British-American Tank Cars colors

[sailormatlac]

Hi, I'm actually thinking about modelling a few BAOX tank cars for the layout. Most went to CGTX when B-A went down and kept their paint scheme. A few lasted well into the 80s.

I'm using the Black Cat set. They say the top half of the tank should be painted dark green "from color photo evidences". Well. I did my homework, found a few not so neat 1950s color pictures of BAOX tank cars and it looks plain black to me (even the car with the light color middle stripe). Anybody here have more factual information about old BAOX cars? Also, Black Cat say the light color stripe is yellow-orange, but it's hard to tell. It looks more like a creamy yellow.

Here's the best picture out there I could find. No trace of dark green on the tank.



This one is B&W, but there's no color differenciation between top and bottom.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=im...1448956184

Matt

[JaBear]

I'm really no help at all Matt, however looking at this site......<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.okanagan.net/ocarc/b-a-oil.htm">http://www.okanagan.net/ocarc/b-a-oil.htm</a><!-- m --> ...... I'd suggest that there are solid colour cars and also two and three tone cars, though it is interesting to note that the HO models are all solid black.
Cheers, the Bear.

[doctorwayne]

I've used the C-D-S lettering to do the older-style car in dark green, although I don't seem to have a photo - I believe that my good friend Mister Nutbar has the car, but it does have the older style herald, similar to the one shown below. I used the Black Cat decals to do this Tichy tankcar, but decided to paint the car black....not based on any research, but simply on the thought that a late-'20s/early '30s car might more logically be black, with perhaps the post-war versions done in green.




I may have more recent (late '50s/late '80s) photos of some real B/A cars, but am not at home, so cannot check them. I'll take a look later this week.

Wayne

[sailormatlac]

Jabear, yes, I did explorer this website and Ian Cranstone's collection too.

Wayne, I'll wait your feedback. I'm trying to model an ex-BAOX car in the early 1980s. Those were transferred to CGTX but only the reporting mark was replaced.

Matt

[cn nutbar]

Hi Matt---here's the car that Doctor Wayne referred to in his post---hope this helps

[sailormatlac]

Ok, some updates here to those who may be interested.

I'm actually kitbashing a B-A car. The ones built in the fifties with dome platform. After looking at a few pictures on Ian Cranstone's website, I started to think Bachmann's paint scheme wasn't as suspicious as I previously thought. I was curious and took the most likely picture of a BAOX tank car to be painted in the two-color scheme.

Slightly adjusting contrast in Photoshop immediatly yielded some interesting results. As you can see (circled in yellow), the car's ends are clearly darker than the upper tank body. Such demarcation doesn't exist on the inferior part. Also, the "B" from the B/A logo is painted on a "green droplet". The droplet background color is quite similar to the tank car. The "A" background is red and there's definitely a sharp contrast with the tank. Also, you'll see the red color is almost similar to the black part, which is a common occurence with B&W photos. Other interesting facts are that I'm seriously thinking the platform was black with green railings and ladders. Final touch, the horizontal stripes are indeed darker than I thought. The yellow-orangish color is more than probable.

I can't believe nobody seems to remember clearly such an attractive paint scheme!

As for the green shade, according to the B/A logo, it was slightly lighter than the green "droplet"... somewhat similar to Bachmann's color.

Matt

[sailormatlac]

The kitbashed car from a standard Athearn single-dome tank car:







Matt

[doctorwayne]

I'm sorry, Matt, but I was unable to find any photos of the real B/A cars.

Wayne

[sailormatlac]

I'm sorry, Matt, but I was unable to find any photos of the real B/A cars.

Wayne

No problem. As previously said, there's many evidences the cars were green. I'm actually painting the model that way. I should have some progress pictures soon.

Matt

[sailormatlac]

Tank car painted, ready to receive a gloss coat before decalling. So far, I'm quite pleased with the result. Green is Tamiya XF-5.









Matt

[Twist]

Hi,
Matt nice looking kitbash. great work.

Regards,Chris

[sailormatlac]

Here's the result. Now I'm really wondering if I should use the BAOX reporting marks or make CGTX ones... I'm not sure if I have enough white CGTX reporting marks to decal the car completely.

Matt

[JaBear]

Now I'm really wondering if I should use the BAOX reporting marks or make CGTX ones...

BAOX . <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nakina.net/photos/baox/baox000803.jpg">http://www.nakina.net/photos/baox/baox000803.jpg</a><!-- m -->

Nice job there Matt.
Cheers, the Bear.