Greetings Ian, there is an excellent book, which I highly recommend, written but a subscriber to this site, called “How (not) to paint a steam locomotive” which will answer all your questions, and a lot more.

The author has produced a gold medal award winning locomotive with a magnificent paint finish.

Buy your self a copy.

Regards

Brian B

The author is Christopher Vine.

I’m no expert in painting, hence the purchase of Chris Vines book. However, for base coat you could use any of the self etching primers aerosol cans from places like Halfords, it would at least give you a good foundation.

Andy

Hello Ian,

When painting my 5″ gauge loco:

Following appropriate surface preparation(s) I used Upol 8 Acid-etch primer from spray cans as the primer.

This is also available in tins as a ‘brush-on’ coat as you have expressed a preference for this approach.  The spray appears to coat and adhere to the base surface very well indeed, even the notoriously tricky brass.

Note: I have not used Upol 8 primer ‘brush-on’ so cannot comment on application etc.

I used Phoenix Precision Paints primer to ‘touch-in’ fasteners etc.  it is ‘good’, but in my experience does not adhere as well as Upol 8 to brass and does not adhere at-all to ‘stainless’.

For top-coat I used a number of coats of Phoenix Precision Paints tins with about 10% thinners added brushed-on with soft broad sable brushes and rubbed-down extremely lightly between coats.  The (semi-matt light green) surface looks good to my eye with no visible brush-marks and no-one has ever commented adversely.

Note: I used semi-matt (‘eggshell’) finishes and have not used gloss at all so cannot comment on that finish.

Phoenix Precision Paints can supply their colours in spray-cans – I have never used so cannot comment.

For filler I used J-B Weld and car-body filler.  Note:  The J-B Weld reacted with the Upol 8 acid etch primer and needed a sequence of the very lightest of coats, drying between each application, to remain stable and not ‘show-through’ nor need additional ‘rubbing-down’.

Regards,

Phil

According to the chap on the Precision Paints stand at an exhibition some years ago, premixed acid etch primer has a fairly short shelf life, don’t know whether this applies to Upol. I have an unopened 1 ltr tin of Tetrosyl etch primer and its associated activator which I’ll never use. Upol rattle cans are a lot more convenient. Free to collect from north Cheshire.