I am now the proud owner...

Of an undecorated Canadian Cab Athearn Genesis SD70I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Slowly but surely my vision is becoming a reality......well once I paint it....etc..

Not quite sure how to go about doing it though, never really painted anything like this before.
 
If your not sure on airbrushing, head down to Gooches or Elmwood hobbies and ask. Most of them have the experience to help you out. And the air brush equipment isn't that expensive.
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
Yyyaaayyy!, can't wait for you to get started. Remember, before adding the details to the main shell, drill out the correct holes and do the main spray work.
 
If your not sure on airbrushing, head down to Gooches or Elmwood hobbies and ask. Most of them have the experience to help you out. And the air brush equipment isn't that expensive.

I asked at Gooch's when I bought the loco, they told me to come back during the open house lol.

I have found the correct paints online GTW Blue and GTW Morency orange from Floquil/Testors.....ty doctorwayne, now hopefully I can find someone here that carries them.

Now all I need to do is get an airbrush, anyone have any good recommendations on an airbrush at all, or will pretty much any do?
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
If you have the bucks, go for "Badger", I personally don't own an airbrush, but I hear it is a good brand.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
I've been using a Paasche VL for the past 30 years or so. It's easy to clean and parts are readily available, should you need them.
Whichever airbrush you end-up with, the most important thing to remember is to keep it clean, and that means cleaning it thoroughly immediately after you've finished painting.
When you do finally get your airbrush, pick up some corrugated cardboard boxes from a local store, and, after flattening them or cutting them up, use the blank side to practise on. This will give you a good opportunity to try different brands of paint (they have different characteristics for spraying), and also allow you to see the effects of varying the paint-to-thinner ratios, and that of various air pressure settings. Likewise, varying the distance between the airbrush and the work will give you different results, and this is an inexpensive way to learn what works and what doesn't.
The instruction booklet that came with my VL outlined a few simple exercises to practise in order to become comfortable with the tool, and one of the best, in my opinion, was the dot and line technique. You can use a pencil to draw a grid on a piece of cardboard, or do it totally freehand. The first step is to make a series of dots at the intersections of the grid lines: this will demonstrate the correlations between paint/thinner ratios, spraying distance, and paint/air ratios. The object of this part of the exercise is to get the smallest, cleanest-looking (with the least spatter) dots that you can. When you've mastered that, practise connecting the dots with the straightest, finest lines that you can make. While you may never need to apply dots or lines to a piece of rolling stock, these simple exercises will teach you the capabilities of the tool and how to control them to your best advantage.

Wayne
 

CRed

Member
Good luck with the paint job.I've always wanted an DWP(Duluth,Winnipeg&Pacific) SD40-2 and they use the same cool colors.

Chris
 
Thanks for the great advice Wayne, should help my airbrushing decisions.

Chris, I am planning a DWP loco as well, thinking maybe another SD70, would look kinda cool, a GTW SD70I and a DWP SD70I in one lashup!

Though my first step is finding the correct paints.
 
How it going with putting together the first loco?

lol very very slowly, I don't have any of the tools I need here, I have to wait untill my next laundry trip to the parents place(yes I'm cheap, my apartment charges too much anyway+free dinner:mrgreen::thumb:) to start working on it.

This Sunday I hope to have it at least primed.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
lol very very slowly, I don't have any of the tools I need here, I have to wait untill my next laundry trip to the parents place(yes I'm cheap, my apartment charges too much anyway+free dinner:mrgreen::thumb:) to start working on it.

HAHA!! :twisted:

Nothing better than a free home cooked meal :twisted::twisted:

Indeed, plus they have a compressor for airbrushing purposes, the latter I hope to pick up tonight!

Geez!! Just like a bad penny! Ya just can't get rid of 'em!!:rolleyes::eek::p:-D:-D

Wayne (2 down, 1 to go) ;)
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
Well, in actual fact, I still stay with my parents, and I pay them boarding and lodging every month, but the meals are free- so no complaints.
 
I visit mine once a week for laundry and food.....and big screen tv....and now usage of tools. Oh and it's nice to see them too lol(yes that is the important reason to go)
 
Alrighty, now for an update, I have finally got the airbrush, not the greatest one in the world, hopefully it can accomplish the job, if not I will be the proud owner of 2 airbrushes!

Next step.....GET PAINT!
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
YES!!!!! In my opinion, if you do everything you're supposed to do, the airbrush will do what it needs to do. We all need to start somewhere, hey.
 
Okay, a nice little update......I have tried out my airbrush to see how it works, it's alright I guess...I still need to get paint though, hopefully by Saturday I can get it and start painting!
 
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