Model Railroading > Rapido's Proto Paint

Has anyone used this paint & if so how do you like it & where can you get it??

I've seen a few bottles up on that famous auction site, but I too would love to know which dealers carry the Rapido ProtoPaint line in the US as well!

Cheers,
Harry

 I believe Spring Creek in Deshler Nebraska may have some.

I believe you can order it direct from Rapido.

How quickly are small packages moving out of Canada these days? It has been a problem for me in the past.

grahamline Wrote:
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> How quickly are small packages moving out of
> Canada these days? It has been a problem for me in
> the past.

I've had no problems. And I've gotten packages from Rapido, Miniatures by Eric and at one time RailFlyer.

jburek Wrote:
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> Has anyone used this paint & if so how do you like
> it & where can you get it??

I saw an article in this months RMC that prompted me to give it a try...
I ordered a few colors from Spring Creek Model Trains (one of the best retailers I've delt with by phone or Internet) and I was totally impressed with how well it flows through the airbrush and the smoothness of the end result. That said, I wanted some more colors. I ordered more from Spring Creek and got the impression their stock was getting thin. Searching the Internet only came up with a E-Bay seller or two. I was curious so I shot Jason (Rapido) a message. You can't buy the stuff direct and he is not sure on the future of the product. He may elarorate on the reasons why if he chooses.
So, if you can find the stuff, try it out. I like it.

Andy

I hope this product line sees much success.  I just bought a couple of bottles from eBay and am eager to try it out.

Cheers,
Harry

tracktime Wrote:
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> I hope this product line sees much success.  I
> just bought a couple of bottles from eBay and am
> eager to try it out.
>
> Cheers,
> Harry

I'm looking forward to your report. :)

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

We're actually going to have a paint meeting soon at Rapido. The problem is we don't actually make any money on it.

If you look at our total sales vs. our total costs to date, the costs are considerably higher. Our margins are pennies a bottle (literally, not figuratively), and we have to have a lot of inventory in order for people to get the colors they want.

So before we've made any money on batch one, we've had to pay for batch two. It's an endless no-cash cycle.

Janet is pushing for us to drop the line. I'm honestly in two minds about it. I see her point - it is a money loser. But I like the idea of serving the hobbyists with paint as I know it's a good product. If we can increase the price by a couple of bucks, we can probably make it work. But we are concerned that nobody would order it at a higher price.

There you go, from the horse's mouth. The answe is... I don't know. :-D

-Jason
 

Tried to find it on the Spring Creek website but way too cumbersome. Did a search for "Rapido paint" and it showed 390 locomotives across 14+ pages to scroll through. No thanks! Tried just "paint" and got the same results...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/20 21:39 by trackplanner.

trackplanner Wrote:
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> Tried to find it on the Sring Creek website but
> way too cumbersome. Did a search for "Rapido
> paint" and it showed 390 locomotives across 14+
> pages to scroll through. No thanks! Tried just
> "paint" and got the same results...

Send an email or call them---they'll respond very quickly!

Jason - good paints are becoming few and far between.  I for one would pay a couple more bucks a bottle.  I say increase the price so it is somewhat profitable for you guys and see how it goes.  If it is still a money loser then you'll have to make a corporate decision.  Best of luck & I hope it works out for all of us.
Jeff

Jason,
It's a quality product and I have no problem paying 2.00 more for a bottle

Andy

rapidotrains Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We're actually going to have a paint meeting soon
> at Rapido. The problem is we don't actually make
> any money on it.
>
> If you look at our total sales vs. our total costs
> to date, the costs are considerably higher. Our
> margins are pennies a bottle (literally, not
> figuratively), and we have to have a lot of
> inventory in order for people to get the colors
> they want.
>
> So before we've made any money on batch one, we've
> had to pay for batch two. It's an endless no-cash
> cycle.
>
> Janet is pushing for us to drop the line. I'm
> honestly in two minds about it. I see her point -
> it is a money loser. But I like the idea of
> serving the hobbyists with paint as I know it's a
> good product. If we can increase the price by a
> couple of bucks, we can probably make it work. But
> we are concerned that nobody would order it at a
> higher price.
>
> There you go, from the horse's mouth. The answe
> is... I don't know. :-D
>
> -Jason
>  

It's the magazine article curse. If it's featured in an article it will be discontinued within six months of the article being printed.

Listen to Janet ... she is probably right.

I was in a similar situation about 10 years ago, provided a quality product my customers wanted
but didn’t want to pay a premium for, and inventory costs made it impossible to make a profit.
The time and money it took, robbed from other more profitable things we did, and after a year
we bailed out, and the customers never batted an eye.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, but lesson learned.  Listen to Janet.

Websites found of vendors that say they have it:
https://www.factorydirecttrains.com/rapidoproto-paint.aspx
http://www.northcoasthobby.com/ratrcaco.html
https://www.cedarcreekhobbies.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=3472
https://www.mycaboose.com/lists?group=&keywords=&manufacturer_id=270&category_id=19&scale_id=&society_id=&instock=false
https://www.central-hobbies.com/products/paint.html (scroll down the page)
 

They won't ship direct.

jburek Wrote:
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> They won't ship direct.

Who doesn't ship direct?

So I do not know if the Proto paints are exact matches to the paints used on Rapido models. If they are, then having them available does provide a service to Rapido customers for touch up or painting other models to match. Another issue is finding the paints in the US. Scale Trains uses the same paint colors as Tru Color paints so getting matching paints is very easy and you can order direct from them which makes things convient. I always have ordered paint direct from the manufacturers if I could as you know you are getting fresh paint. I used to order Scale Coat brands and Testors that way.

I think sales would rise if there was one good mail order place that carried all the colors and I do not think folks would mind if prices were raised.

Bruce