Keith S wrote: ↑Thu Mar 07, 2019 7:46 pm
Can you recommend a way to chemically blacken them? That sounds more durable than paint. I'd like to do that to the cylinder ends on the loco, too.
The brake van is looking good with brake gear fitted and it helps fill in the void under goods wagons. If you want even more weight fit white metal vacuum cylinders as well, as they are much larger than air brake cylinders and therefore heavier in solid metal.
I spray my wheels underframe colour when I paint the model, it saves masking off, or dismantling the underframe........
It would be just as easy to brush paint the wheels as chemically blackening them I should think.
I use Birchwood Casey 'Super Blue' liquid gun blue for colouring mild steel, brass and copper. Contrary to what the label suggests, the finish is a deep black when used on steel and black with a slight brown tone on copper and it's alloys. Just follow the instructions on the bottle and rub it on to a clean and degreased surface with a cotton bud, until the colour builds up to what you want. It's easy enough to find here in Oz from the nearest gunshop, so I would think it should be fairly easy to find in Canada. They have a range of metal colouring solutions, including one for aluminium.
Another brand you could look for would be Jax who make a range of metal colouring solutions, including brown, grey and rust, as well as one for blackening pewter/whitemetal. They seem to be intended for the jewellery trade, as that's the only place I've found them stocked locally.
Regards,
Graeme