Car Paint Discusion (moved from Phill's Workbench)

Very true, Heather.

In a conversation I had some while ago a proponent was certain that the Met electric locos, in their London Transport days, were painted brown. They never were - always a sort of MR red/maroon, but he could not be convinced. Whether he ever built one of the locos and painted it brown is another colour and, I suppose, he could always say it was a "trick of the light".

Brian

 

Amen to that!

 

It's the same as O scale paint, but a bit lighter

 

Half the intensity, presumably.

*gets coat*

 

Twice the brightness you mean

 

Hello Warren, all,

just this morning Steve and I were talking about steam loco blue (lets not say rail blue as I think of the blue that was used after 1965). What we came to think of was that there may have been three blues used.
The first one (1948) had a sort of purple hint to it and was lined out with L.N.W.R. style lining (B.R. mixed traffic).
The second one (approx. 1949) was a "light" blue (RAL 5012?) lined out with L.N.E.R. style lining.
The third one (approx. 1949-50) was a "darker" blue (RAL 5010?) lined out with L.N.E.R. style lining.

When you look at the above spec. sheet it mentions "light" blue, was that too differentiate between the experimental purple/blue and what became the first loco blue? How many express passenger electric locos? Or did this become the blue that the first AC electric locos were painted in?
The blue that Warren has chosen, looks to me a very good choice for the third steam loco blue (looking at photos).

When you get into the "red" end of the spectrum (captain Scarlet, remember them two circles, I've got them outside my house on the road! ) that is a mine field. I've seen colour photos of ex.L.M.S. locos in "red" with "red" stock behind them, that are anything but the same colour as the locos.

I've used "red" to cover all of the names Lake, maroon, etc. etc.

OzzyO.

PS. why have they used a Stanier type cab with a 4F number? Did the bloke just like 4s?

 

Ozzy, very interesting, I wasn't aware there were three blues used, only the purple and standard. Maybe that's why the king and the A4 look different.
You may have seen this pic elsewhere but here's my effort at early dark purple blue,





And standard darker blue






Ral 5012 looks very pale almost dare I say it Man City

Cheers Warren

 

Warren I think you have both colours spot on, the purple shade does not get seen enough,
I think that the later blue had differences, maybe it was different ways the paint was mixed or how it wore down in service. I've seen pictures of a king in a much lighter shade.
It's a pity the blue didn't last longer as I do like it.

 

Steve, I remember seeing a Duchess painted in pale blue, I think it was Caledonian sky blue and looked wrong. All early colour pictures I have seen of standard blue look quite dark but this could be down to early film or weathering. There is a famous picture of Duchess of Athol ex works and she looks almost navy blue.
We could go on forever over the correct shade, if there is one, possibly Scottish works had supplies of Caledonian or blue they needed to use up, Crewe might have had some left over from the blue streamliners and so on.
I think that's the blue talked about enough now, how about a discussion on LMS, Midland Crimson lake and BR maroon but please leave me out of that one !!!!

 

Isn't scale effect used to make faux snake skin boots?

Seriously though I have never been convinced that lightening colours on models is a good idea. I always try to match the actual colours as closely as possible because models are looked at from close up as well as from a distance - if you reduce the intensity, or fade, colours they will not look right when viewed or photographed up close. The colour temperature of the lights the model is viewed under will have more effect on the apparent colour. Recent advances in LED and compact fluorescent lighting mean that it is now much easier to choose lighting to show models at their best.