What’s a good color/paint for utility or telephone pole insulators in the 1960 timeframe? My guess would be a greenish or brownish color mix. Maybe a wash or mix of colors? Jim
I’ve seen the greenish blue, brown, and whiteish clear, all on the same pole. They’ve been there forever, but I’m not sure which ones came when.
Thanks Philip - good picture. Not sure how to get that transparant look using paint. Maybe a wash of thinned acrylic paint; green, light brown, or off-white. Color mixing has never been one of my strong points. Jim
I have seen people paint them white than then give them a coal of “pearl” or “opal” type nailpolish in a greenish blue cast or white. Brown ones are just brown paint.
Dave H.
Dave, interesting idea of using nailpolish - would not have thought about that. May give that a try after explaning to the wife why I need nail polish…
Can’t go wrong with green. Alclad makes those transparent lens paints. Those work good for insulators.
Electrical insulators are usually grey.
You could put a dot of color on the peg, then when it dries, put a dot of acrylic gloss medium…
Lee
You could probably go to any craft shop, or maybe even Wal Mart’s craft section, and get that paint made for painting those clear plastic window hanging thingies that look like stained glass.
Well, come to think of it, I do have several shades of green left over from my first attempt at doing the creek bed which turned out to be too green - but that’s another topic. And I do have acrylic gel medium left over from making ripples.
Several things to try. Thanks for the good ideas guys.
The green insulators are usually glass, hence more-or-less transparent. The white-brown type are ceramic, and opaque. Can’t say for other colors - I wasn’t that observant when I was railfanning along the Hudson 50+ years ago.
I recall an earlier post on this subject that suggested using craft store beads for insulators…
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I’ve seen white, green, blue, brown, near transparent (opaque I think they call it) and a greenish yellow.
At one time Rix made a really nice product – a utility pole cross arm cast entirely in translucent green plastic. Thus if you painted the arm itself brownish gray for a wood color, the remaining cast on insulators looked like perfect “coke bottle” green glass. But for whatever reason Rix removed the product from its catalog about 3 years ago. They still make excellent utility poles but now cast all in brown.
Anybody on this Forum know Rick Rideout? Maybe if we begged and pleaded …
Failing that I think the tiny glass bead idea gets you closest to the look of a green glass insulator.
Dave Nelson
A lot of good ideas - thanks. I tried a couple of shades of left-over green and I think that’s going to work OK. Probably will add some other colors here-and-there as would happen during replacement when a different color insulator was used. Will also try a dab of gloss stuff. I don’t want them to stand out too much as the eye and camera would be distracted by them. Thanks again. Jim
Hi,
I have one in my hobby room for a door stop and have had numerous examples over time. My favorites are green, but clear, brown, and shades of green/brown/black are certainly proper.
My layout’s insulators are all painted dark flat green. This makes them visable, and yet not overwhelming. I recall many a sunny day when light reflected off the real insulators and made them shine, so if your’s do, its OK!
Enjoy,
Mobilman44