Prototype modeling - how far can you take it?

[doctorwayne]

But they weren't red...they were brown! Yep yep! A very reddish brown!

I've heard a story of Harry Brunk giving a nice anecdote about exact colors. At a clinic, he put a slide up with a string of SG Tiffany Reefers. Despite the contractual requirement that they all be painted the same color, ever single car was noticeably different due to the lack of computer mixed paints (they were mixed by hand/feel) and they effects of weathering. Personally, I strive for my models to vary in color just like the prototype.

Michael, I think that a lot of modellers use paint colours "as they come", so all boxcars are the same shade of "boxcar red". I usually paint freight cars in batches - as few as two or three, but more often eight or twelve or twenty, and almost never use the paint "as it comes". A few cars may get a coat of "Boxcar Red", but I also make-up variations of the base colour: for instance, add some black to one batch, some brown, or yellow, or orange to another. As I work my way through the cars and some of the tinted colours become depleted, I dump that bottle's contents into that of another, yielding yet another variation. Admittedly, some of the variations are very subtle, but they are there.
The same goes for weathering colours - while all prototype cars are subject to weathering, not all have been in service for the same length of time, nor have they all run in the same environment, so there's lots of room for variations in weathering colours.

Some cars, of course, require a "signature" colour - NYC's "Jade Green", for instance, or B&O's boxcar red, which was quite different from that of most other roads. The catch here is that many of us never saw one of those cars in person, so we're almost forced to accept the paint manufacturer's rendition of such a unique colour. Old colour photos can only hint at what the colour truly looked like. A further complication is that colour perception varies widely between individuals - many manufacturers offer CNR Green #11, used on CNR passenger equipment, some steam locomotives, and almost all pre-'60s diesels. I've seen the original prototypes in person and have my own opinion of which model paint best duplicates that shade - most of the others come close, and one of them may actually be the right colour, but for me, my choice is the "right" colour.

Recently, I've decided that the price disparity between Floquil ($4 per ounce) and craft acrylics ($0.25) dictates a move in that direction. I'm still scared of using them with my airbrush (I ruined an old airbrush in a similar manner) with them, but I plan on using red, yellow, blue, black, and white to experiment until I've found an appropriate base of freight or passenger cars.

Floquil or Pollyscale are both around $5.00 per bottle here, but I've found that you can paint quite a few cars for that five bucks. Of course, I have to also buy a bottle of each of all those other colours which I add to the base colour, so it does add up.
I just did an inventory of paint on hand, and discovered the following:

Floquil - 38 bottles
PollyScale - 26
Polly S - 9
SMP Accupaint - 13
Scalecoat - 3
Humbrol - 13
Tamiya - 16
Testors - 7
Modelflex - 3

...plus 22 bottles of thinned (ready-to-spray) paint, mostly Floquil and PollyScale. The first two on the list are used most frequently and also account for most of the 22 thinned bottles. Some colours were purchased for a single project, usually for someone else, so the expense wasn't mine, but still, a lot of money tied-up in paint.

Airbrush maintenance, especially cleaning, is critical for good performance - after painting, clean your airbrush immediately and the task will be much easier than if you wait to "do it later". Even for water- or alcohol-based paints, lacquer thinner is a very effective cleaning solution. For long-neglected airbrushes, you can soak the entire airbrush in it (use a closed container, such as an empty pickle jar, as the fumes are toxic), but be sure to first remove all plastic parts and all rubber or neoprene seals and gaskets.

Wayne