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Hello all,After a (very) long wait, Out of the Box models shipped my pair of B-50-15 boxcars. These are pretty nice models, especially for the price, long wait notwithstanding.Now I am finding it frustrating to find paint and decals.The SP historical society recommends a Floquil paint (well, that's not going to happen) "R-74 boxcar red". Well, no more Floquil. But, also, the various equivalence charts out there do not list an R-74. They DO list an "R-64 boxcar red" - is this the same thing- which is to say, is the HS listing a misprint? In either case, does anyone have a recommendation for a water based acrylic that is a close match for the SP color? I gave up solvent based paints some years ago.Problem #2 is apparently decals. Before I got involved in this, I did check that Microscale made a decal for "SP single sheathed boxcars" but must not have take a close look. Now that I view ithttp://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=60-911&Category_Code=SPI see that (a) it is rather specifically for B-50-13 and B-50-14 cars (ie- the data and other "small print" will likely not be correct) and according to the photo, well, it will only completely letter 1 Pacific Electric car, and while it has lots of "SP", does not include "Southern Pacific" spelled out (as is shown in EVERY photo I can find of the cars), and does NOT include numbers.Now, my previous experience with Microscale is that while they usually show the HO scale decal in the N scale listings, the N scale decal is often MUCH different. IS this the case here (that is to say, does it include "Southern Pacific" lettering not shown on their catalog page which is HO)? Or is there a better decal out there for these cars?
So for color, I would add the question.... what era do you model and what condition for the car are you targeting? By the way, just checked out my new "SP Freight car painting and lettering guide" by Harley and Thompson w/ Signor. (Doesn't get more authoritative on SP colors than these three - at least on this side of the grass today.) It shows several variations for your car. A few B-50-15 for Overnight Service were painted are really cool BLACK w/ Daylight Orange Trim and Orange lettering (p 39)
Opening the ol' can of "what color paint" debate? You are brave! R-74 Boxcar Red was a Floquil paint. I have a bottle. RR74 Boxcar Red But not water. It was with the Dio-Sol solvent. There is an ebay listing for a NOS bottle as we speak.You might be confused in reading the chart? (say here https://www.microscale.com/Floquil%20Color%20Chart.pdf)Which list Tamiya's XF-64 "Red Brown" as to being a replacement for Floquil's "Boxcar red"? Hope this helps, even if I can't speak to it as a comparison.
Mike Madonna,I haven't dug through my old emails. I think I ordered mine as later versions as well, but as you say, received early wood versions. Of the 2 I received, one seems very clean, the other does have some printer "artifacts". My timeframe is 1954-56. This is fairly late for the wood sides, although one of the sites I found while searching about for details indicated that some of the cars still had wood sides at that point. I do wonder if any still had their original doors, or brakes. The cars for me are more to help me achieve a balance between wood and steel cars and offset the larger than it should be fleet of PS-1s (not SP), due mostly to the Micro-trains "standard boxcar" that was the only readily available quality choice in my early N scale years.
Wolf- I've seen your modeling. You are much more an expert than I am.You are right, I was confused reading the chart. I was reading the "64" as the Floquil number, not the Tamiya number. And thanks for the offer on custom decals, but that is more time and trouble than I want to spare on a couple of boxcars. I just wanted to be sure that I wasn't missing something obvious- and apparently this is another case where the near monopoly on decals is not serving the N scale market very well.Mike Madonna,I haven't dug through my old emails. I think I ordered mine as later versions as well, but as you say, received early wood versions. Of the 2 I received, one seems very clean, the other does have some printer "artifacts". My timeframe is 1954-56. This is fairly late for the wood sides, although one of the sites I found while searching about for details indicated that some of the cars still had wood sides at that point. I do wonder if any still had their original doors, or brakes. The cars for me are more to help me achieve a balance between wood and steel cars and offset the larger than it should be fleet of PS-1s (not SP), due mostly to the Micro-trains "standard boxcar" that was the only readily available quality choice in my early N scale years.
Peter,Your two "rebuilt" cars, are these the smooth, steel sheathed sided cars with Dreadnaught ends??? I specifically told Dan, 4 wood and 2 steel. Regardless, they should make a nice addition to the roster.
Ditto here. Would anyone post of pic?Thanks,Otto
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Topic: SP experts- I need your help with B-50-15 (Read 4346 times)
