shell with gloss lacquer before applying the decals. I then sealed the decals with gloss. This helps to 'hide' the decals.

I would definitely try your hand a creating your own custom loco or rolling stock. I had a lot of fun doing my two. It is great knowing I have two unique locos!



Rob

shamoo i have some of my locomotives already im i think im good for now its just im am afraid of availability in the future. i have some GTW locomotives that i want to model and i love CNW but have non at the moment . my thinking is when i expand my layout in a home with more room i will want more locomotives and possible a stray or two that are non exsitant on the market (like a EJ&E or something like that) that i doubt they would do in z because i know they do more mainstream companies.

markl
could you give me a link where i could find some sheets i might experiment witht them on some plastic to practice. office depo, best buys would have theses?

ztrack ur 2 locos look great, thats what i was thinking because the odds they will make a P&LE is slim. where the 2 locomotives unpainted or previous painted? also i was looking to add to my GTW maybe 1 more loco but i would have to just redo the road number so there not the same. but other locomotives i would do a repaint like u did. what did u use? air brush ?

Steve,
The decal sheets I've used are manufactured by VitaCal (www.vitachrome.com) and were purchased through Walther's. There are a number of manufacturers, but the VitaCal is the only one I've used. I've seen the decal sheets at all the train and RC model stores I've been in as well as some of the crafts stores. I'm not aware of decal material in the Best Buy / Office Depot type stores. But if you just want to learn the effects on the colors of printing on transparent material, you might want to start with the overhead projector transparency material, which is available at those stores.
Good luck with your experiments.
Hope this helps,
Mark

Here is an interesting GTW - P&LE tie-in. The GTW bought a number of GP38s from the P&LE. I came across a photo one time of P&LE and GTW locos in action together. Of course I can't find it now... Here is a link to one former P&LE GTW GP38:

www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1881808

But you may want to hold off rushing into GP38 repaints! AZL is coming out with GTW GP38-2s. I believe in at least 3 if not 4 road numbers. They will be in the GTW red and blue scheme. The black GTW in the photo listed above may make an interesting repaint, especially knowing the history.

As for my two, I started with undec shells. The shells are light grey, almost white. They were a good color to work with.

Rob

ztrack wrote: As for my two, I started with undec shells. The shells are light grey, almost white. They were a good color to work with.
Rob

Does this mean that undecs are now available as complete units or just the shells?

Loren, ask Fred if he still have undec shells of the GP38. I got mine from him for a very good price. I think he just wants to get back what he paid for and that it goes to a good home. Can you provide a good home for his shells.

Another option is buy skins. Zscale Monsters still have skins for the CNW GP7. I also know Brian Zimmerman repainted a GP35 using microscale decals.

Undecs are being released in January... just a few weeks away. I just happened to be lucky enough to do some quality control of the shells.

By the way, the undecs should be out right around time Micron-Art releases their GP38 upgrade kits. If you have not seen the art, they kits look great!

www.micronart.com/

Rob

i have seen the cnw skins also , if azl will really have gtw geeps then i will get them. but as a last resort if i had to buy one painted is it doiable to repaint? or will the thickness show?

You can strip the existing paint scheme and start over. Best to wait for the undecs though. Less work.
And Rob, next time you do some quality control.......I'll be glad to assist you....for a small stipend. :o)

sounds great , so i might be able to do some short lines that i like. btw is there a for sure anouncment that gtw's will be made in the gp38-2 by azl? anytime soon or later ?

thank u everyone for your input

Yes the GTWs are a definite. I know since I have them already! I am just waiting for AZL to give me the green light to release. Based on the release schedule, it may not be until spring before they are available. We have some East Cost names lined up after the new year.

Rob

This photo was posted today. It shows a former P&LE GP38 in GTW colors.

www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=417020&nseq=37

Rob

I've done lots of my own custom painting in N scale for a quite a long time now, and chances are, I'll be doing the same in Z scale. Plan on getting some undecorated cars from Micro-Trains that they don't do up in Pennsylvania, such as the stock car.
To bad my printer can't print white, I'd do up some decals.

shamoo737 wrote: Steve, the hardest part of repainting is the decals. What we do is adopt n scale decals to see if they fit. Sometimes its a little bigger then we want. It would help if we know what you want to repaint, because there are some custom decals. Theres isnt too much, but there is some.

Good idea; and I bet many of the items on the sheet work On the N Scale sheets many decals are smaller font than the main item on there.
And I think I seen one place where decals were even offered in z scale.

Hirailtruck wrote: To bad my printer can't print white, I'd do up some decals.

Don't get too hung up on this. Try this method. Create a decal with the surround area the same color as your car. Add the lettering you want in white and print out on clear decal paper.

Paint the area on the car where the decal is to be applied white. Then apply the decal over the white area. The white lettering will pop and the color of the surrounding area will blend into the car body. Touch up with paint that matches the car body. A little weathering and coats of gloss and dull coats will help seal the decals while further blending them in. This is the same technique I used for my GP38s. Note the road number '2000' on the Mon GP38. The white you see in the painted block coming through the clear decal. The surrounding black is actually the decal.

Rob

Some real nice suggestions in this thread.