I am detailing a Lehigh Valley Baldwin S-12 diesel locomotive that will have paint style #4 as listed in Carl Steckler’s book “Lehigh Valley Railroad Diesel Paint Schemes”. The main body color is “Tuscan” and the lettering and numbering are yellow. However, the model scale tuscan paint I have seen does not seem to match that of any of the color pictures I have been able to find of these units. Does anyone have a good paint mix that matches the actual color used by the Lehigh Valley?
You might want to check out the Lehigh Valley Modelers page. It can be found here:
http://www.lvrrmodeler.net/dieselcolorschemes.htm
I used Scalecoat II tuscan, but I think it is too dark. I lighten mine with white scalecoat, which gives it a washed out look. I don’t have a formula, but it doesn’t take much white to lighten it.
Years ago - close to 50 - there was an article in MR bout how to get exactly the right color of paint. Basically what was done was to use drops of colors like five drops of black and one of white, then five drops of black and two of white until the color ratios were determined. Then in the future you know exactlyhow to mix the right color. needless to say the paint needed to be applied and allowed to dry before deciding. I think Lynn Westcott used a piece of white cardboard for his pallet. keeping accurate records and numbering everything was critical to the process. Be sure to save your samples when through. You never know whose paint you might be matching in the future.
Since I use Polly Scale paints, I’ve used their PRR Tuscan mixed about 70/30 with Cornell (I just did six N scale LV cabs for my dad over the weekend using this formula). It’s darker than both Cornell and “new” Cornell, but not so dark as to look like the Pennsy paint.
And remember, looking at photos and paint chips/drift cards is almost wholly useless when painting models. Old photos drift towards the red end of the spectrum, and distance makes colors look darker or lighter, depending on lots of atmospheric variables. The sun fades and/or chalks paint, water makes paint shiny and darker, engine exhaust makes paint duller, and road grime does all sorts of things to paint colors. And don’t forget that matching paint colors was an imperfect science before the 1980s, and that the LV was notorious for having about 7,643 different paint schemes! Don’t sweat getting a paint “right”, because there’s no such thing. Go with what pleases you and looks good.
And this coming from a proto modeler!
Thanks for all your responses. You confirmed what I already thought - paint matching is a crap shoot - but I will try a couple of your suggestions.