08/01/2004
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Application of paint was again the goal for this week.  I took a couple of hours off from the scraping and needle gunning and sanding in order to apply the long hood number.  This style of lettering is really a bear to work with because the bodies of the numbers are so narrow in places.  The process of painting the number consists of putting an adhesive paper on the surface and then taping the stencil over that.  The outline of the numbers is then transfered to the adhesive paper, the stencil removed and the letter cut out with an Exacto knife.  The area around the number is masked and then the number is sprayed with, in this case, a Badger air brush using the same black Imron as the rest of the locomotive.  This is a lot of work but the results are well worth the effort.

Friday afternoon, Phil and I applied the red coat of paint to the frame.  Saturday, I applied the same paint to the end sheets.  It sounds simple but over 3 hours of masking went into the preparation for 15 minutes of painting the ends.  Hopefully, next weekend will see black paint on the sides and ends.