I remember Polly Scale, yes when I started in the hobby in the late 1970s. Getting back in it and knowing Polly Scale is left in the past increasing aggravated with MRs regurgitation of old articles with limited to no updates or recommendations on updated related colors. Just same old reference to Polly Scale this or that. Bought the recent Best of Scenery 2020 and did see a few updates. But same old Model Realistic Rapids column as was printed in the How to Build Realistic Layouts #7 from 2010, zero updates with Polly Scale all over. A little effort would go a long way in keeping current and keeping readers. How about a fresh article on current matches to old favorites MR style.
I agree, WPA. I remember reading through old Model Railroader how-to books and all the entries utilized Polly-Scale paints when I was younger (2013 or so) and I remember being disappointed when I found out that they discontinued Polly Scale much later on (2017), and by then it got super hard to find. I used Model Master paints as a subsitute but now since they were discontinued this year I need to find another substitute for Grimy Black and Rust.
I think that would be a very good article, WPA, and be helpful to the MRRing community since Pollyscale is no more. Perhaps you could recommend that idea to MR using the links under the Contact the Magazine heading.
Tom
Just to remind folks that the company that made Polly Scale paint now makes Rapido’s ProtoPaint. The color formulas are exactly the same, but the paint has a few differences: it’s truly airbrush ready (no thinning required), railroad colors now dry glossy (for ease of decaling), and it smells better. Weathering colors from Rapido ProtoPaint (like Grimy Black and Concrete) are still flat.
So if you’re looking for Polly Scale colors, try Rapido ProtoPaint.
Thanks, Paul. [Y]
This is great news! I’m glad to hear about it as well. I think that it’s airbrush ready and dries to a glossy hue is great for color coats, however, for weathering colors and many others, drying to a gloss doesn’t seem as preferable, but I’d think a clear flat/dull coat would do the trick. Maybe mix the two?
I believe that Tru-Color paint (formerly SMP Accupaint) has Color Charts available for matching colours for several brands of paint no longer being produced.
Unfortunately, like many current paints, Rapido’s paint comes pre-thinned (like nobody has water to thin it as needed), so it’s okay for airbrushing, but pretty-well useless for brushwork. If you wanna paint figures for your passenger cars or street scenes, it’s time to sharpen-up on your masking skills.
Wayne
I’ve been talking with Dan at Rapido lately as we’ve been having trouble getting Rapido paint for the store (always on back order). Apparently, they are having difficulty communicating with the supplier of the paint and are unsure if the program will continue or not.
Mark.
Why isn’t information like this coming directly and earlier from MR itself, our supposed resource for modelers? Instead we have to get it belatedly and third hand on the web from other modelers who seem to know more about significant product data than the professionals who write this mag.
Wayne,
Tru-Color and Accu-Paint, even tho’ they are both acetone-based, are not related in any other way. George Bishop made Accu-paint in Bolton, MA and he had a flood that ruined a lot of uninsured product in 2007. He tried to start making Accu-paint again in 2008 with a partner named Asa Worcester as George’s health took a turn for the worse. They may or may not released paint again but I know they did make some decals together. George went into assisted living and passed away in December 2010, and Asa passed away in 2017.
From their website: “Tru-Color Paint was formed by Rick Galazzo and Scott Cohen in 2008 in Phoenix, AZ. Both principals have extensive experience with formulating paint on the commercial scale and decided to branch out on their own in the model paint business. With the need for a superb solvent based paint, they reformulated the old Accupaint formulation to flow better and give a more glossy appearance after drying.”
Mark,
Back on August 17th in one of their public Zoom meetings, I asked Dan Darnell about the ProtoPaint, and he had this to say then:
Dan Darnell: “Well, it’s been in sort of a stasis I guess for a little while. We’re working with the manufacturer to come up with new colors and a new method of basically filling the bottles more efficiently. So that’s what sort of slowed us down at the time. It’s not dead. We will basically be probably doing a re-launch in October. We still have a few little bugs to work out with the manufactuer and we’ll get it back out there.”
Obviously, the October re-launch didn’t happen.
I have to agree with these sentiments.
MR mag should be covering these issues. For years, I subscribed to MR as the supposed leading magazine on HO scale modeling, but I am no longer a subscriber because I felt that MR lost its relevance to my modeling needs.
As for the loss of Polly Scale and then Model Master, I am still buying what is left of new old stock on eBay and in my LHS. When that inventory is depleted, I don’t know where to turn.
Right now, my only real source of information is this forum. Knowledgeable people are still around. Unfortunately, so are a few spreaders of misinformation.
Maybe Walthers needs to step in and start a magazine and a forum and become a hobby paint source.
Is anyone out there listening?
Rich
From what I see in this thread, we are talking about a book, not Model Railroader magazine.
These books contain reprints of old articles, and I never read them. I only buy books that contain new material. I have no need for collections of old articles because I read them in the magazines when they were new.
The question is about whether or not the Kalbach staff should edit an old article when it is included in a compilation of previously published material.
I think no. Even though techniques might have changed, and products are not available, the article should remain the same as printed.
The classic example would be 764 Tips For Model Railroaders that came out decades ago. It had several printings through the years and the contents were not updated. It would have lost something if it had been updated.
About Paints: It is now just plain silly to hold onto any Model Railroad themed line of paint other that Scalecoat. Better paint manufacturers have raised the bar of quality very high, and now all MR colours are simply obsolete.
Articles in Model Railroader and elsewhere are now referencing paints by Vallejo, Citadel, and others that are better than any Model Railroad line of paint ever was.
I wish this problem would be addressed.
-Kevin
There is an (often updated) reference chart available from the publishers of the other magazine, the free one. A fairly comprehensive reference comparing all the old stuff like Floquil and Polyscale to currently avaialble paint lines like Vallejo, Tamaiya, Humbro, and Model Master. It’s a pretty big spreadsheet.
Sorry, can’t link it, I doubt Kalmbach would appreciate such a link. But it’s not too hard to find. But for those saying something like this needs to be done, or hasn’t been done - it has - for several years now.
Edit: I think some of you need to get out a little more. [:D] Just google model railroad paint chart and there are many, many hits - even excluding the other magazine. There are a lot of reference charts done out there. Here is one from Microscale, though I don’t know how up to date it is, just an example of what’s out there:
https://www.microscale.com/Floquil%20Color%20Chart.pdf
If anyone should be familiar with some of these other paint brands which are not traditional model railroad things, I would expect it to be Kevin with all the miniature and wargaming stuff.
–Randy
Why waste expensive RR-specific colours on painting figures? Cheap craft acrylics will work nicely there.
Easier said than done for many of us. With the near demise of the LHS, the closest one to me is 30 minutes away, and the shop carries limited paint brands.
Rich
Great feedback. First, I will recommend it to MR via the link. Likely suggest they do a small but expanded downloadable article matching new brands like their peers over at that free mag did before Kalmbach‘s vault of Polly drys up (did see that free mag reference and is helpful). Maybe MR gets ahead of this and puts out something newer. Says, hey, we feel your pain and here is what we want to share with you as options for favorite colors. As far as updates, I think some technics and articles are timeless hence why half of MRs MO is to keep repackaging them and why I still flip through my copy of building the Clinchfield. But is it too much to ask to maybe include a closing call out box with reference or tips to overcome outdated material references. I understand tweaking an article can make the cut and paste editing a nightmare but something at the end shows they are trying to stay current. I don’t think other magazines like In Fisherman are recycling bass fishing technics and referencing a hot spinning reel from 1995. Maybe after being out of the hobby for a while I am just having trouble adapting to an entirely different hobby landscape.
The lines of paints from the best manufacturers change frequently.
Keeping a colour chart cross reference current would probably be too much of a task.
-Kevin
I certainly have adapted this over the years, originally more due to cost than availablity.
Also judicious usage of basic Rustoleum spray primers and paints (the latest cans I’ve gotten seem not to clog as much, maybe they fixed the nozzle clogging after prolonged usage issue?), and Tamiya spray when smooth, thin coverage is needed.
Note the lack of railroad specific colors - I figure ball-park level color matching is good enough, since the prototype rolling stock colors don’t seem to match their color specs except when right out of the paint-shop (and judging from the amount of graffitti and patching on modern era railroads, that isn’t so often. Never lost sleep over exact shades of PRR DGLE (If I modelled the PRR of that era, whcih I don’t), and I suspect by the 1960s neither did the PRR itself. Quick, what color is a Railbox boxcar nowadays - lets head to some rail mage archive sites and see…ah, various shades of yellow (within a narrow spectrum) depending on weathering and fading - for me, close enough after i add some weathering.
Re-reading some of the old school erstwhile second tier magazines on the ‘archive’, in the 1990s issues I came across full page ads produly announcing the arrival of new and improved - Polly Scale! (improved from Polly S). Struck me at this laste date as incongruent - grandly announcing a line of paint that, while it would indeed gain praise from modelers and become a baseline for articles…was unceremonially dumped about 13 years later. Maybe the movie The Matrix was right, we reached the peak of our civilization in 1999…
I meant get out more on the Internet - the nearest “LHS” that has anything worthwhile for me is also far enough away to make it not worth my time. I haven’t beeen to the “LHS” in a long time. Modeltrainstuff and a couple of others are my LHS now. When I need paint, if it’s one of the more oddball ones not stocked by train oriented stores, I’ll have to find another - though most of it is available on Amazon and sometimes in craft stores, of which I do have one nearby.
–Randy
Those “expensive” RR-specific paints are much less expensive than the good paints actually intended for painting figures.
-Kevin