I hadn't thought of calling the Old & Weary Car Shop. I did, however, think of buying more paint yesterday. I'll see what happens. Thanks, guys!
Trouble with paint chips is that they don't always translate to a model very well. New paint chips are surprisingly dark compared to what we "think" they should be. I've looked at a lot of paint chips and thought no way were they correct.
Any given color when viewed on something as large as an engine, outside in the daylight will invariably look lighter than that exact same color on something as small as our model, indoors on the layout.
That's a lot of the reasons there is so much descrepancy over what people say is right. They are matching a photo of a real engine (not to mention factoring in film types, age, etc.) to what their model looks like in THEIR environment - and there's a LOT of variations in model environments !
If you are a stickler for proto-type accuracy, match it to the paint chip 100% accurate. It will no doubt "look" too dark, but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing it "matches"....
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Try Contacting the Old & Weary Car Shop in Tappan, NY. He is affiliated with the O&W Historical Society and he produces custom O&W models. Another member has the original EMD paint chips floating around. Contact the store. He can hook you up with some leads.
I've done a few NYO&W diesels for clients, and without a doubt, that was the hardest color to pinpoint. And when I say pinpoint, that does not mean I got a definitive answer. I even went as far as joining a couple NYO&W Hisorical Groups, and even going through their archives, whenever the topic of "correct shade of gray" came up, it became not much more than professional opinions.
Everybody has a perfect memory of what they looked like .... unfortunately, I think everybody's mind was using different kinds of film as there has yet to be one color that everybody agreed with - "that gray is too blue" .... "that gray is too green" .... "too light" .... "too dark" ..... anon, anon ....
What I ended up doing was spraying a bunch of color chips using shades that "I" thought looked close based on all the pictures and sent them to my client(s). Well, guess what ? - every client picked a different shade claiming it was "perfect" !
Unfortunately, after this long response, I don't have a definitive answer for you. Rather use what looks right to you (or your father-in-law). IF you're happy with it, that's all that matters.
Uncle_Bob....Nothing I have on hand is close to the gray in the Morning Sun book. Yes, I know -- printing processes, film balances, and imperfections in the eye skew colours. Still, I want to get this right because my father-in-law likes the Old & Weary...
Why not ask him to pick an appropriate colour match? Chances are, his choice will be based on his own memories of the prototype or, if he never saw it, on those colours seen in the same books of which you speak.My own favourite prototype road is the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo, and its diesels were painted cream and maroon. On any given day, the maroon could look like (and photograph as) anything from brown to purple, and on some days, actually appeared to be maroon.
I took a photo of one which had just been repainted and I thought that they had used a boxcar brown because there was no maroon paint left on hand. (CP had recently gained total control of the line - it had previously been owned jointly by CPR and NYC.).When the film was developed and printed, the loco was indeed brown and cream. Many years later, I was scanning the negatives in order to put them on disc, and the colour correction of the scanner reproduced the image as cream and maroon.
Chances are, you'll end up having to mix the colour he selects. What he chooses will at least help you to choose the colour with which to begin,
Wayne
Does anyone know the "correct" shade of gray for NYO&W diesels? (FS numbers could be helpful, if they're known.) Nothing I have on hand is close to the gray in the Morning Sun book. Yes, I know -- printing processes, film balances, and imperfections in the eye skew colours. Still, I want to get this right because my father-in-law likes the Old & Weary. Thanks in advance.