Intermountain/Centralia 2022 passenger cars wrong fonts!

[nickelplate759]

After a 2+ year wait I just received 3 new Intermountain/Centralia passenger cars.   They are:
6-6-4 sleeper, SP Golden State  Golden Creek
4-4-2 sleeper, IC (leased from UP) Imperial Bird
4-4-2 sleeper, IC (leased from NYC) Rip Van Winkle Bridge

ALL THREE use incorrect fonts!  The most egregious is the SP car - here's a photo (still in the box):
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What the heck?  The train name is in entirely the wrong font, and the silver box on the letterboard is too tall, so this isn't readily fixable with decals.  Weirdly, the car name is in the correct font - which is the same font that should be on the letterboard.   I'm not even sure what font they used, but it's not even close to anything that was on the Golden State.

It's not like they didn't previously release a good dozen + cars with the correct font, so I can only assume no one is doing QA any more.

The Two IC cars are equally strange.
Imperial Bird uses the UP font for the letterboard, and for the "Union Pacific" lettering at the car ends, but the IC font for the car name.    I have pictures of it two ways - all UP font, or all IC font.  Not a mix.  But it's close, so I can forgive this screw up.

Rip Van Winkle Bridge uses the UP(!) font for the letterboard and NYC lettering at the car ends, but the IC font for the car name. It should be all IC font.   UP font on an NYC car? That's just blatantly sloppy.

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I'm not sure whom to complain to - I don't want to make it my hobby shop's problem.  Do I complain to Intermountain or Centralia?  $59.00/car is far too much for me to pay for this kind of sloppiness.

I'm quite disappointed 

<edit>  I posted this lower down, but am adding it here as well.  I notified Intermountain of the problem and will update this with a summary of their response when I get it. </edit>

[CBQ Fan]

I bought a diner in the SP Overland and the colors look very off to me and I can’t find any photos with colors anywhere close. The car also has an odd wobble that is very noticeable. Years ago their NP butter knife and SP&S schemes were so bad I swore I was done with them. The pics I have seen of the IC scheme looks way off.

[thomasjmdavis]

I'm not sure whom to complain to - I don't want to make it my hobby shop's problem.  Do I complain to Intermountain or Centralia?  $59.00/car is far too much for me to pay for this kind of sloppiness.

I'm quite disappointed 

The font on the SP car is definitely not what is shown in the Intermountain advertising. I'd either complain to Intermountain and cc Centralia (if they still maintain a separate address) or vice-versa.
https://intermountain-railway.com/distrib/ccs/html/ccs6565.htm

I bought a diner in the SP Overland and the colors look very off to me and I can’t find any photos with colors anywhere close. The car also has an odd wobble that is very noticeable. Years ago their NP butter knife and SP&S schemes were so bad I swore I was done with them. The pics I have seen of the IC scheme looks way off.

Although I don't own any Centralia SP Overland cars, the ones I've seen, along with my ATSF 2-tone gray car, lead me to think that Centralia uses grays that are generally darker than those used by other model manufacturers.  I don't know if this is what you are seeing, or if you are seeing a tint toward green or red.  My own thinking on this is that they might well be using paint chips or Dulux numbers, but that 800 square feet of gray paint under sunlight reads as much lighter than 5 square inches of the same paint under indoor lighting.  However, whether it is the actual paint color or not, on my ATSF cars, the Centralia car is darker than the Kato model of the same 6-6-4 plan 4099 in the same paint scheme.

[CBQ Fan]

The font on the SP car is definitely not what is shown in the Intermountain advertising. I'd either complain to Intermountain and cc Centralia (if they still maintain a separate address) or vice-versa.
https://intermountain-railway.com/distrib/ccs/html/ccs6565.htm
Although I don't own any Centralia SP Overland cars, the ones I've seen, along with my ATSF 2-tone gray car, lead me to think that Centralia uses grays that are generally darker than those used by other model manufacturers.  I don't know if this is what you are seeing, or if you are seeing a tint toward green or red.  My own thinking on this is that they might well be using paint chips or Dulux numbers, but that 800 square feet of gray paint under sunlight reads as much lighter than 5 square inches of the same paint under indoor lighting.  However, whether it is the actual paint color or not, on my ATSF cars, the Centralia car is darker than the Kato model of the same 6-6-4 plan 4099 in the same paint scheme.

Mine seems way to light of a gray, very washed out.

[nickelplate759]

The font on the SP car is definitely not what is shown in the Intermountain advertising. I'd either complain to Intermountain and cc Centralia (if they still maintain a separate address) or vice-versa.
https://intermountain-railway.com/distrib/ccs/html/ccs6565.htm
...

Yeah,  I just sent an e-mail to Intermountain about this, complete with photos.  I'll summarize whatever I get for a reply.

[jargonlet]

My el 6-6-4 sleeper and intermountain el f3 are way off. I’m a little gunshy to their stuff now.

[thomasjmdavis]

Mine seems way to light of a gray, very washed out.

Another sign that I should not depend on my memory on these things...

[nkalanaga]

Their GN Big Sky Blue has always looked more like Conrail Blue, way too dark, and the wrong hue.  The Empire Builder cars don't look bad, but I won't even consider their BSB anymore.  Getting them apart isn't hard, and I could repaint just the blue, but their window material also leaves a lot to be desired.  I'm not sure it could be reused!

All of their cars that I have also have old-style MT trucks, with 33 inch wheels.  Wrong size, and they're not designed to accept 36 inch.

"N Scale's Finest Passenger Equipment" is clearly NOT an accurate description.

[CBQ Fan]

I have gone to Railsmith for all things GN, NP, SPS, IC and even SP now. Their Rock Island is pretty cool too.

[nickelplate759]

I have gone to Railsmith for all things GN, NP, SPS, IC and even SP now. Their Rock Island is pretty cool too.

Me too - but I ordered these cars literally years ago.   I've ordered a bunch of Railsmith stuff recently, and it's all great.
I also happily paint my own cars when I can find the decals.

[CBQ Fan]

Me too - but I ordered these cars literally years ago.   I've ordered a bunch of Railsmith stuff recently, and it's all great.
I also happily paint my own cars when I can find the decals.

This is a great reason why I have stopped preordering items. Lead times of 2-3 plus years is ridiculous. Maybe I just don’t have the attention span for it anymore. There is very little in the way of I have to have it.  Plus I track things of interest so I can order items as they arrive.  Railsmith is the only preorders I make.

[ljudice]

IMRC has had weird paint issues with other recent releases - like the autoracks - which have the wrong shade of TTX yellow.

And on the original runs many moons ago they (or RC) got it right.

[thomasjmdavis]

Me too - but I ordered these cars literally years ago.   I've ordered a bunch of Railsmith stuff recently, and it's all great.
I also happily paint my own cars when I can find the decals.

Lowell has an eye for color- or maybe it's just that I agree with him.  I have my first car on order with him, but everything I've seen looks spot on to me.

I also paint a lot of my own stuff. I have more Des Plaines kits that I painted myself than I have Centralia cars RTR. And the kits came with 36" wheels (albeit plastic).

[ncbqguy]

Not commenting on the InterMountain cars because I haven’t referenced what they were supposed to look like…
But, one thing that can happen…..if a font is left on artwork that the factory doesn’t have when they open the file it will open with something it does have access to.
I always save in CorelDraw, or Illustrator if that is what the customer wants, and also save to a pdf file.   Saving to pdf will warn if any fonts are not converted to vector art rather than text.  Even one stray period or hyphen will trigger a warning. 
This avoids problems.
Charlie Vlk

[nkalanaga]

I'm also ordering cars from Railsmith, and agree that his colors are nice, although his Big Sky Blue isn't exactly what I'd like.  Big Sky Blue is hard to match anyway, and I don't think I've seen two photos that looked the same.  Even Scalecoat's paint is too dark, which was a disappointment, as the color they showed online was nice.  But the IM/Centralia colors are simply horrible, and Wheels of Time didn't do any better on their recent GN flatcars. 

The best match to what I remember, and the color charts from the GN RR Historical Society, was from ConCor 50+ years ago.  Of course, they could go TO the GN, or early BN, and get the real thing!