QUOTE (Kimbo @ 15 Jun 2008, 15:29) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi Everyone,
As you may or may not know, I've decided to do a somewhat ambitious project, principally that of creating a freeland railway in an imaginary country.
One of the things I'm currently musing is whether to create a custom made paint scheme for this imaginary country's railway.
I was wondering if anyone had experience with this.... I'm particularly concerned about redoing the paint schemes and then being unable to redo the minute decals a lot of the high quality trains have...
Has anyone got any experience with making a custom made paint scheme and then reapplying new decals?
How does one go about it, do manufacturers make undecorated trains??
Ta for any words of wisdom anyone might have...
Kimbo, I do a LOT of kit construction, rreworking or RTR, redetailing and repainting. Its all possible but the skills tak a some time to really master...
I do admire your wide vision here but I really think that you may need to prioritise a wee bit. An ambitious layout as a first project and now a totally new "nationality" for everything!
Apart from the loco's - every independent railway has some unique identifying aspects to its signalling, staff uniforms, trackwork, buildings, signage, even station lamps etc etc.... decide early how far you wish to go with that sort of thing as its a lot to tackle and it'll take great forethought and consistency in application to make it believeable.
As to creating a livery, its technically simple to do and could be as plain or as unique as you want but it will take some skill.
Start practicing now with lower cost plastic kits etc, rather than tackle an expensive railway model as a learning exercise!
Undecorated EU loco's are rare unless you wish to build kit loco's or strip them yourself... and you can't just paint over another scheme as it WILl compromise the quality of the respray if you do.
This will always mean quite a complex disassembly not only of the body from the loco, but of many details from the body.... and perhaps disassembly of chassis if parts of that are to be painted too.
You will need to become skilled with an airbrush and all the techniques of proper pre-paint preparation, masking, overspraying with a clear coat etc.
You will need good quality sources of custom decals - they are available if a little expensive to commission as the "artwork costs" add a lot to the actual decal costs.
Remember too that to be believable you will need a complex set to reproduce not just naming and numbering but all of the "small print" that is all over loco's and rolling stock expecially in the modern era.
You will need to master the skill of application and making the decal film invisible.
Think it through... perhas get the layout underway, represent the railways with "running rights" first and when you gain confidence and have really defined what you need, have a go
Richard
DCCconcepts
As you may or may not know, I've decided to do a somewhat ambitious project, principally that of creating a freeland railway in an imaginary country.
One of the things I'm currently musing is whether to create a custom made paint scheme for this imaginary country's railway.
I was wondering if anyone had experience with this.... I'm particularly concerned about redoing the paint schemes and then being unable to redo the minute decals a lot of the high quality trains have...
Has anyone got any experience with making a custom made paint scheme and then reapplying new decals?
How does one go about it, do manufacturers make undecorated trains??
Ta for any words of wisdom anyone might have...
Kimbo, I do a LOT of kit construction, rreworking or RTR, redetailing and repainting. Its all possible but the skills tak a some time to really master...
I do admire your wide vision here but I really think that you may need to prioritise a wee bit. An ambitious layout as a first project and now a totally new "nationality" for everything!
Apart from the loco's - every independent railway has some unique identifying aspects to its signalling, staff uniforms, trackwork, buildings, signage, even station lamps etc etc.... decide early how far you wish to go with that sort of thing as its a lot to tackle and it'll take great forethought and consistency in application to make it believeable.
As to creating a livery, its technically simple to do and could be as plain or as unique as you want but it will take some skill.
Start practicing now with lower cost plastic kits etc, rather than tackle an expensive railway model as a learning exercise!
Undecorated EU loco's are rare unless you wish to build kit loco's or strip them yourself... and you can't just paint over another scheme as it WILl compromise the quality of the respray if you do.
This will always mean quite a complex disassembly not only of the body from the loco, but of many details from the body.... and perhaps disassembly of chassis if parts of that are to be painted too.
You will need to become skilled with an airbrush and all the techniques of proper pre-paint preparation, masking, overspraying with a clear coat etc.
You will need good quality sources of custom decals - they are available if a little expensive to commission as the "artwork costs" add a lot to the actual decal costs.
Remember too that to be believable you will need a complex set to reproduce not just naming and numbering but all of the "small print" that is all over loco's and rolling stock expecially in the modern era.
You will need to master the skill of application and making the decal film invisible.
Think it through... perhas get the layout underway, represent the railways with "running rights" first and when you gain confidence and have really defined what you need, have a go
Richard
DCCconcepts
