Different Paint tones, 1 year later

[mtrpls]

So last year I painted up some locomotives using Badger Modelflex paints, and one of the colors I used was NYC Dark Gray. Today, one year later, I am painting up some more locomotives using that same color.

SURPRISE!!!

The paint I used last year was darker than the paint I'm currently using. Much to my dismay, the same same item number, SKU, whatever you want to call it, is now a different color than it was a year ago. As a result, the locos I'm painting today will not match the locos I painted a year ago.

It seems that over the course of this last year, Badger has either intentionally or inadvertantly changed their paint mix for this color.

Has this happened to anyone before, albeit with a different manufacturer? Is this a common occurance in the hobby? What can I do to resolve this problem?

 

[catt]

It really is a common thing in the paint world for colours a year apart to not match.This happens to the prototype all the time too unlress that paint is a Factory Pack.(mixed from the same exaxct formulas for all the ingrediants)

Unless your layout is set to a certain year/month/week/day/hour/minute the clour differences can be explained as either weathering or simply age of paint job.

If you need an example of this just seach for pictures of Conrail or CSX brite future locomotives.The Conrail units will be many different shades of blue and the CSX units will be the same with the yellow part sometimes almost white.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Very common occurence. It even happens to different batches of the same paint made just days apart. There was a show on the history channel about paint and although a manufacturer said they can "ensure a match" of the colors they never said a perfect match. Their comment was, the pigment will match perfectly but even a "minor difference" in the base mixtures can make the colors be off.