Katzhagen - Archive - May 2011
622 - 10 = red
The blue body I incidentally managed to get hold of
A blue Arosa is being turned into a red Thusis
As described before I incidentally managed to get a facelifted body shell of a Ge 4/4 II. Since one never looks a gift horse (which the body almost was) in the mouth, it was not relevant that the body's colour was not red.
After removing the original lettering, sanding the body and applying a basic color, the final red paint had to be mixed and applied using an airbrush gun.
The basic color was a minor debacle - at first the spray can started puking little particles, then the spray head's nozzle got loose and all of a sudden the spray can completely drained off onto one of the housing's fronts. After this accident had dried out, it again took ten hours of sanding to cover up the tracks of the first attempt to apply the basic color. The application of the basic colour succeeded with a second attempt.
As described before I incidentally managed to get a facelifted body shell of a Ge 4/4 II. Since one never looks a gift horse (which the body almost was) in the mouth, it was not relevant that the body's colour was not red.
After removing the original lettering, sanding the body and applying a basic color, the final red paint had to be mixed and applied using an airbrush gun.
The basic color was a minor debacle - at first the spray can started puking little particles, then the spray head's nozzle got loose and all of a sudden the spray can completely drained off onto one of the housing's fronts. After this accident had dried out, it again took ten hours of sanding to cover up the tracks of the first attempt to apply the basic color. The application of the basic colour succeeded with a second attempt.
The housing after its first red varnish.
The picture above shows the body shell after applying the first coat of red paint. The colour was mixed from four parts of Revell carmine red and one part Revell blazing red (related Revell colour numbers are 32136 and 32131). The result is equivalent to the colour of the red RhB locomotives by LGB. A second coat of paint was applied to achieve an even appearance.
Preparations for applying the decals
Sanding the places where the decals will be applied with a grid of up to 8000
After the second coat of red paint had dried out thoroughly, the places where
the decals had to be applied were cautiously sanded with a grid of 3200 and
8000. This procedure provides that the decals do adhere properly and almost
invisible on the ground.
The Thusis coat of arms decal caused headaches in two aspects. First, the animal's yellow-gold almost vanished on the more or less dark ground and its visibility faded very much. Second, the black toner crumbled off the decal's edges when cutting it out close to the black line... The toner problem could be solved by changing the printer settings from "heavy paper" to "transparent film". The problem of the underground shining through the decal was solved by putting a plate made from 0.5mm PS under the decal. The plate's edges were coloured red before mounting them to the body.
The Thusis coat of arms decal caused headaches in two aspects. First, the animal's yellow-gold almost vanished on the more or less dark ground and its visibility faded very much. Second, the black toner crumbled off the decal's edges when cutting it out close to the black line... The toner problem could be solved by changing the printer settings from "heavy paper" to "transparent film". The problem of the underground shining through the decal was solved by putting a plate made from 0.5mm PS under the decal. The plate's edges were coloured red before mounting them to the body.
A satisfactory result - absolutely planar.
The toner crumbs off when cutting out the decal close to the black line...
Solution: Set printer to print film
The animal become effective now that it is resident on the white PS plate.
Just like the prototype - the coat of arms is raised...
Lettering before and ...
... after the final varnish with a mix of one part matte and three parts glossy clear paint.
Disassembling the green Thusis is up next now to exchange it's body shell with the modern red version. To complete this step it is necessary to set up two little circuit boards for both the head and tail lights.
