Joe once again thank you.
Joe once again thank you. Your colors are a very good match to the paint colors that BTS used. That being said on my layout with my lighting and in my opinion based on various color photos in my possession those colors look a bit dark. With the exception of the "dark grey" used for Windows and doors. So I am currently experimenting with various Vallejo paint colors and mixes.
Obviously this is a subjective thing as noted elsewhere color is dependent on many things including the lighting and the eyes of the person viewing it. And in this case we don't really have a good baseline to match the color two.
I spent a couple hours going over all the color photos I have of the color in question. I recorded the page or source. And the date of the photo if known and the general appearance of the build (if the paint looked aged or in shadow or what have you) I then took all the grays I had and made a sample stick by priming a couple plastic strips about a foot long and an inch wide. I painted an area about 3/4 x 1/2 " with each color along the edge of the strip leaving a 1/4" gape . Writing the name below the color. I took these strips and compared them to each photo. Recording the results. I then had someone else's do the same thing. I did this at my bench which is set up with the exact type of lightning my layout uses. I compared them in the standard light and with my work light adding more light. Recorded the whole mess.
I then took a couple of the best photos and asked a couple of other folks there opinion. Included in this mess was a designer who picks colors on a regular basis and a retired syndicated cartoonist.
The conclusions while interesting where almost useless. First off a couple of the photos where the same exact photo but from more than one book and they where so radically different that they where not even in the same general area many many shades darker. But what was interesting is that many of the times the colors chosen where the same for the same photo. But different between different photos. And we are talking pretty radical differences. The other thing is that the buildings aged and weathered but that didn't mean that the necessarily got lighter. Some got older and darker but they all got more random. To the point that a wall in good sunlight would match two to 4 different colors over the wall and even more in obvious weathered or shadowed locations.
There was a small trend in that one of three different colors where pretty much the match for 80% of all the photos.
So basically it is impossible to determine the "correct" color of a C&O station as we do not have a proven correct sample to match it to. But at the same time I can pretty much choose the color I want as I can find a photo that will support almost any gray I choose. So the rivet counters won't be a problem.
Not I was just trying for a match to the medium gray. The trim colors being a bit variable as they are contrasted against the body of the building. A darker body color appeared to use a darker trim for instance.
The only real observation I came away with was that in general the darker color was newer paint or the bottom of the building where water would effect the wood siding more or some areas that may have had mold. Wood siding in the Appalachian mountains tends to develop water staining and or mold a lot. The other observation is that in the older better photos the color was a lot more green then I expected. And in some photos the building looked green or greenish brown more than grey.
That being said I painted an old Walthers station that looks like a C&O station in my best guess color (a mix) and was happy with it until I got it on the layout. Looking at it on the layout in position I now think it is too dark. I then placed it in location of various buildings that will be this color and concluded that it looks to dark. This has me wondering if my layout is. Two dark. It is lighted with CFLs spaced 24 to 32" on center (varies with the height above the bench work of the light fixture the higher the light the closer together). I think I w try two more experiments I will add in some white to create lighter color and paint a shed and I will take both buildings to a friend's layout (or two) and look at them in there light and see if they look to dark. That will help me decide if my room is two dark. I will be judging the light/darkness of the paint not the actual color as the lighting type will effect that.
Another experiment I may try if this continues long enough is to take the three best color photos (or the three I like best) and three or four color samples to the local division meeting and print out a simple form and conduct a survey. The division usually has about 60 folks at it so I should be able to get 30+ votes. I don't expect this to prove anything but I think it may be interesting.
Well I am still working on this and I am just about as confused as when I started but it has been interesting. Kind of like it is interesting what a tornado does....
Maybe I should write this up as an article explaining to folks why they don't want to try and match a real world prototype color.
-Doug M
