Scalefour Forum

Having now reached the final stages of painting of a couple of locomotives, I've reached a point of dissatisfaction...

I've never been entirely happy with the finish produced from the standard Humbrol "Brass" paint - it's #54 in their range. The flakes of metal always seem too large to be convincing and at anything less than a metre viewing distance it doesn't look like metal, but more metallic, as in a car paint.

Ideally, I'd like to see something that is shiny(!) but with flakes as small as those in the steel/aluminium/gunmetal paints in the "Metalcote" Humbrol range. However these are the only three colours that they do. No brass, or even gold.

So does anyone else have any favourites, or suggestions, that I could try?

TIA
Flymo

Not sure if you can get it in the UK Paul, but Floquil brass does a good imitation. The pigments are finely ground but it uses xylene as the thinner/carrier and the stuff is a bit nasty if spraying, brush work maybe not so bad.

HTH

David

OK, perhaps a bit off the wall, but try adding a drop of metalcoat (your choice of colour) to the brass, give it a mix, and when dry, rub it down and see what it looks like.
I have used "jet exhaust" and yellow as a stand in for brass, but I was desperate at the time...

Flymo wrote:

So does anyone else have any favourites, or suggestions, that I could try?

You could try this:
http://www.miniaturicum.de/product_info ... ts_id=1357 it is called Brass balls.

"it is called Brass balls" But don't use in very cold weather.

The P3 Les suggested is pretty good, but if you can airbrush it on, it is hard to beat Modelmaster metallics. The brass is excellent, and the copper is outstanding. They are often ""buffable"

NB

Further to my previous posting I include a shot of a safety valve cover done with the Floquil brass paint.

two are brass turnings and the other the original W/M casting painted "brass". In the end it was the smoothness of the turnings that made up my mind but for a while it was a near run thing.

Cheers,

David

davknigh wrote:Further to my previous posting I include a shot of a safety valve cover done with the Floquil brass paint.

Just a quick note to say thanks to you all for the various suggestions.

Despite the excellence of David's turnings, I'm afraid that I couldn't magic up a lathe and the skill to operate it out of my back pocket. So I therefore settled for Floquil paint as the next best easily available substitute.

I placed an order with The Sidings, Tamworth, who seem to have a very large range of Floquil in stock, according to their website, and a package containing it turned up last Friday. As I was ordering by phone and paying postage, I took the opportunity to order some copper paint as well as the brass, and a bottle of thinners to help me work with it.

First impressions are that the two paints are much finer in granularity than the Humbrol colours, and if I get chance to play with them in the next few weeks I'll see how they go on the model.

Thanks again for all the advice.
Flymo