Paint colours

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am lookinig for Polly Scale paint colours that would make a good brick colour and paints that would match the Cream with Railroad Green schemes that Walthers offers on its built up products.( what is the origin of this paint scheme and who used it…We don’t see that combination here in Canada)…Thanks and a derailment free day…Michael

2

You may have to mix them yourself. Chances are if the products are painted they are not necessarily done with Scalecoat paints. In addition any paint will have some variation between batchs. Years ago in the 50’s MR had an article about how to match paint. You basically took the base color and put three or four drops in a mixing cup. then you experimented with adding 1-4 drops of other colors. as each was mixed you painted a sample on a white card that was marked in squares. when it all dried you could find which one matched the closest and mix accordingly if you kept records of what was what.

3

I have used pollyscale rust for brick, and then mixed in some brown to get a darker shade. Custom mixing is probably your best bet. Some of the boxcar reds and browns also work well for brick. I just picked up some artists acrylics – burnt umber and ochre – they looked like good brick colors. I’ll let you know how they turn out…

4

I’m not sure which US railroads used cream-and-green, but it was a common paintsheme in general. I remember my dad (b.1918) saying that when he was a kid many houses were cream-white with green trim.

5

Hi. I have been painting and building DPM and RIX kits recently. Here are some of the brick colors I have used. (I prefer the RIX)

  1. Milwaukee Road Maroon Polly Scale F414350–good

  2. Special Oxide Polly Scale F414354–good

  3. D&RGW Building Brown–poor

  4. Mineral Red Polly Scale F414350–good

All of the above are MHO and I don’t know about using with Cream & Railroad Green.

Experiment!! Good Luck.

6

IMHO, using expensive paints like Poly-scale for brick walls is overkill. You don’t need to exactly match a shade, and in all likelihood you’re going to add mortar lines, Dul-Cote it and then weather it, which will get rid of the smooth, high-quality finish that these paints are designed to achieve.

My favorite brick paint is a big, cheap spray can of rust-colored primer from Lowe’s. I’ve also used cheap craft-store acrylics applied with a cheap craft-store brush.

Save the good paints and your hard-earned dollars for your trains.