Newbie questions about painting steam engines

[MuzTrem]

My beloved Russell will celebrate her tenth birthday next year, and to mark the occasion I want to give her a bit of a facelift over the winter. It's finally time to do something about that production-line look!

I don't want to do anything too ambitious to start with - just pick out the tank tops, cylinder ends etc. in black. What sort of paint do I need to use - will ordinary enamel paint do? And what shade? What's the difference between matt black and satin black? How should I prepare the surface? Is there anything else I need to know?

Thanks in advance

[Sir haydn]

Right for a start get some wet and dry finnishing paper, the finest that halfords sell. gently rub the paint surface you wish to paint. do not press on to much or you will create deep scratchs, just enough to give the paint where you will be working a matted off finnish. then with either paint thinners or meths dampen a lint free cloth and wipe over the prepered area. now you are ready for the paint.
If you are painting bare brass clean the brass off with thinners and then apply some primer. precision paints single pack etching brush on primer will do the trick. leave at least two days to dry in a warm dry place then you are ready for a top coat.
for tank tops and cylinder faces I use a satin black. this gives an 'egg shell' or semi matt finish. I find matt colours against a gloss finnish is too harsh. I use the normal humbrol tinlets.
before you paint put the tinlet into a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes and warm the surface you are painting. this will mean when you apply the paint you will be left with a brush stroke free finish.
I dont normally use masking tape and find the tank edge is difined enough to make a nice neat line. if you do want to use a making tape use a low tack one. tamiya do a good one which is easy to obtain. remember to carefully remove it before the paint is fully dry!

[MuzTrem]

Cheers Sir haydn - having seen photographs of your work I know I'm getting expert advice

Just one more question - how do I heat the surface to be painted?

[Sir haydn]

sit it over a radiator or infront of a fan heater. just make it so that your not painting on to cold metal