3 Links to help your research

Joe,

Thanks for leading MRH into this new era! I'm sure you've already searched the MRH forums for information about paint matching, but just in case here's a thread to check out.

I recently found this website that is helpful for the other end of the spectrum, getting paint colors that match the prototype. What I like about this site is that you can upload a photo (or a URL) and try and match a paint color to specific spot on the photo.

And lastly microscale has published this pdf about paints.

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/Floquil%20Color%20Chart.pdf

Craig

Continued excellence Joe.

Continued excellence Joe.

Looking forward to the Painting Guides

Given the complexity (confusion) and technologies required to "match" surface colors, I am looking forward to seeing MRH's guides.

There isn't a comprehensive alternative mapping

That's because of the delay in publishing ... some articles that are surfacing were submitted on or before 2013 when Floquil and PollyScale still existed.

Also, people did a run on those paints and stocked up, or they still have those paints in their stash.

But now, three years later, those paints are finally running out, so it's high time for a definitive replacement guide that maps all the old Floquil / PollyScale colors to the new paints currently available.

It only gets worse, not better, in a post-Floquil world. The model railroad paint market has become splintered - so if article X says "Model Master color Y" and you only have Vallejo ModelAir, you're kinda stuck unless you know which Model Master color maps to which Vallejo ModelAir color - and so on for each major paint brand.

A definitive guide like we're proposing will provide cross-mapping between all the popular brands as well as back to Floquil / PollyScale colors.

Armed with such a conversion mapping, even old articles that reference Floquil / PollyScale colors remain relevant  because when they say Grimy Black or Boxcar Red, you know what else to reach for that's the same in the popular brand you use.

Joe  Thanks for the info,

Joe 

Thanks for the info, this has been a big concern of mine as my local paint options are not great so odds on I will have to order whatever I need an trying to determine paint colors online is just about impossible.  So knowing what brand is good to use and what color in that brand is what I need is a huge advantage in time and money.

Color is always one of the hardest things to determine for those of us modeling before color photography was comes.  Add in difficulty of find a good paint and it gets almost impossible.  I have a half dozen C&O buildings that I still need to paint because just as I was getting ready to experiment and determine what paint matched the prototype best polyscale went off the market.

So it is going to be a pain figuring out what colors to use as I don't have a source for most hobby paints that is local.  I think I may end up having to order a bunch of colors and hope that one of them works or can be mixed to work.  This article at least clues me in on what brand to buy so I don't have to worry about if I am happy with the paint itself.

I do wonder what the best way to experiment with paint mixing is.  As,I expect to have to create three repeatable paint formulas for the C&O grey building colors.

-Doug M

Much Needed Resource

Joe, the colour translation chart is a very cool and timely resource. There are a number of translation charts on the internet, but none that I've found reference directly from Polly Scale and Floquil colours. 

My personal favourite paint for is now Vallejo. It was the demise of Polly Scale that prompted me to seek out Vallejo, but I suspect I would have eventually made the switch regardless. I agree that the bottle and ultra-fine pigment size make this paint a superior product to spray or brush paint. I'm surprised they haven't clued into the fact that they could very easily have come up with a "North American Railroad Colours" line of paint by simply putting different labels on many of their existing colours.

Thanks for putting the effort into developing this much-needed resource!

" if article X says "Model

   In practice I don't think it really matters. Cars and locos vary so much in color that duplicating  the original paint formula is a usually waste of time. Better to teach folks how to look at  a photo of the specific piece being modeled then match a color to it. The results is what matters not what it was called by some long gone paint manufacturer who had to pick one of a thousand possible shades found on  nation crossing railroad cars......DaveB

Vast library of past articles

Yes and no. For some, close is good enough. But if we have a mapping of Floquil / PollyScale colors to currently sold brands, then when referencing one of the thousands of articles in the magazine archives that calls out a Floquil/PollyScale color, you know in a few moments which color to use from your favorite brand.

That's pretty darn handy, if you ask me.

Dave, you obviously have very

Dave, you obviously have very good color vision I don't. So if I have a resource like the ones Joe is working on it is a huge plus to me. Granted there might be some slight differences but if I was left to my own skill set it would not be pretty. About 20% of the male population have some issue with color.

 "you obviously have very

Hi Rob, I don't know how true my color vision is but my theory is if I find a prototype photo of the car I'm modeling  and make my paint look like it I'll be better off than relying on some third party's opinion because they might have mixed their color to match a different car than my photo? .......DaveB

If I try that it may or may

If I try that it may or may not actually match which is why the color charts are so helpful. For folks that can see it it is hard to understand the folks that can't.

post floquil paint dont forget scalecoat

http://www.minutemanscalemodels.com/ has scalecoat paints with some RR names.  take a look.

Jerry Wilson 720-353-8608

If microlux = vallejo...

Why some colors in the chart have both the microlux code and vallejo code and others only have a microlux code? The article mentions that microlux is vallejo in a different package, so each microlux should have a correspondent in vallejo's line.

(I do not mean to criticise but Micro-mark products are hard to find in my country, but vallejo I can find)

Daniel Kramer

Don will discuss solvent paints next month

Scalecoat is a solvent based paint and it needs solvent cleanup, so Asst. Editor Don Hanley will cover those next month. Don prefers solvent paints, so he gets to talk about those. Scalecoat is most certainly in the list.

I'm strictly an acrylics guy with paints that only need soap and water cleanup.

It's a work in progress

First, this is a work-in-progress, so as I get time I will fill out the colors with more options. However, in one or two cases, it does appear MicroLux may be a custom blend without a direct matching Model Air color. In that case, I will provide a mixture formula for Model Air / Game Air.

All in good time ...

Lighting?

Just out of curiosity, what is the Kelvin rating of the lighting being used for the color matching?

Matches my layout lighting

Don, it matches my layout lighting, which is 3000K.

Correction to paint mapping list posted

Grateful

I am grateful that you have initiated the color charts for our post-Floquil world. I am just beginning to change to acrylics only and appreciate that my choice-Vallejo-is what you are suggesting. Thank you.

Vallejo comments

I've used Vallejo model air paints and like them.  I thin about 10-15% with their brand of airbrush thinner, and about 5% added acrylic flow improver.  Sprayed at 15-20 psi, works great.  They dry quickly, and a gloss coat of Future, or Vallejo acrylic gloss, and decals are not a problem.  It won't hide the detail.

Curt Fortenberry

Floquil substitutes

Nice commentary on the 3 acrylic types - Badger, Testors and Vallejo.  I have been tempted to order some of the Macro Mark paints and now will do so when I next need certain colours

Acrylic paint?

What would be really useful is for someone with painting experience to write an article about how to use the craft store store paints like Delta Creamcoat for modeling purposes. They come in a great variety of colors and are inexpensive and readily available. If someone could figure out how to airbrush them sucessfully we wouldn't have to look for expensive "modeling" paint. I've only used them for touch up, weathering, and scenery work and never tried to airbrush a complete model with them but I don't see why it couldn't be done once the thinner,viscosity,additives,etc. are figured out.....DaveB

Cheap craft store paints

There's one big problem with the craft store paints - they're aimed primarily at short-term projects and the way they keep the price down is to not worry about making them colorfast, to put minimal pigment concentration in the paint, and to use a cheap acrylic base. Most of the time they're used on throw-away projects like posters or kiddy-crafts, so getting paints that will keep their color for a decade or more isn't a big concern.

NOT COLORFAST
The problem with not being colorfast is obvious - your colors will likely fade and won't last, especially in the presence of UV light. As far as which light sources emit the most UV radiation, the ranking is florescents the most, LEDs less, and old-style incandescent bulbs even less.

LOW PIGMENT CONCENTRATION
Low pigment concentration means you can't get very vibrant colors if you try to mix craft paints - they will trend toward more muddy colors when you mix them. That's why they're offered in so many colors, since they don't maintain their vibrancy with mixing.

LOW QUALITY ACRYLIC BASE
A low quality acrylic base means you may see a significant color shift from wet to dry in craft paints. It also means the colors may not work well for masking - they may lift even when allowed to dry for days or weeks. It also means drying time may vary significantly between colors.

CONCLUSION
Low price craft acrylics are priced low for a reason - they're good for what they're designed for: short-term projects where the finer issues of the more "serious artist" are not a concern. They are cheap because they're cheaply made. I would consider painting our models to be more demanding on the paint stability than what cheap acrylic craft paints are designed to provide. For that reason, I steer clear of cheap acrylics for use on my model railroad.

Grinding the Pigments

Floquil and others have advertised that their pigments are ground much finer than "normal" paint.  This is supposed to give coverage with a much thinner coat, thereby helping to preserve surface detail.  I'm a long time Floquil user and it certainly meets that criteria (preserving surface detail) in my opinion.  Whether that's due to finer pigments, I have no idea.  Don't we have a "paint expert" that could answer that question?  Is Alan of LK&O RR fame still on the list?