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Paint, color and source

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  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: Franconia, NH
  • 3,130 posts
Posted by dstarr on Monday, May 4, 2020 11:42 AM

Nice looking cars.  Good paint.  The color looks fine to my eye.

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 2,572 posts
Posted by John-NYBW on Monday, May 4, 2020 11:14 AM

SeeYou190

 

 
ThumperER9VCB
I believe were what we called Reefer Orange

 

Scalcoat 2 has "Reefer Orange" in their product line.

-Kevin

 

Not sure but that might be for the PFE reefers which were a darker orange than the Santa Fe fleet. 

Here are a couple prototype photos:

http://sdrm.info/roster/freight/ref11207/pfe.jpg

http://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/wikimedia/images/wikipedia/en/7/7b/2_men_atop_PFE_reefer_at_Oxnard_CA_produce_plant--Spring_1964.jpg

Looks like the second one is getting loaded with ice. I think the first one is a mechanical reefer. 

Compare to the Santa Fe reefer:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/8187868219355555/filePointer/8187868221988570/fodoid/8187868221988566/imageType/LARGE/inlineImage/true/sfrd33055.jpg

 

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, May 4, 2020 8:34 AM

ThumperER9VCB
I believe were what we called Reefer Orange

Scalcoat 2 has "Reefer Orange" in their product line.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    November 2014
  • 17 posts
Posted by ThumperER9VCB on Monday, April 27, 2020 12:19 AM

Thank you Wayne.  Your cars are an excellent build.   The colors are more yellow than  the Athearn kits which I believe were what we called Reefer Orange when the railroad colors of Floquil and Polly-Scale were available.I have a chart somewhere of the Testor replacement but I am not able to find a source or a valid replacement color chip or number.

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Sunday, April 26, 2020 12:24 AM

This is an Intermountain car of the same type, built from a painted and lettered kit....

  It was a little too modern for my late '30s era layout, so it went to a friend, and I replaced it with two undecorated Intermountain kits.  Here's one of them, painted using PollyScale Reefer Orange, although I seem to recall adding a little white, and perhaps some yellow, too.  It's basically the same paint scheme minus the map (of which there were at least two versions) and the slogans...

Both of mine were lettered using Champ decals.

The car above, and many of the "map" cars, were actually rebuilds of earlier wooden cars, and since some of them would have still been around in the late '30s, I modified this Accurail reefer to a car quite close in appearance to the real ones....

Again, the paint was a mix of Pollyscale Reefer Orange and whatever else seemed to look okay, and the ends and roof were also an altered Pollyscale colour - I don't recall which one or the additions to it, though.  Lettering for the wooden car was done with decals from Champ, Microscale, and C&BT Shops.

Keep in mind that railroads often used specific colours, but over time, the formulae for those colours may have changed, resulting in a similar, but slightly different hues. 
Also, time and weather had an effect on colours, fading some and darkening others.  Even two cars, built one right after the other, might appear markedly different in colour a year or two later.

Wayne

  • Member since
    November 2014
  • 17 posts
Paint, color and source
Posted by ThumperER9VCB on Saturday, April 25, 2020 3:04 PM

Request color and source for paint scheme used on Athearn Reefer cars in HO.  Known as the "Map cars"

Series was Scout, Chief, Super Chief, Grand Canyon, Texas, and El Capitan.

I have the decals

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