PAINTS
Here are the paints I use. I hope the pics help
you spot these colors at your local hobby store. I primarily use
Acrylic paint (cleans up with water). Enamel paint needs to be
thinned with paint thinner while acrylic can be thinned with rubbing
alcohol or water. I prefer the fast clean up and no fumes of
acrylic.
Below is a pic of Floquil paints. They are the
only oil based paints I use. I use SP Daylight Orange for the
orange Chessie color. The ATSF Blue is for the dark blue tops of
locomotives and most freight cars. I don't use these paints much.
Below is a pic of Polly Scale paints. This
stuff is great. They make acrylic paint in all the railroad
colors you'd ever need. Here are the black I use for gondolas
etc. The Chessie yellow is very close to UP Armor Yellow (seen
here), so I use this straight out of the bottle for my Chessie
yellow. The two blues are C&O Enchantment Blue and B&O
Royal Blue. Both are very close to each other. I have used
both straight from the bottle. It gives my cars a slight
difference in color, which is normal for cars that are faded or freshly
painted.
Below is a pic of Testors Gloss and Dull Coats (also
called Lusterless). Testors come in both of these labels, don't
be confused. I apply the gloss coat to a model before ever
putting on decals and then when I am done with the model I spray it
with dullcoat (lusterless). This gives the model a nice dull
look. Shiny models look very "toyish". Most factory applied
paintjobs are too shiny, apply dullcoat right over those paint jobs,
even if you don't weather the cars.
DECALS
Decals are absolutely necessary
if you are going to build a fleet of Chessie cars. Most
manufacturers only provide one road number maybe two. Even Bowser
limits themselves to just 12. Try making a coal train out of just
12 cars, it just doesn't work. Plus, some of these decals sheets
allow you to make cars that no manufacturer made, or even change a bad
paint job into a good one.
Below is a pic of several
useful Chessie Microscale Decal sheets. This is one of two decal
companies still going strong.
Below is a list of Microscale decals I use. Most run about $5 a
sheet and have enough decals to do 2-3 cars.
Chessie Decals:
87-55 50 Chessie Double Door Boxcars
87-308 Chessie Trailers (40')
87-356 Chessie Flat Cars and Gondolas
87-400 Chessie Diesel Locomotives
87-790 Chessie WM Safety Cabooses
87-952 Chessie C&O Safety Cabooses
87-1228 ACF and P/S Covered Hoppers
MC-4257 Chessie B&O GM50 Diesel
60-400 Chessie Modern Hoods (This is an N-scale diesel sheet that can
be used on cabooses or some covered hoppers)
Predecessor Road Decals:
87-47 C&O Diesel Loco Cabs and Cabooses
87-401 C&O/B&O Diesel Loco Hood Units - Modern Scheme 1970
87-875 C&O Hood Units and Switchers 1950's Scheme
87-295 40' Trailers-Trackrail service - 1970
87-332 50' Gondolas 1970-80
87-130 WM Diesel Locomotives-Circus Scheme
87-700 WM Cabooses
87-5 WM 40' Trailers
87-916 WM 40-60' Boxcars
Misc. Decals:
87-193 Freight Data and Wheel Inpsection Dots (1070+)
87-527 EMD & GE Diesles (Use for builders plates and detail
markings on diesels)
MC-4056 EMD & GE Builders Plates
MC-4126 Consolidated Stencils
MC-4168 License Plates for Commercial Vehicles (1970+)
MC-4280 ACE Plates
67-77
Below are Herald King decals. These decals
were not been made between 1999-2008. Luckily they have started
printing again. The great thing about these decals are they are
sealed in plastic and will last for about 10 years. Herald King
decals, unlike Microscale come on a solid clear sheet of decal
film. This means there is a lot more cutting to use the decals,
as you have to trim each one. However, they are also the best
working decals I've ever used. They also offer the best yellow
color for Chessie boxcars and hoppers. Champ and Microscale are a
little too orange in color. They also are the only ones that
offer B&O Safety Cabooses, Careful Car Handling Cabooses and
Canstock Boxcars, three very important Chessie cars. They sell
for about $4.50 a piece. Each pack of decals does one full car,
with the exception of the B&O H-560 Hopper sheet, that can do two
full cars off one pack. Since they offer such a wide variety of
decals, I mix and match sheets to decal just about any class of Chessie
car.
Below are the Herald King Decals I've used:
Chessie
Decals:
B-140 Chessie 40' or 50' Boxcars
B-141 Chessie Canstock Boxcars (not offered anywhere else)
C-140 Chessie Wide Vision C&O Cabooses
C-141 Chessie Bay Window Cabooses (B&O or C&O), no safety cross
decal included
C-142 Chessie B&O Safety Cabooses (C3000, 3017, 3025, 3028, only
enough to do one of the four)
C-143 Chessie B&O Safety Cabooses (C3010, 3771, 3774, only enough
to do one of the three)
C-144 Chessie B&O Safety Cabooses (C3003, 3035, 3043, only enough
to do one of the three)
C-145 Chessie Careful Car Handling Cabooses (can do any of the six)
G-140 Chessie Gondolas
H-140 Chessie Hoppers
H-141 Chessie All Yellow 100ton Covered Hoppers (Large 3-bay ACFs)
H-142 Chessie Yellow Covered Hoppers (Small 2-bays)
H-143 Chessie Yellow with Blue Sill 100ton Covered Hoppers (Large 3-bay
ACFs)
L-140 Chessie EMD Diesels (Too royal blue to use)
L-141 Chessie C&O Diesels (Too royal blue to use)
L-142 Chessie GM50 (Don't recommend, use the Microscale set)
B&O
Decals:
B-560 40' or 50' Oxide Red B&O Boxcars (1960's scheme)
B-561 50' Blue with yellow Cushion Underframe Boxcars (1960's scheme)
B-562 50' Yellow with blue Insulated Cushion Underframe Boxcars (1960's
scheme)
C-560 Blue Cabooses
F-560 Black Flat cars (White markings, 1960's scheme)
G-560 Black Gondolas (White markings, 1960's scheme)
H-560 Black Hoppers (White markings, 1960's scheme, larger logo)
H-561 Black Hoppers (White markings, 1960's scheme, smaller logo)
H-563 Gray Covered Hoppers (Black markings, 1960's scheme, Small 2-bay
PSs)
H-564 Gray Covered Hoppers (Black markings, 1960's scheme, Large 3-bay
PSs)
C&O
Decals:
C-80 Blue C&O wide-vision Cabooses
L-81 C&O Diesels (1960's scheme)
WM Decals:
B-270 WM 40' or 50' Speed Lettered Boxcars (Oxide red cars with white
lettering)
G-270 WM Speed Lettered Gondolas
H-270 WM Speed Lettered Hoppers (Oxide red cars with white lettering)
H-272 WM Speed Lettered Grey Covered Hoppers (Black lettering)
Misc
Decals:
PR-156 Solid Gold FGE Insulated Boxcars (for B&O cars)
Note: PR-143 is listed as B&O Blue
Cylindrical Hoppers, but this set is actually Koppel Inc cylindricals
with KPLX reporting marks
Champ announced in 2001 that
the owner would be retiring and no more new Champ decals would be
made. This makes Champ decals a hard thing to find. I find
Champ decals a little thicker than the other two and not as easy to use
over details on models. Of the three companies, I use them the
least, and primarily just on flat sided cars like hoppers, covered
hoppers and gondolas. They sell for about $3 a piece and each
packet is enough to do just one car. They also are on one sheet
of clear film and you need to trim each decal before use.
Below are the decals I use:
Chessie Decals:
EH-233 Chessie Hood
Diesels
HB-400 86" Boxcars
HB-405 40' and 50"
Boxcars
HC-505 C&O Chessie yellow Caboose
HC-506 Chessie yellow Caboose
HC-618 Chessie ACF Covered Hoppers
HC-644 Chessie Flat Cars
HC-666 Chessie Hoppers
HG-139 Chessie Gondolas
C&O Decals:
HC-401 Covered Hoppers (Roman type, gray car, black lettering)
HG-121 Gondolas (Roman type)
HH-18 White 34' C&O For
Progress Logos
HN-114 C&O Roman type black lettering (not for a specific type of
car)
B&O Decals:
EH-187 B&O Diesels
HC-42 Covered Hopper (13 states logo)
HC-84 Hopper (13 states logo)
WM Decals:
HC-405 Covered Hoppers (Small 2-bay speed lettering)
Misc Decals:
HD-31 Consolidated Lube Stencils
HD-32 Consolidated Lube Stencils
HD-34 Wheel Inspection Dots
HR-70 Fruit Growers Refrigerator Cars (For B&O or C&O FGE
paint jobs)
Other
companies have also made decals. Here are some of the others I
have found useful:
C-D-S Lettering (These are dry
transfer decals):
HO-358 B&O Oxide Red Boxcars with white lettering (Billboad B&O
Scheme)
HO-621 WM Speed Lettered 2-bay PS Covered Hoppers
HO-634 B&O Light Gray Covered Hoppers (2-bay P/S, 1960's scheme)
HO-635 C&O Light Gray Covered Hoppers (2-bay P/S, 1960's scheme)
HO-683 WM Speed Lettered Airslide Covered Hoppers (only ones I have
ever found)
Islington Station Products:
351-073 Chessie auto racks (only ones I have ever found)
Overland Models:
2421 Steel Coil Car C&O (only ones I have ever found)
Rail Graphics:(custom runs for
individuals)
Don Halffield A-55 WM Trailers
Walthers (out of production):
26-51 B&O Coil Cars (1960's scheme) (only ones I have ever found)
35-23 C&O Cameo Boxcars (only ones I have ever found)
282-20 Chessie 50' Double Door Boxcars
282-75 Chessie Locomotives
282-87 Chessie 50' Waffle Boxcars
I have not used OddBall
decals, but some Chessie modelers have found some of their sheets
useful.
