Soo Line paint color help?

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm currently putting together an HO scale fleet to model a ficticious ex-Milwaukee Road branch now operated by the Soo/Canadian Pacific in western Wisconsin. I plan on acquiring a Proto 2000 GP-9 and painting it in the Soo's candy apple red scheme of the early 90's. However, I haven't been able to find out which paints closely match the candy-apple red. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Saw one a guy had painted by using Scalecoat II CP Rail Bright Red over a "primer" undercoat of silver - looked pretty good, but having never seen the prototype close up, I couldn't say how realistic it was - hope that helps?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info.! I think I'll do some experimenting with that technique and see what I come up with. Any other sugestions would be appreciated as well.

[DanRaitz]

There have been three articles that I know of concerning SOO's candy apple red scheme. The first was in the April 1990 Model Railroader (pg132), the second was in the February 1991 Railroad Model Craftsman (pg74) and the third was in the January 1996 Mainline Modeler (pg 75).
The first article used Scalecoat II "Bright Caboose Red" over a undercoat of Scalecoat "Silver". The second used a mixture of Testors "Red" & "Dark Red" over a "Primer Gray". The third used Floquil "Caboose Red" but stated that Floquil also has a "SOO Red", did not say what the primer was.
I would suggest that you do some test shots of the colors that you are thinking of using and see which one comes closest.

[jrbarney]

BonoU2,
Just a thought, but have you checked the paints for model cars at your LHS ? Seems to me that I recall seeing some candy apple red cars during my youth.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for the input. Bob, I had considered the model car paints too but I figured I'd better get some feedback just in case there is/was an exact match out there that I wasn't aware of. [:)] I hope to get some pics up as soon as possible.. all this depending on whether I can find a Proto Geep at a reasonable price. If anyone knows of any currents sales, let me know! Thanks again!