Hello Reading modelers,
I have a P2k Northeastern caboose I’d like to repaint to represent a Reading caboose in the late '40s to early '50s scheme of red, brown, and plain Roman lettering. Any recommendations, prefferably acrylic for paints that would work for the red and brown paint they used? For yellow, I’ll use Model Master yellow chromate. Decals will be Microscale.
Thank you in advance,
Alvie
TruColor Paints has a #237 1945-50’s Frt. Car Red which may be useful for the brown. From what I have seen, the brown/red caboose colors use the boxcar color for the brown
Their #52 is caboose red which I have used for red cabooses and the brown/red cabooses
Testors has added some of the railroad colors to the Model Master line of acrylic flat paints. They claim they are matched to the discontinued Polly Scale line:
704 – 4873 Reefer White
704 – 4874 Aged White
704 – 4875 Aged Concrete
704 – 4876 Concrete
704 – 4877 Earth
704 – 4878 Depot Buff
704 – 4879 Reefer Yellow
It’s not acrylic, but I’ve used Scalecoat II Santa Fe Red and Boxcar Red.
Oh, if I was going to do any reading in my caboose, I’d want a light interior, makes a warm cheery atmosphere. Too many cabbese are painted green or grey on the insides. Hides dirt just fine, but not so good for reading.
ROAR
Hey now Mr. Lion, you’re originally from this end of the country, don’t be like those people in California who spell it wrong! [:D]
We spell it correctly, just ask our sister city in England. Twice at least the Lord Mayor of Reading, England has been here for events, once way back in 1931 and again in 1998 when our city celebrated it’s 250th anniversary (not the same Lord Mayor - if that wouldn’t be somewhat obvious).
–Randy
Jim,
I just checked the Testors website and you are right. The Model Msters line has quite a few RR colors listed. The color chips they show are terrible and don’t look anything like the color should be. Hopefully the actual paint is a match.
Why would a paint company try to sell paint based on their catalog and not give an accurate idea of what it looks like? Seems stupid to me! Maybe they want the line to fail?
Roger Huber
Deer Creek Locomotive Works
Well, unless you have your display accurately calibrated, and they are posting IMAGES, properly white balanced, of the paint chips, there’s no way to get an idea of the actual color from a web site. Dumping some splotches of color on a web page and trying to set the color values to match is never going to look like the actual paint in person. Even a printed brochure must be done properly to get the colors accurate - and that means not cheaply. Looking at the color of a new line of paint is definitely one of those thigns to hit the actual brick and mortar store for. Unless the cost of a bottle doesn’t mean much to you so you just order some and try it out, use it for scrap or practice if you don’t like it, but at the price of most paints that gets pretty expensive and wasteful.
–Randy
Randy,
I don’t know about settings and all that being basically a computer Neanderthal but the colors aren’t even close. I remember the Floquil paint chart they sold for a zillion years having most of the colors “off” from actual color. My limited experience with acrylic paints is they just don’t look right to me even looking at them in the bottle. When shaken and shaken and shaken they still seem wrong but when applied they look pretty good for the most part. The only paints I buy that look ike the result you will get are the Tamiya paints. Sure wish they made RR paint and I didn’t have to blend them all the time.
Buying a bottle just to see if it’s right is definitely expensive and a PITA. Sure miss Floquil!
Roger Huber
Deer Creek Locomotive Works
I had no real choice but to get a couple different “pullman green” because each manufacturer’s shade is different, and it takes one brand to match a P2K loco, another to match a Stewart, etc. I painted a strip of each brand next to the other on a strip of styrene as a color guide to see which one to use on a given loco.
I think the only way you can possibly get a true color match is a REAL ‘paint chip’ where there are dots of the actual paint on a card. Then there is no chance for an camera, computer, or printer issues. I’m not a graphic artists but I have and use 3 different brands/models of LCD screens throught the day (4 if you count the built in one on my laptop). None are calibrated other than whatever might be done at the factory, I don’t have the tools to do calibration, and nothign I do requires that anyway. But what’s interesting is that because Windows 10 sync your settings, I have the same picture of NS 1067, the Reading Heritage SD70ACe, on each one of them. ANd I can see an obvious difference in the reproduction. Which one is ‘right’ I couldn’t tell you. I have dual screens on my home primary desktop, and one is where I do my general web browsing and the other is where I watch videos, so I have one set to ‘normal’ whatever that is and the other set to ‘cinema’ and the contrast between the two images in very obvious. For example, the extrnal monitor here at work hooked ot my laptop is an older model, not LED lit, and the yellow on the picture is much too red. I had it on the ‘warm’ setting, switching to ‘cool’ setting tames the reddish tint a little but it’s still more red in the yellow than on the actual loco (or on one of my better displays).
–Randy
Randy,
I agree that calibration is needed and necessary. When I went to the Testors site the other day I just wasn’t preparred for the huge disparity in the colors. A slight shift is “normal” from my experience with all of the manufacturers but when a red looks like beige then there’s no way I can make a color choice other than to buy the paint and see for myself. Expensive and a real PITA. Where I live there aren’t any hobby shops and I know of no other modelers in the area I can ask.
I used to have the same issues with Scalecoat and Floquil too. Pullman Green can really vary from RR to RR and paint mfgr to mfgr. Then there was the mess when Floquil changed their formulation and their Coach Green (and everything else) shifted into a different shade or color. At least then I could see the paint at the store and make a decision.
Painting just isn’t what it used to be! lol
Roger Huber
Deer Creek Locomotive Works