Lionel Paint Matching

I am not sure - as you assume - that Lionel actually scan paint samples to provide to the manufacturer. I have seen a couple of Lionel paint scheme specs provided by a dealer doing custom runs. From memory these included standard Pantone color designations. But the actual execution of these is variable - and paint matching is a little like being a brewmaster, a dash of this and a pinch of that to get to a particular result.

I also think, although I don’t know for a fact, that to produce ‘fantasy” scheme products Lionel/their suppliers must rely on computer assisted design, which will not necessarily be consistent with past products depending on what info the design system is fed to process.

And yes, I also think the colors have varied over the years and currently are lighter/have less depth than in the past. My main concern at the moment is whether the forthcoming run of GS VL steamers in Daylight livery will be close to the the Daylight schemes Lionel has most recently produced. Daylight color accuracy is a sore point for many people; I am just hoping for a match with my AC-12 cab forward. I’ve seen the latest Daylight AWT and it looks pretty close.

@Catonsville Central Railway posted:

But am I the only one who has noticed that Lionel's colors as of late have actually been consistent, just consistently too light?  From browns appearing red, to reds appearing pink, to greys appearing white, there seems to be a steady bent towards painting many items in substantially too light a shade.  For instance, the N&W J-class, the PRR E8s, the NYC E8s, the WM SD40s, the recent run of reefers, and more.  I can't recall any instances recently where the problem was that a color was too dark.

No, I agree 100% ,and lets not forget about the neon yellows and ......oranges:

( Why can't they reference previous "correctly painted" runs for paint colors?)

@Hancock52 posted:

I am not sure - as you assume - that Lionel actually scan paint samples to provide to the manufacturer. I have seen a couple of Lionel paint scheme specs provided by a dealer doing custom runs. From memory these included standard Pantone color designations. But the actual execution of these is variable - and paint matching is a little like being a brewmaster, a dash of this and a pinch of that to get to a particular result.

I also think, although I don’t know for a fact, that to produce ‘fantasy” scheme products Lionel/their suppliers must rely on computer assisted design, which will not necessarily be consistent with past products depending on what info the design system is fed to process.

And yes, I also think the colors have varied over the years and currently are lighter/have less depth than in the past. My main concern at the moment is whether the forthcoming run of GS VL steamers in Daylight livery will be close to the the Daylight schemes Lionel has most recently produced. Daylight color accuracy is a sore point for many people; I am just hoping for a match with my AC-12 cab forward. I’ve seen the latest Daylight AWT and it looks pretty close.

Interesting you mention the GS.  I have the 2016 run of the 4449 and it matches the 2005 aluminum Daylight coaches I also have acceptably well to my eye.  While I'd love to have the vision features, I've held off trading mine in for the new because of fears the paint won't match.  Will have to see it in person, first.

Will probably just stick with mine, though.  I'm totally happy with it and it has whistle steam, which the new one will not.