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Re: Q "gray" backs

To: "BRHS list" <BRHSlist@egroups.com>
Subject: Re: Q "gray" backs
From: "John A. Swearingen" <jas@s...>
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 09:47:10 -0600
Mindful of the subjectiveness of color appreciation and the inherent limitation 
of color continually changing under varying light conditions, I will, 
nevertheless, share my experience regarding painting C.B.&Q. "gray backs". I 
fully realize that my experience may be of very limited value because it is 
nearly 40 years old, but I will share it, nevertheless, for whatever value 
anyone can receive from it.

In the early '60s I was trying to match that color of gray when painting some 
plastic F units. My late father, a Q brakeman, obtained a small jar of the 
prototype "gray back" paint from one of the employees who was in charge of that 
sort of thing at the Hannibal roundhouse. It was a very thick paint but I 
thinned it down to where I could apply it to my models. Of course, it looked 
good. It was the real thing.

Subsequently, I discovered that a model paint being marketed then was a "dead 
ringer" for the prototype I had received from my father. It was Pactra's "Rebel 
Gray". Thereafter, I used it, thinned but otherwise unadulterated, several 
times on other F units. They were indistinguishable, colorwise, from the units 
painted with the prototype paint. 

So, now all one has to do is find some old Pactra "Rebel Gray" which has been 
stored under ideal conditions for 40 years, and you are in business. Suggest to 
your spouse or "significant other" that that is just what you want for 
Christmas. Who knows? They just might be able to turn up some for you. 



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