Chad,
Thanks for the research. I an not really trying to match for painting an existing car, as I want to have a 'fleet' standard that is basically correct.
I have noticed that early repaints seemed to use what ex-ATSF or ex-BN paint stock was on hand. I thought that maybe the ATSF 'Mineral' may have been the new standard. I was out at Midwest Railcar on a tour last week and they were doing a lot of work on ex-BN FMC 4700 grain hoppers. They bead blast both the interior and exterior of the car and then apply a new expoy liner to the inside. It was a nice clear day and I got a lot of good outdoor photos of the cars. I agree that the Scale Coat II #2012 Tuscan may be the closest(and from the paint shop forman, the same paint # match as the old BN standard). He metioned that the old ATSF 'Mineral' faded too fast(less that 3 years), and Topeka sent him some of their last ATSF Mineral over 5 years ago. So it appears that the current standard is very close to Scale Coat II Tuscan.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Jim,
I dug up my Ath Outside Braced HiCube BNSF (has disected Wedge/Swoosh logo) boxcar [76605], & it is heavy in the overall Red tones, with an oversprayed silver roof, like the RailBox Cars..
I checked my Scale Coat II Sprays (always paint the caps) & found;
#2012 (Tuscan Red) Closest, but has more of a brown tone than the ATH BNSF car, may work if the car was not against a factory one, or shot lightly over a 'red' auto primer.
#2013 (Boxcar Red) Darker in the brown tone but still a red, against my car it would be good for contrasting patches.
Didn't have other suitable samples around, & I kind of think that I don't have the correct car & color you are looking for, not so sure. This is a fairly recent Ath release with the new BNSF logo.
Sorry, I couldn't offer more, as I want to give you some good info, like you have given me in the past. Wanting to return the favors..
Guys, lets help Jim out. Thanks!
Good question Jim,
I have shot some of the Scale Coat paints & believe I have an Ath HiCube around here.I will check & see if any are close to it.
However, matching a factory paint is almost as illusive as the lottery, almost always have to tint them to get closer.
I'll check!
What is the proper color to match BNSF freight cars - I can find ATSF 'Mineral Brown' in the standard solvent based Floquil paint - what about acrylic paints? Is there something that is close to what Atlas/Athearn/Accurail uses on their cars?