Paint good for baking?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I recently bought a Hallmark Conrail U33B from eBay. The paint itself looks pretty well done but the decal work (I think it was custom painted) is not that good and I want to repaint it.

I know from past experience that brass models need to be baked so that the paint won't rub off. Most of the paints I use now - Modelflex and Model Master and Tamiya - do not bake well.

Any suggestions as to what would work well?

[nkalanaga]

Scalecoat.  It's designed for baking, especially the Scalecoat I, made specifically for wood and metal.  Scalecoat II is for plastic, but can also be baked.  The same colors are available in both, so it's your choice which to buy.  It's available in bottles or spray cans.  It's probably the last of the old-school "stinky solvent" paints, but it does work very well on metal.

http://minutemanscalemodels.com/

[up1950s]

When I was in HO I used to bake my Floquil painted brass on a plate warmer .

[peteski]

Yes, Scalecoat is a good choice for high-temp baling on metal.  I think any old solvent-based paint will bake well. Water-based acrylics will likely not do well

[nkalanaga]

Scalecoat bakes nicely at 200F, so theoretically would be safe for many plastics, but I wouldn't try it!  A household oven on 200F works fine for me, no need for really high temperatures.  I've even baked brass passenger car sides after fixing dinner, just turn the oven down, wait for it to cool some, and stick them in.

I don't know what the upper limit is, but I wouldn't go over about 250F, just to be safe.  And wait for the paint to stop stinking, especially with a gas oven, as I don't know what the escaping fumes might do.  It doesn't have to be fully dried, which can take a week for me, using spray cans, just let the smell dissipate.

Scalecoat itself might have more detailed instructions.  Mine are what I remembered from old (1960s) magazines.

[mmagliaro]

Another vote for Scalecoat 1.  I have baked it on metal models in the past.  I would warn you to get a very accurate oven thermometer and check what your temperature really is before you put the model in there.  Oven temperature controls are notoriously inaccurate and could swing by 25 or even 50 degrees, which could be a disaster.  I baked my models at 200 F for 30 minutes when I painted them with Scalecoat 1, and the finish was hard like, well, like baked-on enamel!  I never tried anything with plastic in it in the oven.

[nkalanaga]

Styrene supposedly won't deform below about 250F, IF UNDISTURBED, according to the injection molding people at work. 

Now, that has to be taken with a grain of salt.  None of our parts are made of styrene, so they don't have to know anything about it.  Also, some of them don't seem to know much more than "how to make the machine run", so probably aren't the best sources.  Finally, I suspect that internal stresses in our model parts would qualify as "disturbances".  Plain styrene sheet probably wouldn't react the same as a glued-together, or injection molded, part.

I second the oven thermometer.  We have one, and our oven usually is about 25F warmer than the control dial says it should be.