Testors moved a few colors over to their Model Master line of paints. Just the basic RR colors it appears. Nothing railroad specific. I have some True Color paints Harbor Mist to try but I've heard of others being extremely satisfied with the results from this brand. There's always Badger's Model Flex paints as well. I've air brushed them and am happy with the results.
I'm going to paint an SD40-2 in the SPSF Kodachrome scheme with True Color paints sometime this month. I've heard good things too about this paint, my only concern is using acetone as I prefer acrylics but I'll give it a try. Speaking of Badger I have some weathered black Accu Flex paint has been sitting out in my garage from the mid 1990's. It's went through hot and freezing cold for all these years. I brought it in the house, stirred it up and shot it through my airbrush with perfect results. It's still like new paint. wow!
The Model Master acrylic line is IMO as good as Polly Scale was, except there is no railroad color line. But the selection is still very large, and includes gloss and flat colors. MM is some different formulation (at least, it doesn't have that PS chocolate-y odor) and paints seem to be thicker out of the bottle vs. PS. It's on us to figure out specific railroad colors. Suggest that you make up and keep drift cards of out-of-bottle colors and your mixes with proportions noted.
According to the color chart for Model Master acrylics, there are 16 (well, at least names) of the old Polyscale colors that made it. And I quote: refer white, aged white, aged concrete, concrete, earth, depot buff, refer yellow, caboose red, boxcar red, oxide red, signal green, roof brown, railroad tie brown, refer gray, grimy black, and engine black. How close these are to the old Polyscale I've no idea. I stocked up on my favorite Polyscale colors when notification of the impending doom hit the web. I know Vallejo just came out with an airbrushable line of their paints. We use them here for our table top gaming figures. And of course I use them when needed for the railroad or model cars. I didn't mention them prior and should have. Some of their colors show up on this nice chart the good folks from Microscale have on their site. It's pretty useful. https://www.microscale.com/Floquil Color Chart.pdf
I switched to TruColor in my shop about four years ago when Polly Scale was still in production. I found the consistency of quality in both color and performance to be much better than Poly Scale and even the solvent base Floquil. Testors QC has suffered considerable since 2005. The acetone concern is valid but if care is taken, no worse than the Ill effects of acrylic, meaning, don't breath in that acrylic after spray.......
My experience with the TruColor line has not been satisfactory in comparison to Polly Scale paints. I suspect the solvent is the source of the problem I have experienced in applying with a foam brush or microbrush. The TruColor paint second coat seems to dissolve the first coat; I never had the experience with the Polly Scale.
I just got several bottles of TruColor brushable paint. So far, I am not impressed, although the color is good. I am fond of Testors enamels, so I may not be the best judge here. I might get the airbrush colors and give them a try, the brushable paint I got was quite thick and seemed to dry quickly on the brush, gumming up the works. I will keep working with these to see if things get better. Probably just that I don't want to relearn all the tricks I had for enamel paint. Trey
I switched to Vallejo paint and like it very much. Good coverage and the eye dropper bottle has been a big plus for me. No more stuck on bottle caps.
I've found their metallics need shaken up a bit more than other brands. They have a line of washes out as well now that we are wanting to try.
I initially purchase some Vallejo paints to use on a set of Civil War Union soldier figures and was very pleased with them. They are a bit pricey for painting a structure especially the walls; I transferred some to a container so I could apply with at 1" foam brush. They are great for window trim and similar detail and can be applied with micro brushes.
I stopped "shaking" paints a few years ago, and instead "stir" them with a Badger battery powered paint stirrer. This has greatly increased the coverage of all of my paints, eliminated "globbing" and seems to be making the paints last longer in the bottle no matter what the brand. Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
Yes I love them for doing detail work. But since I am modeling N scale I do use them on my smaller structures as well. Especially the windows and trim. Excellent for figures and all of the itty bitty detail parts. Only one coat needed. I find that if I buy them in sets of 8 (the panzer ace series) it works out to about $3 a bottle. I do love the polyurethane surface primers too with the air brush. I keep a bottle of light grey and dark gray on hand at all times.
The scalecoat line has been bought and is available from I think musket miniatures. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
I switched to using Vallejo, AK Interactive, AMMO of Mig and Tamiya a while back. Modelflex is also still around with a decent color line up for railroad colors. One thing I've done is buy some empty bottles from Vallejo and put in Polly Scale with some thinner in them to make it easier to put paint in my airbrush.
http://www.minutemanscalemodels.com/ Minuteman Scale Models. Here's the link to their website. Anymore between model cars, table top gaming, and the model railroad, I've paint from numerous manufacturers. The best find for me so far is Citadel's chaos black in the spray can. I've been using it for PC, MGA, NS, etc and I've gotten many compliments and inquiries as to the paint and who makes it. It's a bit pricey, but I feel it's worth it and makes painting a bit easier.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000P...+paint+set&dpPl=1&dpID=41KqG1eQzsL&ref=plSrch Not sure this link will work... But worth the look if it does. Vallejo Steam Engine Weathering Set. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
I purchased individual colors from a shop that specializes in military figures and such. I just got colors for Civil War Union Army soliders and horses.