Paint matching chart?

[Rumpelhardt]

Several years ago I came across a paint matching chart using available hobby paints for pre painted rtr HO engines and rolling stock in verious road names by verious manufactures. Has there been something simular done recently? 

[kasskaboose]

While not an exact copy, I found a discussion of the topic earlier.  What I think makes the most sense is take the paint to HD/lowes to get a match. You can read earlier discussions about it here:

https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/24747.aspx

This is even more detail using DuPont paint:

https://bigeprod.com/literature/rrPres/paintRef.pdf

[mobilman44]

Years ago I made my own - concentrating only on the available "boxcar" reds and browns.  I took a ruler size piece of white styrene, and painted (two coats) a 1x1/2" section using each of the different "boxcar" paints I had. 

I numbered each paint sample, and made a "code sheet" that identified the particular mfg (i.e. Testors, Floquill, Model Masters, etc.) and the name of the paint - and any other pertinent information.

Over the years this strip of styrene proved invaluable in finding the right paint to touch up a particular car or paint a new car or structure.

 

[doctorwayne]

Rumpelhardt

Several years ago I came across a paint matching chart using available hobby paints for pre painted rtr HO engines and rolling stock in verious road names by verious manufactures.

Not a bad idea, I guess, but it's usually not all that difficult to create colours to match stuff that's been painted, either by the company producing cars and/or locomotives, or by yourself.
In many real-world examples, a company might provide paint for an order of, f'rinstance,  2,000 boxcars, but two years later, when the same company makes another 2,500 identical boxcars, the paint company has modified the colour...perhaps because the original ingredients were altered or discontinued, so the second batch of paint isn't quite the same as the first batch...and, of course, the first 2,000 cars have already been in service for two years, now somewhat dirtier, and perhaps faded by weather conditions, too.

In the past, freight cars had to be re-weighed at certain intervals, and not all of the re-weighing was done by the owner (railroads shared these responsibilities and the costs, too).

This Pennsy boxcar, an X-29...

... was re-weighed by the C&O...indicated by the initials PU.

Whoever painted-over the previous re-weighing data used a paint similar to that of the original paint job, but, by the looks of it, it's not exactly the same.

Nobody would be worried about that discrepancy, as long as the new data was legible.
The same paint might also be used when a car gets a slight sideswipe by another car, and in some cases, somebody slaps some of the same paint onto it, just to prevent premature rusting.

If you want to give a boxcar some extra character, change-out one of the doors, (perhaps it's been damaged) and replace it with a different type and painted a somewhat different colour, too.

You can do the same on most freight cars...replaced doors or re-riveted panels on a hopper or gondola.

I have at least 6 or 7 bottles of different boxcar red and boxcar brown, but have probably mixed twice that many colours of boxcar red and/or brown, most, if not all, matching none of the others.

Wayne