Model Railroading > Accurail MILW Rib Side Boxcars

Mine came in the mail yesterday. They exceed my expectations. Wondering if anyone's matched the paint Accurail used? I'd like to replace the side grabs, and the trucks need painting.

Thanks,

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

EDIT: the color
The Oxide Red Flat color I recommended is coming in too brown for the color I am looking for so I will be back with another color soon. Tru Color has some MILW freight car colors which I will look into.





I bought a bottle of Model Master Acrylic Paint in Oxide Red Flat color. I think the number is 4882. It is a close match to the color to what Accurail is using. That color is darker and more maroon than what I remember working with back in the 1970s out of Deer Lodge but then they had decades of sunshine and road grime on them.

Once the trucks are painted and weathered with the car they should be a pretty good match. The trucks will be more grimy grey overcoat while the carsides will have some yellowish brown dirt mixed in to that.

I have asked Accurail to mold the sideframe in boxcar red rather than black for all the ribside cars they will be producing. The MILW had 13,000 of them and the freight car red color trucks could be found on MILW wooden boxcars, stock cars, two bay and three bay hoppers as well as the 'battleship' ballast cars. Perhaps some more modelers can lobby Accurail for boxcar red trucks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/20 23:17 by fbe.

Accurail has Mineral Red and Oxide Red truck sideframes available (along with Metalic/Silver), but I don't need a dozen pair of them.

Scalecoat has a good selection of Boxcar and Oxide reds, from a light PRR Freight Car Red, to a dark Tuscan. I wish I had a hobbyshop nearby I could match the body color to  the paint bottles.

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

I have a bottle of artist acrylic Oxide Red that works fine for doing grabirons and suck and even matches the red cab roof I put on some of the Frisco brass that I paint.  Its one of those dollar bottles you see in art stores.

George Losse reviewed the O -scale model of the Milwaukee Road Rib Side Boxcar here:

http://www.shamokindivision.com/2013/03/10/milwaukee-road-ribbed-side-box-cars/

A pertinent quote is as follows:

" Circa the 1950’s the railroad used a shade of Mineral Red. A close match for MILW Mineral Red is Scalecoat #2 Oxide Red, as indicated by a Boles color drift card.”  The model appears close to that."

I dug out my various flavors of Scalecoat II Boxcar Reds along with some similar brown/red/oxide colors. Accurail's paint, unfortunately, doesn't match #2 Oxide Red. #2 is lighter, and the photos on the above website show cars painted a brighter oxide red color than my Accurail cars. Of the colors I have, the closest to Accurail's Milwaukee road color is #13 (now #1013) Box Car Red. However, the other two Box Car Reds (87/1087 and 88/1088, BCR 2 and BCR 3) are close enough that if those were the only one of several oside reds that I had, I wouldn't make  a special purchase of those colos.

I hope this helps someone else.

Respectfully submitted,

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL