I saw the new Walthers NYC 20th century passenger cars at Trainfest2008and took some photos of them.However when they arrived at the hobby shops thefirst car, which has the correct " Napolean hat" trucks,was paintedmuch darker and had silver stripes with silver lettering.Apparently the guys at many NYC websites are falling over backwarks trying to convince us regularmodelers that it IS the correct paint finally.Well I have many all colorbooks with many great color photos of the cars and none even closely resem-ble that paint they puton them.The silver should be whitish grey and theupper and lower dark color lighter in shading.The striping seems to be****half as wide as the prototype cars as well.A hobby shop I was at had aNYC car that Walthers previously put out as well as this new car and I hadNO DOUBT of this design change.I see that some of the pro- new- paint NYCguys on other Forums are e-mailing Walthers not to fear that so manyfolks are complaing but I think the bait and switch color change is the real problem here.How I am going to solve this? Just buy undecorated!
The 4-4-2 with it"s unique trucks I might skip if Walthers sells thetrucks separetly,and buy the other cars I want as Undecorated and hopeMicr
I think this came up in a post not too long ago. I haven’t seen the cars yet first hand, but I know there has been some question over the years whether the striping was silver or white…I think NYC called it “aluminum”??
I remember years back when Stewart was first producing F-units, they came out with some Burlington F’s that were roughly Primer Gray when everybody said they should be white. In fact, they used paint chips or samples that had been used in painting the original engines…however under artificial lighting, the color looked much darker than it did on the real thing in sunlight. (Plus of course I assume the paint faded over time and became lighter.)
So ya it’s quite possible the cars are “correct” compared to authentic RR paint samples, but might look too dark on a model RR.
I thought the same thing when I saw the cars – they looked quite dark, darker than other NYC passenger cars or engines on the market – but I was assured that in fact the NYC gray went through some evolution over the years and that the Walthers colors are accurate for at least one iteration of the prototype. Then again, this happened at the Walthers show room so maybe the guy behind the counter was slightly biased (or had been given a script to read from on the topic).
Linn Westcott former editor of Model Railroader made quite a study of color and his conclusion was that all model railroad colors needed to be lightened a shade or two to look realistic, given our lighting, viewing angles, and other conditions. So in the sense, the correct color is wrong, or at least looks wrong. The color that looks right is wrong. Or wait … now I am confusing myself …
When I was a Pennsy modeler people there were furious debates over the “real” shade of Tuscan and freight car red, and a very expensive book was produced with color chips intended to settle this once and for all. It didn’t of course. Now that I am a Chicago & North Western modeler there are debates about the various yellows and greens on commercial models (and the same debates by the way extend to Morning Sun and other color books – you cannot assume that those are the unedited reproductions of the original slides. A lot of computer work goes into them.) I bet every prototype interest group has these debates. What I do know is this: the absolutely authentic Fairbanks Morse builders plate that I purchased that is in reasonably fresh C&NW green is far darker, in my basement, than the green on any commercial CNW diesel that I own, from any manufacturer, or any bottle of CNW green paint that I have purchased.
The topic is best summed up by the old joke about the guy who co
Until we become expert paint chemists, painters, and decal applicators, looks like we’ll have to drastically increase the power of interior lighting in our layout rooms. (Got sunglasses?)
Why is it that boxcar red paint looks brown to me?..[%-)]
I recently acquired several jars of Star Brand Paint Systems paints. One jar contains SP/UP freight car red which looks brown similar to boxcar red. (I can hardly tell the difference between that and Floquil’s boxcar red.) Another jar is SP sunburnt red, intending to duplicate desert-sun-faded freight car red. Sunburnt is much lighter and rustier-looking (redder).
Who else sells Star Brand Paint Systems besides PBL? I’ve heard great things about Star, but I haven’t yet used their paints. I heard of them in my search for a paint matching SP’s dark olive. Star makes one. It is called UP/SP/D&RGW dark olive. Tom, have you used it?
I don’t know how you can say that the color is too dark base on photographs. That assumes the color in the photos is correct. Maybe the color in the photos is too light. I have seen numerous examples of color differences of the same paint scheme that varies from one photo to the next. Also, color fades over time. The Walthers color probably represents the paint scheme as it came from the paint shop. They shouldn’t be expected to match the shade of faded equipment.
It is unreasonable to expect a manufacturer to meet everyone’s expectation of which shade a particular piece of equipment is. As long as it is reasonably close and it is consistent throughout the set, that is plenty good enough for most of us.
I usually do not frequent this particular subject thread However, in this case I have very reliable sources that agree that the color is correct based on the paint chips . (I know, the New York Times always claims unnamed sources Too) Peter Smith, Memphis