Milwaukee Road Passenger color match

[delamaize]

Hey everyone, I'm working on a 3d printed Tap Lounge to finish out my "close enough" 1950 Olympian Hiawatha. Just curious, does anyone know a good match to the colors that Kato used on their OH cars? a vast majority of my consist is Kato rolling stock.

The power is 3 different consists, One being the Kato FP7 ABA, the 2nd being my "Little Joe-ish" Scratchbuild/kitbach, and the 3rd will be a set of AB Erie builts, as soon as I get the prints for those and get them built and painted. The orange I used on my "Little Joe-ish" build is a good match for the Kato OH cars, but the Maroon stripe was a decal. So I guess I'm mostly looking for a Maroon match.

Here is my "Little Joe-ish" with my OH consist, this shot, is just the Kato consist, no extra cars.
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[AlbertSpor]

What did you use for the orange? It does look very close.
Thanks
Albert

[Vaderta]

Curious to know what orange you used as well. Looks really good. Hope someone chimes in on stripe color.

[delamaize]

I'm still at work until tomorrow morning. I'll try to confirm for sure what it is when I get home, But I think it is PolyScale 471 Milwaukee Road Orange.

Confirmed, it is exactly what i posted above

[Sokramiketes]

Haven't found anything off the shelf, yet, but I've been backdating Kato cars to the 1948 scheme by adding a maroon letterboard.  Trucolor Milwaukee Road Maroon browned up a bit (I added D&RGW Freight Car Color) got me in a good range.  Maybe 3 parts to 1 part to start. 

[u18b]

I think the Tru Scale looks pretty close.
Not exact match to Kato, but pretty good.

For example in this shot, you can see that the Kato orange is a bit redder than the Tru-Scale.



However, the under color often matters.    I paint right on the brass (which is bright and yellow).   If you paint a grey undercoat, no doubt that will darken the orange a bit.

[InterurbanModels]

When visiting Illinois Railway Museum in May, I checked colors of their Milwaukee Road car with my samples, and found out that the (European) color shades RAL 2003 and RAL 3005 were matching very well

[peteski]

That is a good prototype color reference, but unfortunately the colors Kato uses for their models are often not the colors used by the original railroads.  They can be quite different.  So to match custom painted models to Kato factory painted models, custom colors are needed.

[Pizzaparty]

To build on what peteski said - Tru Color TTX Yellow seems to be a dead on match for the Kato excursion passenger set, but doesn't match on earlier models 

[delamaize]

Well, I managed to find a NOS Polyscale Milwaukee Maroon for Cheap. I only paid like 3 or 4 bucks for the larger bottle. So I guess that is going to be my starting point. I'm pretty happy about that because now there is no questions about compatibility between the paints.
Next step, When I actually have some time, will be to shoot some sample shots on some strips of styrene to see how things look, and to see if the black I have is compatible.

On another note, I picked up a gravity feed Double action airbrush, Just a cheap one from Hobby Lobby. This is my first Double action airbrush, and my first gravity fed brush. The ones I have used before were single stage and Siphon Feed. These sample shots will be also my opportunity to learn this airbrush before shooting on the actual Bar Car. 

[peteski]

On another note, I picked up a gravity feed Double action airbrush, Just a cheap one from Hobby Lobby. This is my first Double action airbrush, and my first gravity fed brush. The ones I have used before were single stage and Siphon Feed. These sample shots will be also my opportunity to learn this airbrush before shooting on the actual Bar Car.

Single action airbrushes are IMO ideal for painting things like loco and boxcar shells or structures.  You adjust the paint flow to where you want it and shoot it.  Double action airbrushes are ideal for weathering where instant paint flow control is important.  That is not to say that double action airbrush is not suitable for painting cars.