Moose knows that the Great Northern 4-8-4 S-2's boiler jackets & cylinders were painted an "olive green", just don't know the best match for a airbrush-able acrylic paint. If you know a good match olive green paint, then could ya help a moose out?
the "Glacier Green" paint was an unofficial paint scheme and was different from shop to shop, find something that is close to what you want
Thank you for the reply and suggestion. Moose would be surprised if no one here hadn't had the same question and were able to find a more definitive answer, hence asking the question. Moose surfed the web and looked through the minimal references that Moose has on hoof, but could not find anything regarding good color choice. Perhaps Moose should find a few paints that look like possible matches and ask for a warm fuzzy on which paint others here think looks reasonably close -- there's a color photo that keeps popping up on the interweb of a newly painted S-1 that Moose is using for reference, but no have link on hoof [on cellphone]... Moose's research seems to indicate that "Glacier Green" was a pale green color that GN applied to freight cars and "Glacier Park" was a GN color scheme that included "olive green" applied to the boiler jacket & cylinders. There appears to be a lot of comments on the interweb about the green paint scheme being unofficial and the greens varying from one locomotive to the next. However, it seems that all GN S class locomotives but one were delivered with a green color scheme, and it might be reasonable to expect colors to vary slightly from one locomotive to the next back 90 years ago.
one was delivered in a light gray, the greens seem to vary, and the cab roof was a mineral red, so an automotive primer is a good match
it's been a dead night at work, and the Moose has sent me down the proverbial rabbit hole... This is what The Rio Grande used, and from what I have discovered, is about as close to Baldwin Locomotive Green,
@bremner Thank you for the additional ideas. Sorry about the rabbit hole -- Moose was there too! There are sooo many different "greens" and Moose-eyes not sure which brand(s) & product number(s) would be a reasonable match. Below is a color photograph of an S-1 supposedly fresh out of the paint shop with an olive green, albeit 20+ years after it was built. From http://www.gngoat.org/gn2555.jpg
Moose enlisted Mrs Moose's keen eyes on trying to find "green" model paints that might be a good match. These were the ones that appeared to be closest. Others seemed too green or blue or not grey enough. Your thoughts fine folks of the forum? Tamiya 81305 XF5 Flat Green and Modelflex Badger 16436 Marine Color Tug Light Green: A GN S-2 brass model that appears to be good reference /
On another forum, Scalecoat Great Northern Green was mentioned as being correct for the boiler jacket color. Scalecoat might be out of business now. Their website is down and people have said they are MIA from local train shows. You can still find stores that have it in stock though. Walthers has some, and you can search around online for it. Maybe a store near you still has some.
@Mr. Trainiac Thank you for the suggestions. Moose appreciates that you are trying to help. Moose is specifically looking for acrylics. The Minuteman Scalecoat paints are all enamels. Their Scalecoat GN Green appears to be a better match for Pullman Green, but is too dark and less grey than what appears on the few color references photos Moose has found. Moose stopped doing business with Minuteman a year or two ago. Moose tried to engage Minuteman regarding the degraded quality of their spray paint and safety concerns about their bulging spray cans. They wouldn't respond. If they have gone out of business, then that is unfortunate but perhaps unsurprising...
This was called the "Glacier Park" scheme. As it was not an official scheme each RR shop had their own version of green. So, use whatever green looks best to you. As a side note: Andy Sperandeo used Scalecoat "GN Green" for his GN Mikado in the Dec. 1984 issue of Model Railroader. Of the two colors shown in your post, I would go with the Modelflex/Badger green. Dan
Moose, Well I'll be painting my GN H4 in the future and had been looking at colors as well. I think I'll be using Tru-Color paints. They have a nice GN selection but are solvent based. Good luck with your search. Scott
@CNE1899 Thank you, good sir! Moose leaning towards Tamiya XF-26 Deep Green, probably followed by a clear semi-gloss like X-35 SG Clear.
Moose done ordered a bunch of scratching and bashing materials for da locomotive projects. Order including a Tamiya XF-26 Deep Green; the consensus seems to be that this color should be a good match for Great Northern locomotive boilers. Ordered other paints, because, ya'know, one never has enough paint! Thank you all for trying to help a moose out! And now, to wait for the post human to arrive with the package...
Mssr. Moose may I suggest you check out Reaper Miniature's line of acrylic paints. These are superb paints, with a huge selection of colors. And they airbrush beautifully. https://www.reapermini.com/
Ok ,,,,,,,,, I normally only communicate with kangaroos but ............... lets give this a try. I found this great video ...... Could you get a loan of a loco or something with the colour you want to paint the loco. Follow the video instructions and if you can each time you add some paint weigh the mixture and write down how much of what paint you added. This way you can mix some more matching paint for more locos later on. I use cheap digital scale to accurately weigh the paint. I use some really old wagons to test the paint on. I've tried spraying test paint onto flat surfaces but it looks totally different once sprayed onto a loco. Another thing to remember is spray a clear over the finished which can change the tone of the colour so always mix and test on something non-important.
