Rattle Can Pullman Green?

On the left coast we have a small chain of home improvement stores. They're called, Orchard Supply & Hardware. They have their own brands (store brands?) They have one that's fairly close, it's "Boxwood Green". It's good with a semi-gloss top coat. just my opinion of course

Thanks! "Boxwood Green" does sound darker. Unfortunately, "slightly higher west of the Rockies" is a fur piece for a run to the store.  I will keep looking, and if all else fails, go to a distant hobby shop.

Try Ace Hardware. In my case not Pullman Green but for painting K-Line headend cars [baggage and combines] that I ran to to stretch out my Lionel Southern Crescent Ltd. consists behind Ps-4 Pacifics and Ts-2 Mountain type power. Southern always promoted picturesque passenger trains but ran with as many mixed-breed headend cars as the power could handle. The headend revenue cars supported the losing passenger cars.

 

Anyway, I took the Crescent Ltd engine and and a couple of cars to the little hardware in Banner Elk[Western N.C]. They spent several hours mixing and matching, gave me some gold leaf free plus a recommendation for the best masking tape. The train and event drew a fairly large group of spectators, a couple who later visited my layout.

 

See fuzzy point and shoot camera result below--can't find a better photo made by the store. K-Line cars MTH Ps-4 #1396. Note one of a kind green cab roof specially painted for me at the factory as a gift for research I did[per Mark Hipp, Mike's brother in law].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I found a "Dark Hunter Green" sold with the "Hunter Green" at Lowes, it doesn't

look that much darker in a test spray spot on the car, but I am waiting for it to dry.  I

am also experimenting with the roof color...what shows in the prototype photo doesn't

look like "roof brown", but more likely to be a dark gray "tarpaper" color, so I am

oversprayng one with another.  With B&W prototype photos, color is kind of a crap shoot.

You guys need to know how easy it is to use a Paasche model H.  I have not done any painting since the demise of Scale Coat, but they had about six shades of coach olive, and I believe Protocraft may be starting to sell model paint.

 

Rattle cans are ok for some applications, but passenger car sides would not seem to fit their mission.  I too succomb to the ease of a rattle can, even when the job would be better with the old Binks Model 18.  But the airbrush is the way to go for good models that will be getting decalled or decorated.

 

Opinion.

Paasche model H is a great multi purpose air brush. I got mine in the "kit" which included the hose and fitting plus a couple of jars. Got the kit for $60 and the compressor with regulator and moisture trap for $160. Got a large spray booth off eBay for $180. The convenience of being able to weather stuff at home is priceless.

I have found for the last 25 years that spray paint from cans - hardware store or hobby shop Testors - are capable of paint jobs as nice as any from an airbrush, whether for passenger car sides or anything else, to be lettered or not. Others seem to agree about my work in general.

 

I've used both and decorated a lot of pieces, and haven't found the need for an airbrush very often. The last time I used one was for weathering, and I'm turning to washes, brushing and dry pigments even for that.

 

If I painted a lot of those gaudy 1st-Gen diesels an airbrush would probably get more use - odd color matching/mixing, and the like. But spray cans, especially with flat paint, equal airbrushing, at least in basic colors.

 

Atlas RS-1: spray-can red and aluminum; dry-brushed trucks; decals; spray-can Dullcote: