In all the photos I have seen, the Kato HO SD40-2 #5058 has an “orange” tint to the true Santa Fe “yellow” Warbonnet color. Is the “yellow” on the Kato loco really yellow or more “orange” looking?
Thanks
Nick
Hi Nick,
Well, I’m not one to ‘quote’ paint tones, but yes it does have a an orange or brown tint to ‘my’ eye as well. Here are two ‘STOCK’ out of the box units for this photo, a Kato SD40-2 Mid, & an Atlas GP38.
The color tone of the Kato is evident in this comparison.
I’m not sure if you are asking just to know, or if you have a special paint mixture you want to try, but please let me know, as I plan to do some hood & cab mods to both these & they will need some new yellow paint… Hope this helps you out…
I own many Kato engines and for the most part the paint on them is great. What I have noticed tho is the way they paint is a little backwards. Kato paints the color that takes the most area first regardless of how light or dark that color is. This means that in order to get a lighter color to cover they need to use a higher solids color or a lighter under color. Since the higher solids color is cheaper they use that. This usually means that the color turns out a little darker or they adapt the tint a little to keep the under color from washing out the over color. The orange tint is there to kill the green color that would occure by painting yellow over blue. I would still buy the engine, Kato engines are my favorite.
Massey
I have 2 Kato Santa Fe units: one from a run at least 5 years ago, and a second from their latest run and the yellows are vastly different. I agree with Massey’s view that the cause is the yellow being applied over the blue.
As I am using an alcohol fade and pigment powder for weathering, the difference will be masked to a large degree.
The thing about the orange tint is that it actually looks more realistic to me.
Santa Fe kept their locos fairly clean but the yellow ones all seemed to have some weathering giving a browner/orange tint to the yellow portion of the loco.
Maybe it’s my eyes or memory. But to me it looked like in the 1980s the yellow paint was actually more orange and in the 1990s it was more on the lighter yellow/cream side. This is on newly painted locos not faded ones.
So in Chad’s great comparison photo, to me it looks like the 1980s on SD40-2 #5058 (apart from the MKM lettering and ditch lights) and the 1990s on GP38 #2302 (although then it should have ditch lights). Ha actually the paint colors should be reversed on those locos [;)]
When studying the photo, I actually prefer the toned dark Kato, as the Atlas ‘begins’ to look like bright ‘Zito Yellow’… At least to me…
Yeah those are stock, missing many details, & may have incorrect ones too… I want to add Gong Bells to at least one of those… Prolly the SD40-2 for a start. Was originally thinking of putting the big Topeka cabs on them but, that is not so prototype… Would be interesting tho.
Thanks to all who posted replies. That information helps greatly.
Nick
Another voice heard from. I started buying the Kato SD40-2 mid productions units when they first came out. I have managed to accumulate a LARGE number of them over the years, meaning I had to renumber all but two of them, the originals. I also have a large fleet of various other Santa Fe units. Kind of a sub hobby. I like the operation and the maintenance capabilities of the Kato, but I also like their looks when in operation.
The paint always looked a little off to me, and I can remember the original SD40-2’s in service. My dad was a Santa Fe engineer and I rode on many of them with him. However, to my eye, the Kato’s have a more faded look which was typical after a few years on the road. So I am happy with mine as they are, and when running with Santa Fe dieels from other manufacturers, they look okay after weathering.
Bob