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?
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
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!
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!
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.