LGB Red Paint Match
- Thread starter Jim White
- Start date
maxi-model
UK/US/ROW steam narrow gauge railways 1:1
Nothing worse than a "near match" Jim. Take your LGB car down to an auto paint specialist, get them to scan it and have them make up a 500 ml rattle can, 1k paint not 2k, or two. May not be cheap but it will match perfectly if you use the correct primer which they should recommend. Alternately head down the auto store, one where they have rows of different car makes of colour matched refinishing spray in racks. Ones where the can cap has the actual colour sprayed on it. Now look for some likely matches, take them outside into the daylight with your LGB car and see which one pleases you most. Again use the correct primer for the paint colour. Never be tempted to try to do it by eyeballing a picture, printed or on a screen, and using that to refference. Too many variables going on there. Max
There is also the theory that a close match is more realistic, just look at a set of coaches that have been painted in the same livery. Mixed in service and out for many months in weather in different places Carriages do achieve a different hue to say nothing of different batches of paint as vehicles get repainted.
The advice from Max is good advice and should help you get a pretty good match but unlikely a perfect factory type match.
The advice from Max is good advice and should help you get a pretty good match but unlikely a perfect factory type match.
JimmyB
Now retired - trains and fishing
That is also my philosophy with coach colours, close, but does not need to match exactly.
playmofire
Registered
Ideally, too, when checking for paint match you want to be facing north and not on a bright sunny day. (Advice from my wife who used to work for a specialist paint works.)
stevedenver
Registered
Agree, per max,
get it matched……
But, if you’re like me, this may be just a little too much effort.
Fwiw, rustoleum ‘painters touch’ 2x paint and primer. It has no color name, but its a red id describe as a dull ruby. For durability, and decal adherence, id suggest gloss. I used matte for my project. In looking at the rustoleum chart, re your question, i think it was colonial red. Instead I think the gloss apple might work….dunno.
Its a rattle can.
I just checked my own dsp cars and another model that i painted with the above colonial red.
I think if you use a light or white primer, the colonial red will have a brightness similar to the LGB.
Very close, but not exact.
i also think that because the lgb bodies are black plastic, the original red takes a bit darker tone. Point, you may wish to consider an appropriate primer color. For the rustoleum gloss apple, blind guessing from the chart and my screen, perhaps dark grey or black primer.
Being an N scale UP modeler, i cannot emphasize enough how much the underlying color changes the top coat in vividness.
Fwiw, i normally use tamaya paints. They provide a superb self leveling finish. Not terribly durable.
I used to avoid non-model paints, but rr colors are rare now.
While the rustoleum is thicker, larger paint particles, with care and thin coating, ive gotten excellent results. Thin coats in order to avoid runs. Those wood joints need to be shot at both angles. To avoid pools or runs, paint, let it set up an hour or whatever , go again. I used micro mask for the windows, door handles. 2 coats.(picks off more easily.
fwiw, i live in dry Colorado, and it takes almost a week for the paint to get really hard and cured. Once it does, its very weather resistant.
As for tamaya, i have used italian red, very bright, but with a black undercoat, it looks more like texaco red (which is also close). Unfortunately , the mica red is closer, but, metallic flake….Not terribly weather worthy. Good luck.
get it matched……
But, if you’re like me, this may be just a little too much effort.
Fwiw, rustoleum ‘painters touch’ 2x paint and primer. It has no color name, but its a red id describe as a dull ruby. For durability, and decal adherence, id suggest gloss. I used matte for my project. In looking at the rustoleum chart, re your question, i think it was colonial red. Instead I think the gloss apple might work….dunno.
Its a rattle can.
I just checked my own dsp cars and another model that i painted with the above colonial red.
I think if you use a light or white primer, the colonial red will have a brightness similar to the LGB.
Very close, but not exact.
i also think that because the lgb bodies are black plastic, the original red takes a bit darker tone. Point, you may wish to consider an appropriate primer color. For the rustoleum gloss apple, blind guessing from the chart and my screen, perhaps dark grey or black primer.
Being an N scale UP modeler, i cannot emphasize enough how much the underlying color changes the top coat in vividness.
Fwiw, i normally use tamaya paints. They provide a superb self leveling finish. Not terribly durable.
I used to avoid non-model paints, but rr colors are rare now.
While the rustoleum is thicker, larger paint particles, with care and thin coating, ive gotten excellent results. Thin coats in order to avoid runs. Those wood joints need to be shot at both angles. To avoid pools or runs, paint, let it set up an hour or whatever , go again. I used micro mask for the windows, door handles. 2 coats.(picks off more easily.
fwiw, i live in dry Colorado, and it takes almost a week for the paint to get really hard and cured. Once it does, its very weather resistant.
As for tamaya, i have used italian red, very bright, but with a black undercoat, it looks more like texaco red (which is also close). Unfortunately , the mica red is closer, but, metallic flake….Not terribly weather worthy. Good luck.
Last edited:
Jim White
Registered
Some good info. I, too live in dry Colorado, just west of Denver. I'm a DGRS member. I'm far enough up in the mountains, that my plot of land slopes too much for an outdoor railroad. So my trains run indoors, and that gives me a little leeway with durability.
My project involves grafting some RPO sides from a different manufacturer (HLW) onto an LGB passenger car, to create something that works with LGB cars, and giving me a car that LGB never made. Unfortunately, those HLW sides are painted green, and I am trying to match DSP&P RR red (which seems to be the same color as all other LGB red passenger cars).
The point about using a primer is well-taken. It is better to start from a neutral point.
I, too, like the Tamaya paints, but I couldn't find anything close. The best I've found so far is Vallejo Red 71.269, which I tried on some scrap from the HLW car. It looked very good in some directions, but seemed to change shade depending on the viewing angle. I noticed that the LGB cars were a bit shinier, so I coated my scrap with Testor's Gloss-coat. This seems to have fixed the viewing-angle problem, and it gave me something that falls well within the "left out in the weather for a different amount of time" differential. If I can't find anything better, I'll go with that.
Thanks to everyone for all those ideas. They all give me something to work from.
