Fire Engine Red

[chantyam]

Ok not sure if this is the right place to put this but its for my fire fighting company for IHMN.I have about five Busch Self Propelled Fire Engine's (Matchbox Models of Yesteryear) and to be honest I don't know how I should paint them ...just use a dark ink wash and a matte varnish to take down the " shiny toy" look to the piece or go the whole hog undercoat and start from scratch! if I was to go that way what paint(s) would give a good "fire engine" red ? (the body work is a almost "forest green").
As for the figures I have found that Perry Napoleonic Austrian 'German' Infantry helmets added to the Austrian/ACW officers look in my eyes to be pretty good.

[The Mystic Spiral]

Repainting is fairly easy.

First try to take it apart. If you are lucky there should be some screws underneath. If not then leave it. It is possible to pop the rivets in die cast cars but I always broke something important when I did.

Then use a spray to undercoat the parts in your colour of choice.

If you are talking about the fire engine I am thinking about most of it is metal steam engine so maybe a black spray and paint in the rest with a brush. Metals first with a big dry brush, then the red bits. I would use an airbrush to do a vehicle like that but a bit of careful normal brushing should work out ok.

For the red I would go with a layer of Vallejo Model Colour Cavalry Red for an undercoat and shade and then paint over it with Vallejo Model Colour Scarlet for a bright orangey red.

BUT. Vehicles are shiny so maybe you could leave it. No right answer here.

J

[chantyam]

If anyone is thinking of getting or has one of these models, the only screws to the model happen to be on the underside, unscrewing these removes the three seating crew at the front (easy) the 2nd screw removes the other seated crewman (bloody pain in the arse to reach)
The last remaining crew member standing at the rear can be removed by wiggling the figure (it's only scured by a plastic peg to its foot) the crew happen to be about 1/43 scale as the metal body and the plastic bits are attached by rivets Mystic I'll take your advice and leave alone......
Looks like a jump and go with trying one out, using a ink wash dulling down the body work but keeping it sort of "shiny"... Thanks for the heads up on the Vallejo paints I think I may have those some where