Paint matching question

Scalecoat II from Walters. They have the BNSF Green and orange.

=>Scalecoat II from Walters. They have the BNSF Green and orange.

But be aware that these may not match the paint on the locos, even if the mfr used Scalecoat paint. Paint is made in batches, and while paint mfrs do their best to keep specs constant, batches will vary somewhat. If the colour you buy is too far dark or light, add a little white or black, and then use light weathering to blend it together.

OTOH, it doesn't matter much. Real locos painted at different times and places will have slightly different colours, and within a few weeks, colours will have changed because of light and chemicals in the air, plus of course the effects of plain old dirt. Add to this the effects of ambient light (and shade) on the appearance of any given colour, as well as the effects of film (and the CCDs in digital cameras), and the whole question of determining the "correct" prototype colours becomes a mug's game. Furthermore, we see models at a fair scale distance under relatively weak light, and some people use incandescent lights, and others use fluorescents, and so on; so that painting models with "correct" colours may well result in their not looking right. And let's not get into the differences in colour perception...

Bottom line: if it looks right, it is right.

HTH&HF

Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)

I'm not trying to paint a patch on any existing loco's. I was just wondering if some particular "supposed to match" paint came closer to start with than others. I'm going to start by painting a carry case (so I can easily tell what loco's are in which carry case (they all start out looking a lot like the 17" Craftsman tool case sold at OSH ;).

Then I'll try painting an Athearn (blue box special) Dash 9 and see if I can finish if off with some Microscale decals. Then I'll move on to the 7500 series B unit kitbash and a fuel tender. I should have those ready in 5-10 years *8-

All, and I mean all, of my freight cars that I have painted have been simply sprayed with any of several brands of automotive "red oxide" primer that I may have on hand. Once they've been weathered, I challenge anyone to tell me they don't look right. :-)

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

Since you insist: "They don't look right!!!" *8-}

"Paul Newhouse"

DOH! :-)

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

True. They're way TOO uniform! :-)

Realistically, 'freight car red' is no more consistent than any other color, and WAY more variable than most 'name' colors. Every railroad had their own idea of what it should be, as did the different paint manufacturers. In the early days the railroads and car builders mixed their own, often on the spot. Iron oxide powder and linseed oil, mostly, with perhaps a dash of this or that. Even the iron oxide, though, comes in a variety of colors. Consistency was near 'zip'. THEN, there's weathering!

In later years, especially after W.W. II, consistency improved, but is FAR from perfect to this day. Just look at some of the BNSF 'Pumpkin' GE units that are now light 'peach' colored!

So, you're right about two things. Unless you're modeling a particular car on a particular day, if it looks good, that's FINE. And weathering can have a BIG effect on the final result.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Paul Newhouse wrote:

Dan is very correct. Box Car Red was basically a clay pigment that varied a lot. Floquil's original 'box car red' in the solvent line was a good example. It had a washed out patina. By the early 50's paint pigments were improving, and darker, richer versions of box car red that were a lot more fade resistant and consistent from batch to batch became available. A good example is what the SOO painter their box cars. Older paint jobs with the original $ logo have the 'box car red' paint. Later car paint jobs used a new paint that is darker(looks a lot like Floquil 'Tuscan'). This Milwaukee and NP also seems to like the darker paint(or at lest started buying it). This brings up a request. What in the Floquil 'Polyscale' line matches the original 'tuscan' that is available in the solvent based line? I still am using the solvent based paint for my Milwaukee Road freight cars, but would like to convert to new 'Polyscale' line.

Jim Bernier

"Daniel A. Mitchell" wrote: