Arved Grass writes:

" Fog is rare here in the tropics."

Well...I'm not sure the terrm "rare" is proper. I don't recall seeing
fog in central Florida during the summer but on many occasions, I have
wondered if I could make it back to Merritt Island from Orlando during the
winter because of very thick fog.

"It's either humid as hell, or raining; neither of which is "painting
weather." "

Particularly during the 8 month long summers. However, and I would remind those
that stumble onto this message that I'm the only one wearing a gun...ooops,
a key....in the discussion about paints. Still, I think I might add a few points.

Several years ago a guy associated with Accupaint gave clinics on paints
down here in FL One point he continously made was that no matter how many
moisture collecting devices you had, you were going to spray water here in
FL. I learned that he was correct. While I did use every RR paint known to
man back then, including floquil, both Scale Coats, and Accupaint, it was not fun seeing that water sitting on Scalecoat or Floquil paint. Then...along came Polyscale. For reasons never quite clear to
me, many painters I knew were not successful using it. They apparently kept trying to use the same techiques they used with other paints. I ended up using it
on everything. Without going into microscopic examinations of the stuff, one
thing is certain. When I spray water with polyscale, I just keep spraying. This is significant in Florida. I also discovered that Polyscale was a very forgiving paint. meaning that something may not look too good but when it dries...all is forgiven.

Today I look at brass I have painted and I will challenge anyone to determine what the paint is...except for two UP 4-8-4's which I did in Scalecoat I. These stand out because, although there is some weathering, you can still see the glossy Scalecoat I. BTW, these were done in Greyhound and I used Micromask on the front of the cylinders with no problem.

So far a good reponse might be...yawn, so what?...so I'll say this. Back in the glory days of brass...say the ;80's, so-called "professional" brass painters I was familiar with used only Scalcoat I. The result, if the painter was good [ BTW, several used mailboxes with 1000 watt bulbs for baking ], was a beautiful model. Unfortunately, it looked like a beautiful model and not like a real steam locomotive. The point is, these painters were setting a standard for a collectable. When I would paint a steam loco, then apply some kind of whitish acrylic by hand to some areas which acquired whitish stains from the hard/softened Wyoming water [ like around generators, blowdown muffler, coldwater pumps, etc ] , they would cringe. When I then added various blackish wet stains to the stack and smoke box and added yellow to oily black on the side rods, they were astonished. Me? I was having great fun. I even left an engine on its side with pools of grey water on the drivers to dry to get the effect I saw in photos. And then, I noticed that the rear 2 or 3 drivers on both artics and non artics would receive quantities of sand. So, I added chalk and other suff. At the same time, the cylinders often seemed to stay dark black, The UP artics developed the "Orth effect" [ from Steve Orth ] which was a black smearing of the front of the smoke box. In the end, in some cases I used every type of paint I had...on the same engine. And, I suppose the real answer is what is your goal? As our Richard once noted, "If I want to invest, I'll buy stock...not brass locomotives painted as a collectable".

The subject of trends is worthy, however, and I expect to see several conversations regarding the newer paints at Cocoa Beach.

Now, as I head down to my bunker, note that I hold my arm upright...sort of like a priest holding a cross, It isn't a cross though. Oddly, it looks like a key.

Mike Brock ...to each his own...just having fun. Bananas anyone?