Custom Paint to match MTH Engine

Find a well stocked hobby shop, take the shell in and compare the model to all the colors that look close.

Alternatively, you might be able to have an auto body supply shop colormatch it and mix something up.

Even prototype colors vary in the wild due to sun bleaching and dust.

I've found that MTH sometimes uses a different color -- i.e., the blue on a Santa Fe diesel might be the blue CSX uses. Taking the shell to a well-stocked hobby shop is probably the best approach. I'd only use an official railroad color for something undecorated or for a full re-paint. As for freight cars, use the "official" color for the paint as it would represent a new paint job, then maybe hit it with some dust for slight weathering.

Remember when LCT made their last run of the standard gauge Blue Comet?...and the passenger cars arrived with some serious paint chipping along the top edges of the car sides where the roof contacts?  I believe MTH stepped up for the few that insisted they do so...but never heard how that all turned out.

Mine wasn't so bad as to go through the hassle of re-shipping, waiting, wondering, and ...being unhappy a second time?????

So I took a car to the local Pittsburgh Paint outlet.  When I was trying to match a particular stain on a cabinet project, they hit a pint's worth of mix spot on!...in less than a day!  The guy took a look at the car, said to come back in a couple hours.  (I was working at the LHS across the road at the time).

When I went back he had prepared a pint of blue brew that, though not quite spot on, was 'good enough' (until paint dries...thoroughly...you never really know what the final color will be...IMHO.  (By then I had been given the alias 'Lucas Gudinov' by the LHS crew for my soft standards in modeling and finishing!)

Big Box places...like HD...have a DIY color-analyzer-matcher gizmo that will come pretty close on home improvement items.  But you'll need to buy a quart or gallon of paint for them to create a sample.  Even then, how fussy are you?

Automotive paint stores?...  Never tried, but I expect the bigger, well-established, reputable ones would be best capable of matching colors.

Color matching...to either something existing, like of a paint brand that's no longer made!... or your senile, cataract-troubled memory of yore, about as accurate as recalling the date of your wife's birthday or your anniversary!...is one of those never ending model railroading conundrums.   You know, the hobby's PTSD...Paint Traumatic Stress Disorder!

Good Luck.

KD

Thanks for the responses, guys.  I had called a hobby shop that has railroad paint colors and they had nothing in this road.  I called Sherwin Williams and they said they had no paint for this purpose -- model trains or plastic cars -- so they could not help me. 

I have had custom paint mixed for non-hobby projects and my real work projects at HD and have had a lot of success.  Almost perfect matches.  Not sure what paint to use for trains versus house projects.  But their machine is pretty sophisticated to match stuff.  So I may try that 2nd.

First, I'm going to take my engine into my LHS and see if I can get some close matches off the shelf.

Mike

It is not an exact science. And like others said, don’t assume just because the color says it is, that it matches. The color on the bottom is TruColor YN3 Yellow, which is too brown. But ART reefer yellow turned out to be a pretty good ringer.   Same went for the blue. The right color turned out to be Amtrak Phase V blue, not CSX blue.

A body shop supply store should be able to mix you up a spray can of paint for plastic. If you can find one, you may have some success.  

@Boilermaker1 posted:

It is not an exact science. And like others said, don’t assume just because the color says it is, that it matches. The color on the bottom is TruColor YN3 Yellow, which is too brown. But ART reefer yellow turned out to be a pretty good ringer.   Same went for the blue. The right color turned out to be Amtrak Phase V blue, not CSX blue.

A body shop supply store should be able to mix you up a spray can of paint for plastic. If you can find one, you may have some success.  

Boilermaker1,

Great points.  Thank you.  A friend of mine is a body shop guy and years ago he told me that is a great place to go for custom paint for plastics when I was looking for paint to fix an old Miller rotating beer sign.  I never actually pursued it, but now I think I will at least check it out.  Thanks for this. That CSX photo looks like you nailed it to me -- so matching up is a great option, too -- thanks for sharing that.

Mike