Acrylic Paint - Railroad Colors

[richhotrain]

Now that Testors has discontinued the Floquil Polly Scale line of Acrylic Railroad Colors,  I am trying to re-evaluate my options.

Among the acrylic paints still available, there is Testors Model Master Acrylic Paint.  Is that a suitable substitute for Floquil Polly Scale?

Also, Micro Mark has two lines:  MicroLux Acrylic Paint and Vallejo Acrylic Paint.  Are either or both of these paints suitable substitutes for Floquil Polly Scale?

Any other options out there for acrylic paint in railroad colors?

Rich

 

[alexstan]

Walthers lists Badger's Modelflex paint, which is available in railroad colours. and I've heard good things about, not used it personally though.

[mlehman]

Rich,

I haven't tried it myself yet, but I notice a lot of folks in various threads who cite paint are using Vallejo these days. The local Hobby Lobby carries it, so availability is pretty widespread.

[zstripe]

Tamiya matchs a lot of Floquil Colors, is acrylic. For instance Floquil Depot Buff, Tamiya XF-57 Buff, perfect match and many others.

Citadel will match many Testers colors and has colors most have never heard of. Used on Warhammer Games Workshop Vehicles & Figures.

Humbrol, solvent and acrylic, enamels and flats.

Revell of Germany. Many matchs for Pollyscale and Testers, sad though, you can't get them here in the states.

Frank

Here is a color compatability chart, of paints and colors that most people, never even heard of..but great paint:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart

Vallejo Paints. More than what you will see at Micro-Mark:

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/model-paints

Microlux is supposed to be a perfect match for Pollyscale colors:

http://www.micromark.com/html_pages/misc/micromark-acrylics-8-13.jpg

 

 

[peahrens]

The March MR has a Hobby Paint Roundup with quite a few options, though it does not get very specific about colors.

I'm trying to pay attention so I can pick a line for most of my painting once I get the courage to try the airbrush sitting in its box.

[jrbernier]

Rich,

  Testors has moved serveral of the Polly Scale acrylics to the Model Master line.  That is good news.  From what I have read, it has been reformulated and sprays better right from the bottle(the consistancy varied with the pigment color).  I have not tried it as of yet....

  The Micro-Mark 'MicroLux' acrylic paints are made by Vallejo for Micro-Mark.  I have several of the colors and they are great to work with(like Vallejo paint).

  Badger Model Flex is another good acrylic, it is thinned so that it is airbrush ready.  I  have found ot rather hard to work with when using a straight brush out of the bottle, but it does spray nice in my airbrush!

Jim

[CTValleyRR]

I switched to Vallejo acrylics when Rustoleum / Testors discontinued Floquil and Polly Scale, I switched to Vallejo and was immediately sorry Ihadn't switched earlier.  Model Master Acrylics are OK, but they thicken quickly in the open bottles.  Vallejo makes several lines, Model Air are colors intended for airbrushing --MicroLux paints are this formulation, and are airbrush ready right out of the bottle.  While they can be used for briush painting, they are a little too thin for this right out of the botte.  Vallejo also makes Model Color, Panzer Aces, and Game Color, all of which are thicker and meant for brush application (although you can thin them for use in an air brush, it takes some experimenting to get it right).

Also, with about 230 colors in Model Color, and about 50 in both Game Color and Panzer Aces, it's pretty easy to find the right shade, even without mixing.

[richhotrain]

Thanks for all of the great information, guys.  

Once Testors discontinued its Floquil Polly Scale line of acrylic railroad colors, it seemed a little depressing to lose my paint of choice after 10 years of usage.

Incidentally, I use these paints with a hand brush, no air brushing for me.

Rich

[BRAKIE]

zstripe

Citadel will match many Testers colors and has colors most have never heard of. Used on Warhammer Games Workshop Vehicles & Figures.

A excellent choice for structures and some light weathering.My son showed be his hoard of Citadel  paints and suggested trying them on my train stuff.

[Run Eight]

RPM Corporation, Testors Division, Floquil Poly-Scale.

Prior to the discontinuance of the Poly-Scale Line, I tried several Model Master's browns for painting of brick structurers models.

Found the paint to be similar if not exact to Poly-Scale for hand brushing applications.

Now that RPM has added around 16 or 18 colors from the Old Poly-Scale Line, they should have also included the following:

              (1) Base Orange, either Reefer Orange and or Omaha/OSHA Safety Orange.

              (2) A Dark Green.

              (3) Dark Blue.

     A suggestion to RPM/Testors:

                                                Available for sale, a paint formula booklet, for mixing Floquil Regular and Poly-Scale

                                                Railroad paints, using existing Model Master Acrylics as the base.

                                                Example: 2 parts Reefer Yellow to 10 Parts Caboose Red, to come up

                                                              with the exact match of Acme Railroad Locomotive Orange.

 

Seem that I recall, that many years ago, Wm. K. Walters offered such a booklet for mixing, then railroads paint

colors.

[Capt. Grimek]

Rich, seeing as you're brush painting, I've jused the Model Master paints for a long time and they bruxh on beautifully with no brush strokes remaining.

If you haven't seen it, Model Railroad Hobbyist (online) had a good review (most thorough I've seen so far) on the Microlux paints. (Vallejo). I've ordered a bunch or their paints for when I start airbrushing this year.

Hope that helps, Jim

[trainhawk]

I've just used the Vallejo paints for the first time with both brush and airbrush. Very good! Even with a brush it smooths out very well. I did some touch ups and I can barely tell where they are. I think model railroaders would say allot by not buying anything Testors makes any more! IMHO

[Pukka]

There is Tru-Scale Paint which has railroad colors. Haven't use it so don't know the quality.

[hon30critter]

Rapido offers Proto Paints which I believe are made by the same company that made Polly Scale for Testors. Walthers carries them. The current selection of paint caters mostly to Canadian railroads but they just introduced several NYC colours as well as basic colours like concrete.

I haven't used them yet simply because shipping paint through the mail in the winter is a recipe for disaster. I hope to pick some up this weekend at our train show.

Dave

[RR_Mel]

Tru Color Paint is great but its solvent based.

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[doctorwayne]

richhotrain

....Once Testors discontinued its Floquil Polly Scale line of acrylic railroad colors, it seemed a little depressing to lose my paint of choice after 10 years of usage.

I agree...seems sorta like gettin' the old one-way ride out into the country.

Model Masters paint is okay, but it's certainly not Pollyscale, even if they're offering Pollyscale colours.  It doesn't seem to have the shelflife of Pollyscale, either, and it comes in a smaller bottle.  It is brushable, but I find it less satisfactory for brushing than Pollyscale. 

richhotrain

....Incidentally, I use these paints with a hand brush, no air brushing for me.

 A lot of paint sold nowadays is also "airbrush ready":  fat lot of good that is for those preferring brush painting, and really, how many of us are capable of masking figures for airbrushing? 

Besides that, the bottle of pre-thinned paint obviously now contains less actual paint.  According to Pollyscale's old website, an acceptable thinner was...wait for it....distilled water!  Ooh, a gallon of that will set you back what, a buck or two?  

I tried Badger's Modelflex a couple of times, but wouldn't use it again even if it were free.
I started in the hobby in the '50s using Floquil, and even though its formula changed several times over the years, it was a good paint up until near the end.  That's when Testors changed it for the last time, making it next to useless.   I suppose leaving that bad taste in our mouths made it less distressing when they later dropped it entirely.
I still have a fair amount of Pollyscale paint on hand, although white is in short supply.  In my opinion, it was one of the best model paints that I've ever used.
I've bought a fair amount of Scalecoat I, and will probably use it to paint the dozen-or-so steam locomotives I still have to do.  It's a very tough paint, but for me, it's main drawback is the slow drying time, even when thinned with lacquer thinner.  With Pollyscale, it's possible to airbrush all the different shades of black on a steam locomotive in one session, and then immediately do the brushwork for the small details.
It's also a very tough paint:  I'm scratchbuilding a boxcar using some unusual materials, and was planning to prime it with Floquil's Grey Primer, then paint with the finished colour in Floquil, too.  However, test swatches on the material revealed that Floquil, the primer or the finish paint, scrapes off easily, while the Pollyscale, even without primer, sticks much better.

For anyone looking for replacements for their favourite, but no-longer-made paint, I wish you luck, but would also suggest that you ignore the manufacturer's choice of name for the colour, and instead, simply shake the bottle and look at the colour.

Wayne

[zstripe]

I don't believe this Floquil color cross reference chart was out at the time of this thread,,,for I believe, I would have linked it then....anyway, here it is for those interested:

http://www.microscale.com/Floquil%20Color%20Chart.pdf

Take Care! 

Frank

[trainguy700]

I have had great success using the bager modelflex line.  Valejo model air works good to.

I miss the Polly scale lines but the model master acrillic line has some of the basic colors(depot buff, Aged concrete, grimy black, etc.)

 

Has anyone tried the mircomark paints? how well do they work?

 

Thanks

 

Trainguy700