Spray Painting and Resprays

Mark’s Trains is now in a position to provide a professional spray painting and respray service since we have moved over to our new larger workshop facility at the end of summer 2018. This has allowed a significant increase in the work capacity that we are able to contend with.

If you have a finished kit built locomotive that you would like spray painting to any livery of your choosing, including lining and transfers, or you have a model that you wish to change the livery, we can provide these services to you.

As you can appreciate, spray painting and resprays are a time intensive operation. Brass and other metal kits will require a thorough clean to remove any flux or glue residues still in place, as this will likely cause corrosion to take place under the fresh paintwork resulting in bubbling and blistering of the paint. Models such as ready to run locomotives will need the existing paint work and transfers stripped off and glazing materials (windows and light pipes) removed before work can start on spray painting inside the spray booth.

Once these preparations are complete, metal kits will require a two-pack etching primer applied to provide a good key for general primer to adhere to. General primer is then sprayed by airbrush to the whole model, whether a metal kit or a plastic ready to run body. After a few coats of primer the model is left inside a heated cupboard to allow the primer to cure and harden. The model will then be ready to receive some colour paint in accordance with the livery desired.

Spray painting the new livery can be a complex and difficult task depending on the livery required. A lot of masking is needed to protect areas that have been painted so further colours do not bleed through to the colour which has already been applied. Generally speaking a full respray can take up a long time in the spray booth or inside the heated cupboard. Therefore spray painting and respray jobs have their own order book so that models can be painted in an orderly queue. Painting can take anywhere from two weeks to eight weeks or more to complete depending on the livery required. A basic livery will take much less time than an involved and complex livery, and some models may require transfers and lining applied too that adds to the time needed.

Mark’s Trains uses fine high quality paints – namely Phoenix Precision Paints, these paints produce a very good rich and even coat upon application and produce a very high quality and pleasing finish. Phoenix Paints are more costly than its counterparts such as Humbrol paints, however in this case you clearly get what you pay for. Phoenix Paints are suppliers to the Railway industry and various Train Operating Companies, which means the paint supplied in its tins and tinlets are an exact match to the paints used on the prototype – only they are supplied in much smaller tins to the railway hobby.

Have a look through our respray gallery below to see some examples of recent works from the spray booth in our new workshop. If you are looking at having your kit loco spray painted or your ready to run model resprayed in to a new livery contact us on the ‘Book Now’ button below where we can discuss your requirements and provide you with an estimate.