I mentioned before that realism can come through a consistant approach where if one paints everything to ones own standard, even if ones standard may not be too great (Some of you are amazing modellers. Others of you may not be so tallented It does not matter). Regardless of ones abilities, one can still create lovel models and scenes if one has a consistant approach. It is like painting a picture where one picture is by an artist who can paint amazing fine details and another just does a rough scene where one stands further back and enjoys what they have painted.
But another hint here is when it comes to locos or stock or even other elements of ones railway is to add a second colour or a third so that one does not end up with a loco or an other item that is all just one colour.
I may have mentioned before that it can be easier for a beginner to paint ones first loco in black (Or prehaps post office red). The reason why black works well is that it does tend to hide any mistakes better, but the next stage to make it look more like a loco and not like a toy is to add a second colour. Prehaps white handrails or red buffer beams and con rods. If painting con rods, be sure to run the train now and then to avoid the paint seizing up the joints as paint does tend to seep into any moving parts so a run every few hours (Without going too crazy with fresh wet paint as one does not want paint everywhere!) will be needed to make sure ones model does not end up with solid con rod assemblies. I would not advise to paint any more complicated con rods then fitted to the simple Hornby 0-4-0's as the 0-4-0's can take a day or two of careful attention to make sure they remain free runners after painting. I would not attempt to do this to anything more complicated connecting rod assemblies than a simple model loco that just has a simple con rod and piston rod as the more litle joints one has the more likely one is going to have problems if one paints the things. A dry brush can be a solution here but take it easy! Is better not to paint these parts then to mess up ones fine model!
But a few small details picked out in another colour do bring the model to life.
I will advise to avoid painting anything too complicated. I do try to avoid painting lining other then if the lining bands are already on the model so I can follow them with a fine brush, and yes, I often "Go out the lines" and make mistakes where I will wait for the mistake to dry and paint over with the origional colour and go back and fore like that a few times until finally it looks right. Using paint carefully and sparingly on the brush will make it easier to correct mistakes as they arrise, but do not be too tempted to wipe off paint as this can smudge a much larger area then one intended. Paint can sometimes be wiped off, but generally painting over mistakes in the other colour is best as paint is prone to smudging and smudged paint is likely to be more visible then the origional mistake one has made!
Another mistake beginners (And even experienced) modellers do is to handle fresh paint before it has dried. Paint takes longer to dry then one thinks. One needs some patience, though I must say that I do have a small tin of Hornby's Humborel paint in black and it takes something like 4 to 6 months to dry which has to be taking the biscuit!!! I am tempted to mix it with a black paint that I know dries quickly so I am not wasting it as I am tempted to throw the stuff rather than use it! Mind you. Maybe it has a use as a protective black lubricant instead? Who knows!
But generally leave plenty of time for the paint to dry before one handles the paintwork or corrects a small mistake. Also expect the model to need two or three coats of paint before it looks the part. Black can often be done in just one coat which is why I mentioned black being good for beginners and the post office shade of red also seems to work well in the same way where one rarely will need to give it a second coat.
Now I need to mention paint brushes and their size. I have a mix between cheap brushes and a few expensive ones for finer work. I have found that the expensive ones are nicer to use and the cheap ones are better in the areas where one is slapping the paint on and does not mind so much about fine detail. All are useful! But something else I have learned and that is the size of the brush. If one has a larger flatter area to paint, use a larger brush and use the fine brushes for the detail work or to finish off any edges. The reason for this is that if one uses a fine brush for the large flat areas, apart from it taking longer, one will end up with lots of noticable brush strokes which are avoided if one uses a larger brush.
I am still learning how to brushpaint, and yes, I know and expect to make mistakes! Experience comes in learning how to either avoid mistakes, or how to cover ones mistakes up, and for me it tends to be the latter!
So why do I brushpaint when I could spray paint? After all, my years involved in and out of the bicycle trade have well prepared me with the ability to spray paint as bicycle frames are said to be some of the more difficult items to spray paint as each tube has to be painted as if it has eight flat sides to get a reasonably good finish and tubes join into tubes with bicycle frames! I do admit though that the last few bicycle frames I painted I actually did by brush as I have found that brush painting to offer a much better rust protection compared to even the more protective spray paints (Yes, I have been there and done that!) and any scratches in a brush painted frame are easier to touch up and are less noticable then touching up a spray painted frame...
But for my model railways, though I have used spray paints in the past with 00, nothing brings out the lovely characters of these little 7mm narrow gauge locos as does giving them a nice shiny coat of brush paint and brush painting is personal in that one is more in touch with the model while one paints it and one is watching as the model one is painting comes to life.
I do tend to use gloss paints for locos and coaches and matt paints for waggons and vans. Doing this makes the locos and coaches look cared for and the matt makes the waggons and vans look like they are maintained but have had a hard time. It all tends to work well together mixing matts and gloss in this way. I also paint in oil based enamels as these are nice tough paints to use.
Smaller scales and one needs more use of matt paint, but in 7mm scale and larger gloss paint really gives a little loco character!
