Model Railroading > Northern Pacific Lowey Green Paint

Hi, all,

lately I've been looking at the best matches for the Lowey North Coast Limited circa 1954 and later paints.  There is no simple solution.

To start, ,here are photos of the color cards developed by the Northern Pacific Historical Society:

Now let's look at color cards published by Arthur Dubin in his book:  Pullman Paint and Lettering Notebook published in 1968 or so,  He states that the colors are reproductions of actual drift cards used by Pullman to match railroad colors..


Steve Barkley



 

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Photos of the drift cards contained in Dubin's book:

And now a photo of the North Coast Limited going over Homestake Pass in the late 60.s 

None of the colors really match.  By and large most color photos in the books seem to match the photo  of the NCL above.  The Lowey light green appears to have a minty color that is missing in the model paints and the NPRHS drift cards.

Steve Barkley



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/16 16:09 by BaylorMax.

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Here are two photos of an Oriental NCL Observation that I repainted using new Scalecoat 1 paint  I bought the paint from Minuteman Scale Models.   www.minutemanscalemodels.com/

Great Service!  The dark green is a bit Greener than the orginal Scalecoat paint.  Also, it does not seem a durable as the older formula.

Original Scalecoat 1 on the right, new Scalecoat 1 on the left/


 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/16 16:12 by BaylorMax.

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Now let's look at a Bill KcKeown factory painted model and one I painted some years ago using Bill McKeown's formula:  The baggage was factory painted.  I painted the Pullman.

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When the weather clears I'll try to shoot some photos ouside in the sunlight.  From my research,it really doesn't look like any of the colors really hit it right.  However, I understand that colors fade in sunlight, different lots of paint vary in hue, weathering changes colors, and we all perceive colors differently.

Please excuse the lack of depth of field and exposure problems with some photos.  I'm learning to use my Canon with 4 new lenses.  It's a challenge!

Photos from the layout.

Steve Barkley



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/16 15:50 by BaylorMax.

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Steve, that is one fine looking layout.  I love that Homestake Pass shot...very realistic!  Thanks for sharing.

Kent in CArmel Valley

That is one GORGEOUS layout. I would love to see more!

You can't trust the Pullman book for colours. It's printed using four-colour process inks and the colours are sometimes close and sometimes way off.

The NPRHA samples are probably your best bet, but even these aren't 100% guaranteed to match your eyes or your memories or even every car.

Colour/color on real passenger cars varies due to several factors:

1. Where and when was the car painted? Different shops often had different formulas. The formula also shifted over time. And often if the shop ran out of paint they would go and have some mixed that was considered "close enough." VIA Rail Canada had a host of cars rebuilt in the late 1980s and the blue was completely different than what was used originally, despite best efforts to match the tone. I have seen photos of passenger cars in service with two shades of the same colour on the same car.

2. What was used to wash the car? It may be one colour straight out of the paint shop but the chemicals used in washing the cars may have had an impact on the colour very quickly.

3. How the paint brand used was affected by the sun and other weather. Where did it operate? The light looks different in the mountains of Washington vs. the plains of North Dakota.

4. How colour shifts due to atmosphere and scale. If you take a full-size paint chip and apply it to a model, it will always look too dark. We are used to seeing trains through several hundred feet of atmosphere. That is not replicated in the three feet from the model track to our eyes.

The New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association published a book of paint chips several years ago and these have been accepted by the NH modelling community as 100% accurate. We've matched them precisely and we've been commended on our colours. But to be honest, they are probably WAY too dark for models. They were matched to real paint and not toned down for model use. However, the New Haven modelling community - including all of us on the Rapido team - have accepted them as accurate. To use any different colour would be seen as wrong. So everyone has New Haven models that are too dark, and everyone is happy. So who am I to say they are too dark? If everyone agrees they are accurate, then they are accurate.

Your best bet is to go with what you feel is right.

-Jason

 

The discussion of NP greens from Loewy generate a great deal of controversy and discussion and seems to be one of those prototypes that are hard to match.  I have W&R models, Challenger and Genesis.  All are respected by myself as excellent importers so look good to me and yet all are different to one another.  When I look at broadside proto photos of the NCL, the locos seem to have a different hue to the baggage behind.  My Genesis F9's are different to the W&R and the Challenger NCL set so I settle for this because it seems to be consistent to the prototype.

One thing is for sure in my mind is that I do not like the Scalecoat 1 colours of either of the Loewy greens.

Rick

have you checked tru color paint their np colors seem close

Steve, your North Coast Limited model is absolutely stunning !!

UP951West Wrote:
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> Steve, your North Coast Limited model is
> absolutely stunning !!

Hang on - I thought that was a prototype photo! Isn't it?

-Jason

The Photo of the North Coast Limited is a prototype photo.  I would love to be able to model that. 

Now if the NP crowd could come to a consensus about paint that would be nice.