Litle Bag of carbon?

[js7924]

ok, call me goofy or whatever. This is my second post since joining and now I have to ask, "in the new Spectrum steam engine box, there is a little bag of what appears to be carbon like material". What is this for? I can't find any info about it.
 Thanks j

[Hunt]

The power used to simulate coal cinders for super detailing the locomotive. Place wherever cinders would settle.

[electrical whiz kid]

Hunt;
While I see you here, I just purchased a couple of brass locomotives on Evil Bay.  What has been your experience (if any) with this, and also, what kind of prep would you advise.  I have a thought about cleaning the body of one of them really well, and blackening it to simulate having been around a while without a bath (my railroad concept is that of a real heavy-duty utility bridge line, hence the "grunge").  With that as a base, I could go from there.  Your thoughts...
Rich C.

[richg]

The power used to simulate coal cinders for super detailing the locomotive. Place wherever cinders would settle.

That is what Obvious Man told me. lol

Rich

[rogertra]

The power used to simulate coal cinders for super detailing the locomotive. Place wherever cinders would settle.

As the powder is too fine to simulate coal in tenders, that's what I have used it for, detail around my coaling tower to simulate coal dust and fines that are too small to load into tenders.

Cheers

Roger.

[Doneldon]

Rich-

Are your locomotives painted? There's something about the way you mentioned "blackening" them that makes me wonder. If not, that should be your first step. Remove the brass superstructures from the loco and tender chassises for painting. This affords a good time to do inside work like remotoring, servicing the drive train, adding or redoing lights, or adding DCC and sound. It's also an opportunity to add details like a backhead, engineer and fireman. Even allowing for some oxidation on the brass, your locos are almost certainly covered with some kind of varnish or lacquer. Strip it and them etch the surface with a mild acid like vinegar so you have a sound basis for paint. I use an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner for this a it agitates my solutions throughout my models, ensuring that everything gets cleaned and coated. You must prime if you want a good, durable finish. Then paint, use a little gloss something for your decals, weather to your taste and, finally, spray on a matte finish. (Put a matte coat over decals if you will be doing much weathering as it's hard to get a uniform result when you have different surfaces to weather.)  I find that brush painting wheels, frame and rods works better for me than spraying such small areas. Last, reassemble and enjoy. Oh, yes. The real last is putting some pictures of your work on this board so we can all enjoy it.

If your models are already painted, you can go ahead with whatever level of weathering you want. Some people do run brass without paint, fearing that it will help preserve the models' values. I'm not t all convinced that's true except for really lousy paint jobs which detract from the models. I have seen a few stunning unpainted brass models with black decals and even (one only) a brassie with decals and quite interesting weathering. But I'm guessing from your post that your locos probably are painted so I suggest that you put a consistent dull coat on everything, weather and add a final dull coat as a fixative.

Good luck and do let us see your work.
                                                                -- D

[jonathan]

EWK,

Start a new thread concerning painting brass.    Would love to discuss is with you.  However, the topic here is about that bag of coal in Spectrum Steamer boxes.

Here's a quick sample of what I do to my victims, 'er projects:





Regards,

Jonathan