Niles Project ~ Yellow and Brown Paint for #107

Trying a 3rd mix of paints to replicate SDERy Yellow.

Floquils "CSX New Image Gold" looks pretty good on #105, but I want to saturated it a little more and push it more towards yellow. The "Roof Brown" used for the trim is just too dark.

After experimenting a bit (above), I settled on a 50-50 mix of "Railbox Yellow" and "CSX New Image Gold" for the yellow, and a 50-50 mix of "Southern Freight Car Brown" and "Roof Brown" for the Mahogany trim color (outlined above).

Ooh! Not bad. Not bad at all. Compare to this poorly lit photo of old actual SDERy yellow. After letting this dry for a day, I'll hand paint the trim with the Mahogany brown mix.

After letting the trim paint dry for a day, its time to paint the roof. Some precision masking is required for the clerestory windows. I laid out a length of masking tape onto a piece of glass a tad longer than the length of the windows. After carefully measuring the width and length as well as where the curves start, I cut the mask to size with a sharp Xacto knife.

The mask is carefully worked into place. Then the rest of the car is masked off. This time I'll paint the roof Floquil "Mud". Its a little warmer than "Earth".

Well... my digital camera seems to be "rounding off". The yellows almost look to be the same here. But the differences are more discernible in person. But not that much more. On the other hand, the difference between "Earth" on #105 (right) and "Mud" on #107 (center) is more discernible in the photo than they are in person! As for the yellows, I'm so close. I'm probably splitting hairs at this point. Yes sir. Splitting hairs!

Dandy

I Have Seen the Golden Yellow!

I have finally seen San Diego Electric Railway "Mission Yellow" in person!

Over the Fathers Day weekend, the Southern California Traction Club (of which I am a member) set up the modular layout at the Orange Empire Railway Museum.
I have always known that an old San Diego car that was rebuilt into a cabin at some point in its history is stored there. I saw it years ago. Its covered in shingles and is painted a blue/gray color. Not much to see really.

But a fellow I met at the museum there mentioned that the car is an old Exposition car. That really piqued my interest so I made my way over to the car barn that its stored in to take a second look at it.

In a dark back corner of the carbarn there it stands. Still covered in blue/gray shingles, covered in dust, patiently waiting for someone to take an interest in it. I looked closer. I could make out the curved top of the windows. The rounded front end. Its definitely a SDERy Class 2 Pay-As-You-Enter car.

I also noticed that some of its original yellow paint was showing through here and there. But its faded and grimy. I wondered what the chances were of finding the yellow in its original saturated condition. Somewhere where it would have been out of the UV rays of the sun. Somewhere where it would have been out of the rain. Somewhere where it wouldn't get dirty or dusty. Somewhere like... the stairwell!!! Yes! Up underneath a stair! I scraped away some of the house paint (and spider webs) and sure enough, nice, relatively saturated, relatively clean, golden yellow. I ran back and grabbed my Birney car and, with much difficulty, snapped this picture:

Well... I'm within the ballpark. Hard to tell. Still have to make some educated guesses about what that paint looked like when it was shiny. Was it brighter? Or does my car need to be darker? The digital camera is also changing the color. Next time I'm at the OERM, I'm going to have to bring a color matching chart. I am determined to nail this color. Yes sir! I'm determined to nail SDERy Yellow!!!

Dandy