Doug, Dave and all…..
AMEN!!!!
And somehow the factories (be they in China, Korea or Japan, at least the ones I’ve worked with) refuse to set up any kind of program to record the product codes for the finishing materials (paints, inks) they use.
But, to be fair, even if you had a great color sample that was perfectly executed by the factory there would be controversy. Let’s face it; most people are looking at faded color prints in their collection, color corrected books printed in China, weathered or repainted equipment in railroad museums, or relying on faded memories…..and, you are trying to scale down a full sized object that is outdoors lit by a perfectly color balanced light source (the Sun) looking at a 1/87.2 or 1/160 scale model in fluorescent lighting in a Hobby Shop or basement!!!
I think we’ve had extensive discussions in the past on color rendition in the past (Imitation Aluminum!!!) but here is one example of how difficult it is even if you had a factory fresh 55 gallon drum of Dulux paint direct from Dupont…….
….the same paint code used for ATSF Warbonnet Red is the paint the GM&O used on their Red and Maroon units…..and that the Burlington used on the border of the Burlington Route Herald and the red nose stripes, grilles and side stripes on E units. The final appearance on the prototype of these reds was quite different (especially the ATSF vs. GM&O!!) due to the order of application and color of underlying paint layers and final topcoat finish layers.
The same is true for models….the color of plastics used for the body parts influences the final color as does multiple paint layer and masking order.
The good news is that the prototype didn’t get the color matching right as much as modelers think they did and there is plenty of photographic evidence of color variation due to differences in paint, age, weathering, lighting conditions, and other factors.
Add to this the fact that a significant portion of the population has some degree of color blindness and at best actually perceive colors slightly differently one to another…..
It just becomes another aspect of the Hobby that makes it …..ah, interesting!!!!
Charlie Vlk
Doug speaks the truth! One of the most frustrating things when I was working with Doug at Railway Classics was trying to communicate colors to the Orientals in Korea and China. Exact matches to what we sent to them was virtually impossible, and we were happy when they got close. We sent color chips, Pantone colors, photographs of the prototypes, and the results on the models was always surprise - sometimes good, sometimes not...
One of the big issues with paint color on models is that most models are now being painted in China, where the models are manufactured and assembled. In conversations with manufacture reps in the past, they have told me one of the biggest challenges with RTR has been getting the colors “right”, as the “conversation” does not seem to translate to Chinese very easily. Adding to the problem is most Chinese manufactures do not use the model paints that are available to us. They use Chinese paint, which they are mixing themselves. The paint formulas are different, so getting exact matches is difficult. So you can advocate all you want for a certain paint color, but you may get “what ever is mixed and applied by the factory”. Which I know is very frustrating for those attempting to build a large fleet.
Doug Harding