Oil Tank Color

First it was grey.



Then white.



Then some grey on the white.



I am not sure what I'm doing.

The white seemed to bright.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Loco1999

 

Well, definately no expert, but most of the tanks I see like that (at least now-a-days) are white, maybe some are silver. Black or grey seems too dark to me for a container of petrochemicals.

Dullcoat, then some dirt (weathering chalks) settled on the top and maybe some very subtle streaks (from rain, etc) coming down the sides.

Looking good to me, though! I'm thinking about a large propane tank...

 

Loco 1999:

I used very dark gray for the oil tanks on the JJJ&E with some weathering ( 1950's era):


















Stay cool and run steam.....

[ May 25, 2005, 06:10 PM: Message edited by: Powersteamguy1790 ]

 

I thought the white looked really good. It just needed some chalk dust and some dry brushed streaks of water marks.

 

Actually, you'll still see them in a lot of different colors, depending on the preference of the refinery/company. In recent years (just retired from the refinery construction business a couple of years ago) I've seen storage tanks in silver/aluminum, black, white, very light grey/green, dark green (maybe Hunter Green or Forest Green), grey and I think, tan. Maybe even some others, but the memory is fading.

If you're freelancing, you can pretty well pick what you want without risk of serious criticism.

Whether or not to weather with lots of rust streaks is also a personal preference. That's the mark of not only an older tank, but one where the owner wasn't spending much on maintenance. Lots of older tanks get repainted (at least touchup sandblasting and repainting) when they start to show rust.

Regards

 

Steve is right, majority of tanks now are white and some silver.

here are lots of photos of real ones:
http://images.google.com/images?q=tank+farm&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=

Nelson

 

Thanks for the replies,
I will leave it white with a couple passes
of aluminum. I will weather it some.

Here it is and the kit I'm still working on.

Before



After




Thanks,
Loco1999

 

I don't like working with white; it seems too pristine. Some off-white, cream color, is better, I think. I like EdM's list of colors; I think I will try some of them.

Are all the tanks in one tank farm or one company the same color? Is there some variation within the same tank farm?

 

Great. Now that we have that settled, if you feel energetic and have some time to kill you might want to consider doing some more painting on the refinery itself. Disregard this if you already have that in mind and I'm just jumping the gun.

Take a look at the following two shots of a refinery module. This is not my work, and I've forgotten who did it (I'm sure it's a poster here on TrainBoard - I apologize for forgetting who, but the railimages album is just entitled album104). This really captures the look and color of a refinery in my mind.

I might paint more of the pipes and exchanger shells a silver color. Since this is a small unit with a furnace, a high percentage of the lines and heat exchangers would be insulated, and these would normally have aluminum sheathing. Structural steel, including piperacks and the furnace outside sheathing would typically be a light-medium gray.






Regards

 

Flash: Are all the tanks in one tank farm or one company the same color? Is there some variation within the same tank farm?


There is usually some variation.

For example, insulated tanks usually have aluminum sheathing (to protect the insulation). This is typically aluminum color (although I have seen anodized aluminum with color, but it's a lot more expensive and I haven't seen it used lately).

Some older insulated tanks might have a mastic protective layer instead of aluminum sheathing, this might typically be black.

Uninsulated tanks would mostly have whatever color scheme the refinery was employing. White is very common these days. I've seen the green color in refineries that were trying to project a more "ecologically friendly" image in their community.

But there could also be some uninsulated tanks that still maintained their old original color, say silver, and the refinery hadn't decided to spend precious maintenance dollars on repainting something where the original paint was still functional.

Some refineries also have a color code so that certain specialty chemicals or other liquids may have a special color to identify them.

By and large white and silver would be the two most common colors, but unless you're modeling a specific prototype, you probably have a good deal of flexibility in selecting the colors (within reason, stay away from fuschia.)

Regards

 

ED - THANKS for the kind words. The refinery module you posted is mine. As you can see, I used different colors. I also weathered everything as I built the units. First sprayed with auto red oxide primer, then the finishing color of silver or some white. After color coat dried I wet sanded, lightly, to remove some of the color and achieve the faded undercoat finish typical of old facilities.
I was employed for 33 years by a major Left Coast oil refiner who had a small capacity plant in El Paso. The plant was initially built in 1928 and I would swear that any units still standing had never received a coat of paint.
Paint cost too much money.

You are correct about some pipes being insulated and with a coat of bright aluminum wrap on them to hold the insulation. Most pipes in the ELP refinery were rust color because paint had long baked off. Fire lines are usually painted red through their complete run.

One more shot of my favorite module :

 

Great Carl, thanks for reminding me who did that excellent work. Really great work. I've posted references to those pix on other forums too.

One question, why is your RailImages album titled 'album104' instead of CarlSowell?


Regards

 

Ed - I don't know. I can't seem to find "album 104". The page I see refers to Carl Sowell Album. Maybe one of the Trainboard staff can answer our question ? ? ?

[ May 26, 2005, 04:44 PM: Message edited by: Carl Sowell ]

 

Another less serious consideration might be the color of your cars and surounding terrain. If you have dark cars you might want lighter tanks and vice versa.

 

Thanks for the info and photos.




What do you think of the idea
of gluing gravel to the base?

Thanks,
Loco1999

 

To what base?


If we're talking about the refinery, there would probably be some paved area (concrete) under the pipe rack and extending out maybe 20' outside the limits of the equipment (furnace, towers). Also a paved access road. Other than that dirt or gravel would be fine, especially around the storage tanks.

Regards

 

You guys got me thinking about these indusries that I feared modelling based on how complicated they look.

So here is my question:
Oil refineries as well as chemical plants have all kinds of piping. They are easily the coolest thing to have a model of but I have no idea how to make it look like the real thing because of all that piping. How do you determine how many lines run from one place to another?

Oh no another question... Are there some simple concepts a person can use to make their compressed version look right?

oh oh... I'm assuming that there must be tanks for different things, such as incoming raw materials and outgoing processed goods. Are there any waste products that need to be held in tanks from these places?

sorry... What kind of buildings do you find at these places?
Employee break/lunch room. Do they have changing rooms for their workers? Offices? etc.

There is a huge place just north of Denver but they have never taken too kindly to people taking pictures of their facility. Everyone I know who has tried has gotten shooed away by security even when on public roadways.

 

Geeky, create your own material and your own material processing plants.
Just an idea.

Here's a quick arial view of an idea:


[ May 26, 2005, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: Grey One ]

 

From the Sun-N-Sand 1999 layout, here is what your refinery would look like with the components sprayed silver, then shot with dullcoat, and those tall vertical components white(no weathering):