Ever notice that one factory’s grey is not the same as another?
I was looking over the BLI and Proto Desiel offerings tonight and think that both units have different shades of grey.
What do you think?
I don’t find it to be a great problem as long as the colors are close to the prototype. Years of weathering and different shopping over time produced the same effect on the real thing. If you weather you engines, be it dirt, grime or fade, this should not be a problem.
I concur; the prototype had units painted at various times; some units lighter than others on your railroad, especially when weathered help to simulate the realistic effect across the roster.
I’ve been collecting & modeling UP since the early '60’s. If you think the grays are different, look at some of the Armor Yellows[:O] Now look in some color books[:O][:O] As mentioned, years of weathering, shopping, and paint mixing in different shops can make a huge difference in “prototype” colors. If you really want to match th grays, buy an airbrush and a couple of gallons of your favorite shade of gray to re-paint all your locos/rolling stock!![:O][:O][:O]
There was a posting somewhere - might have been a different forum - on how the various L&N shops got the grey paint for repainting or touching up locomotives.
Each went to a local paint supplier to purchase the cheapest grey paint that was sort of close.
If two model locomotives are the identical color, they are NOT prototypically correct!!!
I had this problem with some Athearn CP Rail locos. (CP Red) I bought some Polly S CP red to paint some F units to match and the color was nowhere near close. Looked like tractor orange. I took the cab off the CP GP 38 and took it to Home Depot. Had them put it in there color matcher and mix me up a quart of oil base. Put it in an airbrush and it turned out great. I’ve got 3 Bach UP units from 3 different time periods and none of them match. I’ve got to do some paint matching on some CSX units and I’m not looking forward to it.
Im thunderstruck and speechless.
Those computer sensors can see the color, convert it to a hexdecimal value and jiggle the availible mix to make a batch of paint very close to that color.
It has to work wont it? There is one slight problem… walking in there and hearing the snide comments… oh boy here’s the choo choo man again…
That’s not so!! I work at Home Depot - we would never say that in front of a customer - we wait 'till he’s out of earshot - THEN WE LAUGH!!![:D]
The paint guy said he needed a color sample that was about the size of a quarter and semi flat.(flat as in “level”) The roof of the GP’s cab worked perfect. He really didn’t seem all that surprised when I told him what I was doing. I got a quart of paint for the same cost as 3 oz of Floquil. I could only get it in a semi gloss and had to REALLY thin it out but it worked fine.