I never know which forum to put a tidbit like this into. If der webmeister deems it more appropriate elsewhere, have at it...
I asked our (LHS) RC friends (cars/trucks) whether they had heard any resolution on the demise of Pactra brand paints. They were a casualty of the recent Testors-Rustoleum merger/sale, along with the more popular (in this forum, anyway) Floquil brand.
Pactra paints have been a mainstay of the RC car/truck crowd for years. They are very tenacious to the Lexan car/truck bodies, which receive far more hobby 'abuse' than do our trains. Pactra paints tolerate flexing, without flaking, and adhere well to more exotic plastics such as Lexan (polycarbonate) and the 'slippery' crowd...a.k.a., Delrin. The latter is important to the railroad crowd, because scale injection molded handrails, which experience a lot of handling, flexing, and 'abuse', are often molded of the same and must often be painted in order to match prototypical practice. Ergo, the loss of Pactra paints was somewhat a problem for model railroaders (expecially HO/N folks).
Well, we have learned/verified that Duratrax, a large, popular supplier to the RC car/truck crowd, will be picking up the Pactra product from the Testors/Rustoleum folks. Details to follow, of course. The name may change, but the lacquer-based product will return. And that's good gnus!
In the meantime, the RC folks have been using Tamiya polycarb spray paints (they do not sell this group in smaller bottles as did Pactra).
So.....for you guys/gals who need a flexible, non-flaking paint for those O-scale handrails, et al, there is hope on the horizon.
Can't say I have any similar gnus for the Floquil (RR) brand of paints, but Testors IS releasing some general (e.g., 'Grimy Black') colors of RR interest into their Model Master enamels paint line....which has been announced in several publications.
There ya go....FWIW....always.
KD
