Okay, this is an oooooold thread, still, since it's up, I'll add something.
My tastes are probably such a minority market it'll never happen, but oh well, here goes: my tastes generally prefer 1850s, 1860s, 1870s "Early" railroads.

How about 'up-scaleing' those HO scale John Bull, Lafayette, DeWitt Clinton, sets to 1:24 scale with adjustment to run on proportionally narrower track, roughly 3ft6in at 1:24 to the original's 4ft 8.5in in HO scale/guage.

One of those 1840s Baldwin Flexible Beam 0-8-0 locos like in John H. White Jr.'s book American Locomotives: An Engineering History, 1830-1880 Figure 202 on page 401.
Ah! Found it on google books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=1A4iiGAz628C&pg=PA397&lpg=PA397&dq=baldwin+%22flexible+beam%22+locomotive&source=bl&ots=pr1tynvYTx&sig=EtlcvwGYYXAV9iuvUyod8YupAl0&hl=en&ei=RrkYSozVBZb2MeCR5ZgP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPA401,M1

Oh, to dream the impossible dream . . .

I'm looking forward to these as kitbashing material - turn Thomas and Percy into some freelance industrial locos.

I am a 'fan' of Thomas, but the kitbashing siren song . . .

Hey Y'all;

Went and paid for my V&T "Silverado" set today - nice train 


Pretty well fills apartment's living room floor, eh! Cat's not sure about this big noisy thing yet.  Green is a vinyl, flannelbacked tablecloth in a 'grass' pattern from football season stuff Wal Mart in fall. Bought it from clearance aisle. Track assembled less one straight each side.

But, leading axle on pilot truck had had the middle plastic part of the axle crack where wheels insert and axle and wheels were floating loose in box 
Put it together and decided to take it home anyway.
Inspection at home showed both ends of plastic axle cracked where wheels insert and same for rear axle on pilot truck. 

Now what ?

Really do not want to return whole train set or even just the loco - it's mine now.

I'm thinking just add some glue - there are several that would work.
OR -->
To see if replacement plastic axle parts are available from Bachmann and I'll just replace the parts myself here?
That's what I'd prefer.

Ah, points noted.

I have an airbrush and use PollyScale's acrylics on the HO and On30 trains. For the occasional PRR paint job use Brunswick Green with a dose of CNW Green. Have read in books that PRR's actual Brunswick Green painted steam locos might as well have been black as far as photographers could tell.

The green parts other than boiler will stay way they are out of Bachmann's factory, it's just boiler jacketing color to change.

I just don't want to mess with airbrushing something this big - hit it with rattle can and be done is the line of thought.
Will take 5 times longer to dismantle and mask than to paint either way, though 

Okay, now see in Kevin's May 13 post answer to buffing question asked on 14th.
Don't mind me, I'll catch on in a week or two 

Hey Yall;

Thanks guys.
A reason for not knowing about the Testors paint is that our brand new, opened first week of March, hobby shop, River Eagle Hobbies, ( a reference to Missori Pacific trains as we leiv along ex-MoPac, now UP, tracks along Missouri River and MoPac had passenger trains named Eagle such and such ) here in our itty bitty burg of population 8700 +/- doens't have Model Master paints yet; and that paint rack with paint is something like $400 plus wholesale, so he's building up stock as he goes. But there's at least 3 auto supply stores in town with all manner of sprays and I use the Duplicolor primers and colors on my model rockets so am familiar with them. And it's something like a 70 mile round trip to Columbia for a $4 can of spray paint at Hobby Town USA where I guess they might have it.

Come to think of it, Mike might to be able to order just a can or two?

Okay, the term "buffable" that does mean it would have to be polished and then sealed somehow

Baaaah, now I can't find it.
Earlier today was searching through Google hits for Bachmann Big Hauler and found a page where it was said that Bachmann paint seem to be coated with some kind of waxy finish that spray enamel just beads up on.
Maybe it was in here somewhere http://www.girr.org/girr/index.html or maybe not.
That would be an issue!

Hey Y'all;

While this thread is mostly about rolling stock I'd like to add that the people figures billed as 1:20.3 scale really are that size.

Hey Y"all;

After getting that V&T "Silverado" set, I want to get the PRR "Pennsylvanian" set in a couple months.
Have a book where it looks like some old  timer steamers were in the Brunswick Green on most parts but boiler jacketing was bare metal.

What I want to do is paint over boiler with some gunmetal tone metallic color automobile spray paint.
Will that work or badly react with Bachmann's paint?

Am certain regular model paint spray enamels will work, but color and tone I want doesn't seem to be made.

later,
Forrest

Hey Y'all;

Thanks for info.
As 2nd floor apartments are a tad short on garden space our trains will spend most of time on display with most of their running time on the floor - and since there's allergies and asthma in the house, smoke units are expendable.
We have been invited to bring our trains to garden Ry of fellow who just opened a hobby shop in our little burg of 8700, or so.

Kathy's already declared, multiple times, that her set will not see such butchery.
But she might take me up on texturing the coach roofs.

later,
Forrest

Question:
On V&T 4-6-0 in Big Hauler "Silverado" set loco is done up as woodburner with spark arresting stack but still with extend smokebox with interior spark/cinder catcher like used on coal burners: I'd like to cut smokebox back to between rivets halfway along.

That would look much better to my eye.

Is there anything inside that would make that an interesting adventure, or even prevent that entirely? The smoke unit?

Do not have set in posession yet, will be buying it the 15th.

Anyway, loco has pretty 1870 era paint job 
Doesn't look much like the real Virginia & Truckee's 4-6-0 #26 of 1905 or so, but so what, I like, yes indeed, I like 

Other problem is, now that she's seen the set, wife wants me to buy her one 

Something to look at is Walthers, Microscale, Testors, and Floquil/Polly Scale, all make decal setting solvents which pretty much literally melt waterslide decals into the paint.

And, yes, satin or gloss paints are better for applying decals.
Flat paints under microscope have surface kind of looks like sandpaper in order to break up reflections. That is why decal film often "silvers" when applied over flat paints - film only sitcks to the high points.

Those clear flat, satin, or gloss overcoats are indeed good ideas.

Something else to do after waterslide decal dries is to take damp cloth to wipe off any excess adhesive around decal.

Which Tamiya paints did you use - the jars or the spray cans?

Spray cans are synthetic lacquers - lacquers are very thin coats which do scratch easily and need a good clear coat over them.
Jars are acrylic lacquers.

An idea is to use automotive spray primer designed for metals.
Will, of course, want to strip paint - again  - first