SP Daylight Orange Formula

Don't know how much help this would be, but in Robert J. Church's book, "Southern Pacific Daylight Locomotives", on page 392, are the color chips for the various SP Daylight colors.

Also, here are the color "numbers" for Dupont, Imron Line polyurethane industrial paint:

Orange  =  #31UH

Red       =  #35405U

Gray      =  #586U  (lettering/striping gray)

Black     =  #99UH

These are the paint colors that SP4449 has been painted with, ever since 1980 when she was repainted from the American Freedom Train, red, white, and blue, to SP Daylight colors. Naturally she has been re-painted several times, but the same Dupont colors are always used.

Maybe if there is a Dupont Automotive Paint Store near you, they could get you a small quantity of the color/colors you need, and then you could match those.

I've used Floquil "BNSF Orange" which is about as close as anything I've found- it is really vibrant and looks good--

I have always thought the Scalecoat colors were correct.  Note that Grande Gold is the same as Daylight Orange, and Warbonnet Red is the same as Daylight Red.

For Orange RGB try 231, 114, 36

for Red RGB try 182, 18, 25

Thanks everyone for the responses!  I have Church's book too and that is what I'm trying to match.

I mean't to say Red, Blue and Yellow not Green.

So far I'm testing mixtures of Scalecoat D&H Yellow and CB&Q Red.  Somewhere between 8:1 and 10:1 yellow to red is close but...  The D&H Yellow seems to have the least amount of blue but still too much.

One of the difficulties in scaling down sound and color is the distance factor.  When we look at a train going by we are frequently 100 to 200 +/- feet away from the surface of the painted surface.  This softens the effect of any finish.

What you are trying to recreate may not be so much the exact  surface color but what that surface will look like at an average viewing distance. tt

It also depends on lighting conditions.

The imitation aluminum used on CB&Q F-units would look white, gray, beige-tan, or anything inbetween depending on the light.

I recall reading an article in the long defuct Locomotive and Railway Preservation magazine.  A museum was restoring a UP sleeper, they discovered 14 different shades of UP Armour Yellow as the paint was being removed.

Rusty

Rusty, We have a tendency to think there is only one version of whatever prototype anything when in reality, especially with paint, near the end of that subject's era, compliance to  specs was not that strict.

On a local level we get a kick out of a local paint supplier advertising accureate, exact 235 year old Philadelphia house and trim colors.

We can't get exact 50 year old replacation while some of the principals are still alive.

Without doubt fellas, color theory as it is applied to a surface is a complete crap-shoot. All you can do is find the color that the community has mutually agreed is the closest memory serves. 

Do I need to explain, again?

Have a peak at this thread posted last year:

https://ogrforum.com/t...677#6498170301833677

"

I have found in illustration it is rather difficult to desaturate reds, oranges and other warm colors. Certainly red likes to turn pink despite any efforts to avoid using white the dirty ugly color as we refer to it in the arts- any artist of any professional level will tell you she or he rarely if ever has white or black on their pallets. White is naughty, very naughty and destroys any color you throw it at; unless that is your intention.. it is an effective vehicle to desaturate a color that much is certain; too much and its dead. In orange you add cad-yellows and you warm it up rather than lighten its response. Add white and you blow it all together, same with black. Crimsons and magentas are a wonderful tint- they have an almost neutral effect on the perceived color but manage to darken with just the right amount of punch.. This is why you find the crimson and magenta families in Giclee printer ink sets. glaze over with a transparent violet and your in business. Black seems like a natural to darken a color but rather it destroys the intensity instantly. Much like white removes the saturation of a color. It is interesting to note that both of the naughty colors live outside the color wheel.

While referencing the Pantone system, you may want to add that it too, must get adjusted based upon the material being painted or printed: coated or uncoated paper, plastic or metal that's primed (or not) with what, and the composition of the actual color pigment used.

Not to mention the conditions the object will usually be viewed in.

• Fascinating.  I do have an SP color chart.  It is in good shape, apparently from the 1940s, and was made with what appears to be real paint.

Fascinating.  I do have an SP color chart.  It is in good shape, apparently from the 1940s, and was made with what appears to be real paint.

now there's the solution!

True story:

Years ago, a friend was a professional model railroad painter.  He managed to get a gallon of actual Southern Railway green paint for their steam locomotives, which he used to paint lots of PFM HO SR Ps4s.  No one agreed that it was the correct color.

ChipR

As a former auto painter I will tell you exact matching paint is a fools errand.  I just wondered if someone had a mix they liked.  I like the one I came up with.