Many of you who have been on here for a few years know I enjoy detailing and painting various diesel locomotives and at one point in my life it was also a full time job. In years past I was happy with Polly Scale paint in particular however in the past year or so I have seen a general lack of QC on this line of paint produced by Testors. Everything from color drift (Colors either do not match prototype color chips or colors of the same do not match) to the spray ability of the paint has been sub par. Without going into further details, the lack and availibility of colors coupled with frustration with the product had me searching for something better. After reading modelers notes in the B&M Historical Societies newsletter (Yet another reason to join a Historical Society) I learned of Tru-Color paint. Since they had B&M colors along with Guilford gray and orange plus Pan Am blue, I was more than intrigued. I ordered some Tru-Color from my not so local hobby shop and this past weekend painted a pair of projects to see how this new to me paint was. Here is my results in both text and pictures: First off, there are over 200 colors in the line already, much more than from any other brand of paint. The list is still growing as well. All the popular colors from the big railroads are there as well as some of the colors you'll never see anywhere else such as Montana Rail Link blue to C&EI orange. No more mixing for me. In the old days, I had a reference manual that listed most (not all) of the rail road colors used from around the 1940's to the 1990's that would tell me what colors to mix with and how much to get various colors. Anyone who asked me back in the mid 2000's here at Trainboard remembers. Colors are great but how does it spray? Below is the result of spraying a primary (B&M blue) and masking to add a secondary (black) to an Atlas N scale GP7. Spraying the paint is a simple process. Anyone who has been on Trainboard long enough knows and remembers my old instructions to successfully spray PS: Stir, don't shake 3 parts paint to 1 part thinner #3 needle or wide flow nozzle if using an Aztek 16 PSI no more than 18. Here are the instructions for Tru-Color: Shake bottle pour into color cup (I used a #3 needle because it was in my airbrush) 20-25 PSI It dries just as fast as an acrylic, cleans up easily with an acetone (I get mine at a hardware store) and the surface is ready for masking and decals within about 30 minutes. It is a lacquer base so yes it is a solvent and I highly suggest you spray this in a ventilated spray booth. That said Acrylic has its own dangers so the solvent aspect ways out the acrylic advantage in opinion. The pigment is fine and covers a lot better than other brands I have used, no more worry when I paint white and yellow. It takes to decals right away as seen below and doesn't require you to add a gloss medium either to the paint or spray on after color coats. At 20 PSI, I never had any issues with the paint flow or spitting and look forward in using the paint for weathering as well as some weathered old locomotives I plan to model in the next year. Overall, I'm very impressed with this paint. If any of you remember the old Accupaint, then you will love this as it is a reformulated version of said paint. The producers of this paint are model railroaders who have worked in the paint industry for many years and know what to look for in color match and quality. You can read more about them at www.trucolorpaint.com No I do not work for them and I am not associated with them in any way other than using their product. As a modeler who enjoys custom painting, when I see something come along that makes the process easier, I want to pass it along. If you have any questions, please ask. This process of painting has become a lot easier, cleaner, and faster for me and now I can really get projects in the shop moving.
Thanks, Jim. Very interesting, as I prefer solvent based paints. I am bookmarking this topic right now.
I'm also using using Tru-Color for the first time on my current project. I found that with my Badger 200 airbrush, I had to go to 30 PSI. Even then, it took a while to get decent paint flow. I agree that it dries as fast as acrylics and gives a nice, smooth finish. The range of colors is impressive. I wish there were some way to see samples of their many freight car reds and browns.
I like the results I see, the color chart selection, and the fact as you say Jim whites and yellows go on even. Too bad there aren't any distributers on the left coast. Something I'll look into for the next project. Brian
its funny to see you write 'GUILFORD GRAY" LOL i lived next to the pan am/guilford/boston& maine ,mainline for 30+years before moving to florida, my son love to go to waterville & hit the roundhouse & take pics & check out whats on the deadlind
Black z28, I would use my other descriptions of Guilford but they are not family friendly lol. At least my last railfan experience with Pan Am was a nice one including the great crew.
