search online you can find
lots of debate about the ex-
act color of the blue Pan Am
engines. I first tried Tru-Color
Pan Am Blue but I found
it way too purple. The Mi-
croscale decal instructions
suggest Santa Fe blue, I tried
Modelflex Santa Fe Blue but
found it too dark. In the end I
painted my model with a cus-
tom blend of Modelflex paint
consisting of six parts Santa
Fe Blue, one part Conrail
Blue, and one part Wisconsin
Central Maroon.
Let the paint dry for 24 hours before handling the model.
Modelflex paint usually dries with a gloss or semi-gloss finish,
so no clear coat is required before decaling; if you think your
model is not glossy enough, give it a coat of your favorite gloss
finish. Brush-paint the corner handrails and coupler lift bars
white. Notice the horizontal parts of a few grab irons are white.
Brush-paint these as well.
Apply the decals from the Microscale Pan Am decal set. I cut
the side sill stripes to a scale 4” width before applying them,
and the decals for the step edges to a scale 2”. Following
photos, apply the small warning decals from Microscale 87-
527, make the small red square around the fuel cutoff on
the side sill from a piece of red trim film or a scrap decal.
This square could be painted on, but I find it is easier to get
56
56. Modified 3mm LED.
