On30 Freight Car Color

[steveb919]

Is there an "out of the bottle" color available for the red/brown On30 freight cars?
Either water base (preferred) or solvent based.

Steve B.

[railtwister]

While I haven't found a perfect match, I have found that Floquil's Southern Freight Car Brown comes pretty close to matching most of the Bachmann On30 freight cars. If you really look at it knowing the color is slightly different, you can just see the difference, but once some light weathering is added, it becomes impossible to tell. I have mostly used it for repainting those black roofs on the boxcar to more closely match the rest of the car. I have also used it to paint over the road name between the stakes of flat cars and gondolas, but leave the dimensional data in the other panels. Then all I have to add is the new road name plus a bit of weathering.

Unfortunately, it is not a water-based paint like you requested. I've never had much luck with water-based model railroad paints myself. I find they tend to cause problems in my airbrush, they are hard to clean form the airbrush when you are done, and need more coats for good coverage. They also seem to wear off more easily if the cars are handled a lot, as they tend to be when one uses them on a modular layout. Some people get great results with them, though.

Good luck,
Bill

[ebtbob]

Good Morning All,

      Just a thought on color.    A perfect match may not necessarily be needed as car and engine colors would fade after a time.

[Tomcat]

Hi there,

Floquil/Polly Scale should work pretty fine:

Either:Freight Car Red (F414352) or D&RGW Freight Car Red (F414258) should do pretty well. Polly scale will stick very good on every surface, so even if you go and want to paint the wheel sides a matching color, there you go...

Cheers, Tom