Paint yellow, wrap with

Paint yellow, wrap with thread, paint black, unwrap thread.
 

to much bleed thru.....tried

to much bleed thru.....tried that.

Chart Pack Tape

Look for a product called Chart Pack tape at an office supply store or online.  It comes in shiny black and sticks to surfaces (somewhat).  The smallest I remember is 1/32 in wide (about 3 in in HO), but you might be able to start with some wider and cut it down even smaller.  You could try it as a mask or  just sections over paint.  BTW, in the photo is looks more like bands of black to me instead of a spiral pattern - but that may just be my eyes.

Charles

It's a spiral

I cannot comment on that loco or paint scheme in particular, but I can tell you that I have seen spiral patterns like that on other locomotives.  I have never seen alternating bands.  The reason is simple - It's easy to make the spiral by wrapping masking tape around the handrail, but bands would require separate pieces to be cut and fitted for each band.

As for how to do it?  How about painting the handrails yellow, and then make a small strip of decal with black bands at a 45 degree angle?  Then apply the decal over the painted handrail.

"Look for a product called

"Look for a product called Chart Pack tape at an office supply store or online.  It comes in shiny black and sticks to surfaces (somewhat).  The smallest I remember is 1/32 in wide (about 3 in in HO), but you might be able to start with some wider and cut it down even smaller.  You could try it as a mask or  just sections over paint.'

  From what I can recall using chartpak tape to mask stripes it would be too stiff to wind around a thin handrail. I'd probably just paint these yellow then draw diagonal lines on them with a fine black sharpie. Since only one surface can be seen at a time you might only need to do the outside of the rails that would show in photos? .DaveB

Micro Scale makes a decal for

Micro Scale makes a decal for this, look up KCS Handrails..

thanks for suggestions

Yes it is a spiral because they do use reflective yellow tape.  I`ve seen  the spool tied off and the spool still on the handrail more than once.  The micro scale kcs decals look interesting but what does it scale to in h0.  The microscale site has no dimensions on their h0 nor n scale KCS handrail decals but they do look like a possibility.  It would need to scale 3/4 inch in h0.

Thanks for the info on the decals.

"The microscale site has no

"The microscale site has no dimensions on their h0 nor n scale KCS handrail decals but they do look like a possibility.  It would need to scale 3/4 inch in h0.'

   Wrapping decals around scale diameter HO handrails seems like it would be a frustrating task? Every blemish on a handrail is gonna be magnified due to their up front position. Even white paint on handrails looks over done most of the time in photos.....DaveB