Scale Coat Paint

[Bruce Archer]

Hi All!
    I cannot airbrush in my current house for a variety of reasons. So I brush paint.
    With the demise of Polly Scale I have had a hard time finding paint which I can brush paint. Modelflex does not seem to last very long in the bottle, opened of not.I recently disposed of 10 bottles, and three more look as they are going bad. So I hve a couple of questions.....

1-Does anyone know of a paint that can be hand brushed like Polly Scale?
2-Does anyone make a spray can with the later, brighter Lehigh Valley Cornell Red?

Thanks for looking!

Bruce Archer
Modeler of the  D&H and LNE

[woodone]

Oh boy, when I first saw this was hoping that there was some news about Scale Coat paints.
I do not have a reply to your question though.
Have you tried any of the craft paints?
Scale Coat was to have been sold to someone, but i have not ever heard any more about it.
Anyone have an update?

[thomasjmdavis]

I've had good results with a brush and Mission Models paints, and Vallejo (their regular line works with brush, although I also use the "ModelAire" paints are specifically for airbrush). One key is the brush. I've used "Taklon" brushes for the past several years, and been VERY happy with the results. They aren't cheap, as paint brushes go, but good brushes last for decades if well cared for.

These paints are not available in "railroad colors" but with the wide variety of available colors, you can find close matches to colors used for virtually any diesel or passenger car, and "oily black" is oily black, whether it is for trains or military models.

These are both acrylics (like Modelflex or Pollyscale)- one of the downsides is that they start drying out as soon as exposed to air- once you open the bottle, it is best to use it up within weeks or months. Keeping a bottle of thinner handy will help.  My observation is that some colors, especially earth colors, are more impacted by this than others. I just pulled out a bottle I opened several years ago, of Mission Models #12- WWII Japanese Deep Green- the color I use as Erie Dark Green. This bottle is still fine, but yesterday, I tossed out a bottle of Modelflex "grimy black" that I opened earlier this year, and it was thick mud.

[BruceStikkers]

I recently tried Mission Model paints on some military equipment for 9 MT cars from 3 sets. I was very impressed how it brushed on and was extremely smooth and even when it dried. This was my first experience with it, but I wll definitely use more in the future. They have a lot of colors but no railroad specific colors.

Bruce Stikkers
St. Joseph, IL

[Angus Shops]

Scalecoat is hard to brush. In my ‘youth’ Scalecoat was the only game in town for CP ‘Tuscan Red’, and I didn’t have an airbrush. I recall that if you had enough on the brush to get a good coat on in one pass, even a bit of a ‘flood coat’, it would dry flat if the painted surface could be left horizontal. Good for small areas only, not possible for, say, a passenger car. If you touched it again after that first pass, brush strokes were inevitable. When I got serious enough about prototype modelling that I had to paint things such as passenger cars I bought my first airbrush. It really does need “a well ventilated area”.

[Bruce Archer]

Hi All1
   My original post was not clear. That is what I get for posting with no sleep.
   I cannot airbrush in my current home, and certainly not with solvent paints. So I have to brush paint, and have gotten fairly good at it.So since I model the D&H from 4/1/76 until the dark days of Guilford I need several locomotives with "patch" paint jobs. I have a Lehigh and Hudson River C-420, two P&W RS-3s and a Vermont RS-3, the Sd-45s and I am working on a ex-Reading GP-39-2.
    But I need C-420s and GP-38-2s in Lehigh Valley "patch" paintwork. Almost all of the LV "Cornell Red" by the manufacturers is the earlier, darker "Cornell RED" I need the newer ,brighter "Cornell Red " found on the C-420s, GP-38-2s etc. Scale Coat did at one time make the newer "Cornell Red" ( I have a bottle) but Scale Coat is practically impossible to brush paint. So....
    Does anyone know what color the newer "Cornell Red" is, and does anyone produce it in a brushable formula?

Thanks!
Bruce Archer
Modeler of the D&H and LNE

[jjb62556]

You could check with TCP . They have a line of brushable paint...

[up1950s]

You could check with TCP . They have a line of brushable paint...

What is TCP please ?

[jjb62556]

Tru Color Paint

[Bruce Archer]

But what color is the newer brighter Cornell Red? Or what color can I use?

Bruce