Who makes the most accurate UP paints?

[Anonymous]

I just spent 3 days painting a P2K SD7/9 in a fantasy UP repaint scheme. Used Badger Modelflex UP colors with my airbrush and when I finished the colors look waay off from Athearn Genesis and P2KSD60M colors. The harbor mist is too dark, and the armor yellow is too green. I am a little disappointed since this was my first endeavor after a 15 year absence from the hobby.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I just spent 3 days painting a P2K SD7/9 in a fantasy UP repaint scheme. Used Badger Modelflex UP colors with my airbrush and when I finished the colors look waay off from Athearn Genesis and P2KSD60M colors. The harbor mist is too dark, and the armor yellow is too green. I am a little disappointed since this was my first endeavor after a 15 year absence from the hobby.

Thanks

[wp8thsub]

"Used Badger Modelflex UP colors with my airbrush and when I finished the colors look waay off from Athearn Genesis and P2KSD60M colors."

I usually don't worry too much about getting perfect paint matches. I've lived close to the UP all my life, and can tell you that your modeling would be way off base if every UP diesel you had used exactly the same yellow and gray. Depending on when the units was painted, by which shop and how long they had been in service they could have widely varying colors. I intentionally use different paints for my UP diesels to achieve this look which many modelers strive to avoid.

"The harbor mist is too dark, and the armor yellow is too green."

One easy solution is to add white to the gray to lighten it. If you don't want to strip and repaint the model, too dark gray can be effectively disguised by spraying a lighter gray mixture downward over the hoods and walkways, representing fading (mask the yellow when you do this). The lighter color also helps dark exhaust weathering to show up better.

I like Floquil's Harbor Mist gray, but also use Scalecoat and Polly Scale. The latter two are somewhat darker.

As for the yellow turning green, that's a consequence of yellow paint being translucent. Black (and "lightened" black in the form of gray) works like blue when combined with yellow, creating green. (My home layout has backdrops representing California's Sierra Nevada. Not a single drop of green paint was used; all those trees are mixtures of either black and yellow or dark blue and yellow, usually with white mixed in. Your diesel may have created green with essentially the same process even if the colors didn't actually mix.)

One way to avoid yellow with a greenish cast is to spray it over white or neutral primer, and apply the gray afterward. I found Polly Scale's Armor Yellow to be more opaque than most, while Floquil's left a greenish cast if applied over gray unless I used about 4 coats. Scalecoat is somewhere in between. Polly Scale's color is a "warmer" or more orange shade of yellow, which is appropriate for some UP paint, Floquil's is more lemony, Scalecoat is again in between.

[wp8thsub]

"Used Badger Modelflex UP colors with my airbrush and when I finished the colors look waay off from Athearn Genesis and P2KSD60M colors."

I usually don't worry too much about getting perfect paint matches. I've lived close to the UP all my life, and can tell you that your modeling would be way off base if every UP diesel you had used exactly the same yellow and gray. Depending on when the units was painted, by which shop and how long they had been in service they could have widely varying colors. I intentionally use different paints for my UP diesels to achieve this look which many modelers strive to avoid.

"The harbor mist is too dark, and the armor yellow is too green."

One easy solution is to add white to the gray to lighten it. If you don't want to strip and repaint the model, too dark gray can be effectively disguised by spraying a lighter gray mixture downward over the hoods and walkways, representing fading (mask the yellow when you do this). The lighter color also helps dark exhaust weathering to show up better.

I like Floquil's Harbor Mist gray, but also use Scalecoat and Polly Scale. The latter two are somewhat darker.

As for the yellow turning green, that's a consequence of yellow paint being translucent. Black (and "lightened" black in the form of gray) works like blue when combined with yellow, creating green. (My home layout has backdrops representing California's Sierra Nevada. Not a single drop of green paint was used; all those trees are mixtures of either black and yellow or dark blue and yellow, usually with white mixed in. Your diesel may have created green with essentially the same process even if the colors didn't actually mix.)

One way to avoid yellow with a greenish cast is to spray it over white or neutral primer, and apply the gray afterward. I found Polly Scale's Armor Yellow to be more opaque than most, while Floquil's left a greenish cast if applied over gray unless I used about 4 coats. Scalecoat is somewhere in between. Polly Scale's color is a "warmer" or more orange shade of yellow, which is appropriate for some UP paint, Floquil's is more lemony, Scalecoat is again in between.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rob for the technical explanation. I will try out your suggestions and take comfort in the fact that UP's diesels have some inherent variance in hues.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rob for the technical explanation. I will try out your suggestions and take comfort in the fact that UP's diesels have some inherent variance in hues.