Thought I'd post about a few "aides" that I use for painting and weathering.
Firstly is a product from the Laser Kit line from American Model Builders - Wheel Painting Mask and Holder. It comes in a few different options, most notably for either 33" of 36" wheels but also for different manufacturers of wheels.
This clever little device holds 4 wheelsets, typically enough for a single freight car, while also masking the treads. A by product of the manufacturing also means that the holes are angled to match RP25 tread angles... This makes for a stronger grip and tighter paint seal.
Below is picture of mine, setup ready to paint another set of wheels.
Short of making a cup of tea the only other thing this little device can't do is protect the needle points from paint. My solution is a cotton bud (Q Tip) with a drop of thinners, when painting enamels, then running it over the point part way through the drying. You can leave it till they are hardened but takes more time and force.
The other item I shall cover in this post is my truck painting jig.
As you can see it holds the truck frames for painting, the wheels fitted in the trucks a stand-ins purely to prevent paint getting in the axle boxes. They are old plastic wheelsets that have made way for nice metal ones.
My jig holds 12 trucks, enough for six cars. Each mount is positioned to allow good access around each truck, prevents paint getting into the pivots and keeps it held in position so it doesn't move around in the wake from the airbrush!
Where may we get one of these fantastic jigs I hear you cry? Well sadly you can't buy these, as I made it myself.
Although unlike a magician I will tell you my secret... rain guttering... yes a left over piece of rain guttering I had lying around in the back yard from when we had UPVC installed. At the time we were obviously feeling flush as rather than the cheap common half round stuff, we opted for some channel style. Which 15+ years later proved beneficial when I needed to make a jig for painting trucks.
Short of the conveniently sized, and shaped, offcut of guttering you need 12 M3x30 pan head machine screws, 24 washers and 36 nuts. The rest I believe you can work out with the aid of the pictures. I allowed 1.5" around the pivots and seems to work out jus fine.
I did loose an evening's worth of modelling time in the whole project but I like to think it will allow me to have more quality modelling time over the next many years.
