I no longer subscribe to any model railroad magazines. I couldn’t afford to for several years when our Social Security benefits were frozen and besides, I’m now in a studio apartment without the wall space for shelving. So I was surprised when a modeling friend told me of the Testors decision to no longer manufacture the Floquil brand of paints. Floquil paints came onto the model railroad scene after WWII, derived from camouflage paint made for the armed forces, and survived long after contemporary brands disappeared from the market. I don’t remember the exact wording of the announcement, but I believe my friend mentioned something about “railroad specific” colors. The full realization of the announcement didn’t hit me at the time and when I learned of it. I did realize that I hadn’t seen any listing of the Floquil paints in recent Micro-Mark catalogs and had noticed the appearance of the Vallejo paints, which seemed to have most of the standard colors and would probably offer more as time went on…
My ongoing quest for “B&O Freight Car/Indian/Cadmium Red” has taken me out “among ‘em,” as my Missouri-born and bred dad used to say. I had asked the members to help me find that lighter, pinker shade of boxcar red, originally known as “Indian Red,” which the B&O dubbed “Freight Car Red” sometime in the 1830s. I had phoned around art supply places, since Indian red was a standard artists’ color, with no luck until a young woman looked it up on her computer and told me was now called &l
Testor has a few different lines of paint. The only ones that I know of that have been discontinued are the Floquil Polly-Scale line. They also have the Model Masters line, both in enamel and acrylic. This is a better grade of model paint and they are expanding this line to cover the MRR colors.
Badger paints are not made by Testors so should not be affected.
What your local hobby shop does in stocking model paints, is entirely up to them.
I guess You did not check out Vallejo Scarlet Red, which is also labled #29019 as Caboose Red. It is about a perfect match for Floquil Caboose Red…for I have both of them. I could swear I posted that info in the other thread that You had, I thought You had it solved by now.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Btw: Floquil, not Scalecoat, Caboose Red,was a flat solvent paint…Vallejo Caboose Red is a Acrylic flat paint.
i just assumed that since Testors has owned Badger for several years, according to my correspondence in re obtaining a “Heavy” needle and cone for airbrushing acrylics with my Badger airbrush, Testors might have eliminated the RR colors in the Modelflex line.
While Testors does indeed own Badger, it seems that Badger runs under its own control and is not affected by the happenings at Testors and even has its own website and distribution.
Jay, that’s what I needed to know. Now all I need to know is why my LHS carries only Tru-Scale and what remains of the Polly-Scale stock. I suspect it’s an economical thing, as the number of Modelflex colors is enormous and he is well known for his reluctance to replace stock that’s sold out–especially when he has to order a specific number of an item from his wholesaler.
Because I specifically want to get my hands on a bottle of Model Master #4880, which is actually the elusive INDIAN RED, I’ll check and see if I can special order it through our local Hobby Town USA, which handles the non-RR Model Master paints. If not, I’ll have to resort to ordering online and paying the dreaded “S&H.” I want to have as many shades of boxcar and Tuscan red paint as possible, since I remember from the '50s that freight car colors varied widely. I already have Modelflex “LIGHT TUSCAN OXIDE RED” and “DARK TUSCAN OXIDE RED,” and Polly-Scale BOXCAR and PENNSY TUSCAN RED, and would welcome other shades.
Thanks again, everyone, for clearing up what’s really available.
It should be noted that Tuscan Red was a color for PRR passenger cars and (during certain time periods) passenger locomotives. It was not the correct color for PRR freight cars or cabin cars (cabooses). Those cars were painted “PRR Freight Car Color”, which is matched pretty well with Scalecoat Oxide Red. I am not aware of any road using PRR’s Tuscan Red on freight cars, although I suppose it might have happened somewhere.
Interesting that there has been very little mention of Scalecoat’s excellent paint in this discussion.
By the way, it is my understanding that the “rationalizing” of the color lines came less from Testors as it did from RPM the Canadian company that owns the brands Floquil and PollyScale, as well as the various Testors lines. On he good news, Model Master has added in a few of the basic PollyScale colors such as Grimy Black, Tarnished Black, Earth and such.
Personally I question RPMs dedication to modelers. A number of years ago there was a nice article in a magazine that is now discontinued about the various formulas for “UP Armour Yellow”. The PollyScale was found to be quite close to UP color drift control cards. What did RPM do? Some genius with an MBA decided to change the PollyScale UP Yellow to conform to other paints in the line. The result that a nice rich UP yellow was converted to a flat “Afrika Korps” sand-yellow.