LK&O

A Railroad with Relevance

Fascia Finished

Written By: Alan - Feb• 22•20

The fascia is painted and panels are mounted. I’m liking it!

I settled on a color Behr calls Limousine Leather in their Premium Plus Interior quality. In the pictures it looks like jet black but in person it is not jet. Oddly enough, it is the binder Behr uses that removes the jetness since the only colorant in the mixture is black. The latex binder adds a slight amount of whiteness and it was just the right amount to move jet black to my desired chalkboard color.

For application I used a foam roller and followed painting tips from my wife. She is wall painter extraordinaire. The foam made the paint surface real smooth. Amazingly smooth actually. No orange peel whatsoever. Sure doesn’t look like interior wall paint on the fascia. That’s a win.

Ultimately, I used two coats of eggshell and two coats of satin. Why? Mistake. I thought eggshell would work because that is what is on the valance and walls. But once it dried down I didn’t care much for it. It was too flat. Looked like velvet. I was going for an appearance similar to that of vintage 1980’s rack mount stereo components (of which I have many). So I switched to satin. That did the trick.

Next comes a difficult task – wiring the panels. Not difficult electrically speaking. I made schematics for everything and all the loose hanging wires are labeled. Difficult because of so many itsy bitsy JST terminals to install. There must be a thousand of them and they are such a pain for tired eyes and fumbly fingers to work with. But I’ll get through it.

For now how about a fascia control panel picture gallery. The pink foam looks odd in places because it has yet to be shaped. All in due time.

See you next post.

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10 Comments

  1. Tom OConnell says:

    That looks very good. Love those panels

  2. Jim Shellhaas says:

    Tom,

    Really looks NICE!!!!

  3. Billy Baldwin says:

    The panels look awesome next to the fascia color your layout Stands out very nicely.

  4. Jeffrey Youst says:

    Everything is looking fantastic. I really like the fascia color. I can attest to 80’s vintage rack equipment. My 1980 Sansui system still holds court to this day. Have never, ever given a single thought to replacement. Classic rock vinyl (especially UFO!!!) will never sound as good as it does on my 40 year old 100 watt amp, 5 way speaker set up. Rock -n- Roll never dies! Neither does great model railroading. Thanks for the update.

  5. First, glad to see you are back at it and second congrats on your retirement. Love the fascia, but especially your control panels.

  6. Ian Robertson says:

    Which JST terminals are you using?

  7. alan says:

    Thanks for the compliments guys.

    Using JST type XH connectors:
    http://www.jst-mfg.com/product/pdf/eng/eXH.pdf?5e52c1c15637a

  8. Jason says:

    Really great to see you posting again Alan. Those fascia a mint, love the colour, very similar to the colour I’ll be doing mine in too.
    Those control panels are just amazing…!

  9. Billy Baldwin says:

    Hi Alan I’m checking in with you and your family to see if you all are staying safe out there with everything going on

  10. alan says:

    Thank you for the concern Billy. Yes, we are well and staying safe. Strange this quarantine world we live in these days, eh? Stay well my friend.

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