Model Railroading > Matching Athearn EL Maroon

Planning on renumbering an Athearn E-L SD45-2. Does anyone know what paint is a match for the Athearn E-L Maroon?

Thanks.

Matt Snell

Several companies make the color - Scalecoat, TruColor, Model Flex - perhaps one of these shades will be a match.

The reason people ask this question is some modeling companies use the same paint we use. For example, Scaletrains annouced in the mid 2010s that they will use Tru-Color paint. So, by asking, we can find out if Athearn just used brand A, color B on their EL model or did some custom mix in China.

It can make things easier before heading to the next step, color matching and mixing. And before that question gets asked, we all know we need to reference photos in the color matching and maybe try a few brands. We've known this since the early days of Model Railroader magazine. But since those early days, people, maybe thousands, have mixed and painted EL colors. Those people can provide a simple formula or recommendation, based on the model manufacturer. It's about not reinventing the wheel instead of "referencing photos." People referenced the photos decades ago, and we can learn from that history.

nydepot Wrote:
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> The reason people ask this question is some
> modeling companies use the same paint we use. For
> example, Scaletrains annouced in the mid 2010s
> that they will use Tru-Color paint. So, by asking,
> we can find out if Athearn just used brand A,
> color B on their EL model or did some custom mix
> in China.
>
> It can make things easier before heading to the
> next step, color matching and mixing. And before
> that question gets asked, we all know we need to
> reference photos in the color matching and maybe
> try a few brands. We've known this since the early
> days of Model Railroader magazine. But since those
> early days, people, maybe thousands, have mixed
> and painted EL colors. Those people can provide a
> simple formula or recommendation, based on the
> model manufacturer. It's about not reinventing the
> wheel instead of "referencing photos." People
> referenced the photos decades ago, and we can
> learn from that history.

I never trusted that theory of using photos to match paint because of several factors. Time of day of the photo, lighting, sun lit or cloudy day, aged or weathered paint and so on. The poster wanted information on a manufactures paint if that information can be found. I have always have taken the best matching EL paint for the equipment I want to work on and tweaked it little by little. You will find you may need to spray a top coat of flat or matte finish to help hide the differences between the two paints. Hope this helps.

Do you just need to change the road number on the side of the cab? Try this. Cut a small piece of paper towel, enough to just cover the number, soak it with Walthers Solvaset and place it over the number. After about 5 to 10 minutes remove the towel and dry the area. Take a piece of cellophane tape and apply it over the number. It may help to burnish the tape onto the surface with a toothpick. Then remove the tape - it will usually remove the number and not the underlying paint. I've done this on a number of Athearn Genesis units quite successfully. In some cases you might need to repeat the process to remove a few stubborn bits of paint.

JayK - That's PERFECT. I'll try it.

Basically what I'm doing is using an Athearn Genesis SD45-2 in E-L to model the NS 1700 whcih is painted into E-L heritage.

Instead of the traditional strip then paint 3 colors, mask, decal, etc. if I can just change the cab # & numberboards I'm pretty much there. Thus the idea of an exact paint match for the ATHEARN paint. -no prototype color debate required.

Thanks.

Thanks guys. Here's my finished unit. Not perfect but beats about 20 hours of painting!

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