u.p. armour yellow help?


J

jessejames

New Member
hi guys i'm new here, but not new to the hobby although i've been away from it for a while, recently i began building an a-b-a set of hobbytown e-7's in ho wich i was going to paint as union pacific, went to a few local hobby stores and tried to get floquil u.p. colors... couldnt find floquil so i bought polly scale... and the armour yellow is way off its closer to c&nw yellow way too light... finally found floquil armour yellow and it also looks too light?? so after stripping them twice, i'm about to give up and go buy a can of krylon equipment yellow and try that... any thoughts??
 
Try Scalecoat. Their color looks good to me. You may have to order it from Walthers or Caboose Hobbies if your LHS doesn't carry it.
 
Scalecoat or Scalecoat II is a lot closer to the 'old' richer Armour Yellow that was on the Es when they were mainline power.

You might try adding a tiny amount of red to the other brands to see if you can get closer, and still stay with a paint you're accustomed to handling.

A lot of times, Armour Yellow doesn't look right on equipment until the gray panels, and the red striping and lettering are applied. Sometimes I'll spray a square of scrap styrene just to see if it all works together.

Joe in Portland
 
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thanks guys for all the replies. couldnt believe what they told me at the local hobby store "your painting your own locomotives??? no one does that anymore" guess not glad i found this forum! looks like i'll have to mix up my own armour yellow... i really wasnt happy with the polly scale paint... but i always had good luck with floquil solvent base... is scalecoat solvent base...
 
There's pretty good information on Scalecoat paints here . Scalecoat II can go directly onto plastic.

If you are painting plastic models DO NOT bake them in the oven. That only works with brass :rolleyes:
 
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I have three different models of UP Locomotives from two different manurfacturers.
I have Two AC4400CWs, and an SD90MAC, from Kato, and an SD70M from Athearn. It seemed that each locomotive had a slightly different shade of Armor Yellow. :rolleyes:
Example, My SD90MAC was slightly lighter than the AC4400CWs. My solution for this slight discrepency of color shades; a nice patina coat of black (engine exaust from tunnel running, and lack of wash racks) weathering chalk. Since I have weathered my UP locos, you can't really tell there is a difference of Paint I'll try to get some pics on her so you can see. :D
 
joshjefflawn said:
I have three different models of UP Locomotives from two different manurfacturers.
I have Two AC4400CWs, and an SD90MAC, from Kato, and an SD70M from Athearn. It seemed that each locomotive had a slightly different shade of Armor Yellow.
Click to expand...

You have also described what happens on the prototype as well.

You will find that paint "color" will vary, not just from modelmaker to modelmaker, but even from batch to batch from the same paint manufacturer. Then add in the effects of sunlight, rain, soot etc. you can get as much difference as there can be and still be called the same "color".

Short of a repaint of everything, your solution is the best way to handle it.
 
I've found Floquil Armour Yellow is the closest match to a "typical" new UP engine. However, the UP never seemed to use exactly the same paint mix twice, especially on repaints. I've seen new engines from the shop with everything from a very deep yellow to almost a lemon yellow. I've also seen brand new EMD and GE untis next to each other and the yellow did not match between the two units. Trying to get an exact match among model makers is almost hopeless. Railroads made repairs to engines all the time and slapped on whatever paint was in the shop so some variation in paint colors on parts of the engine are pefectly normal. As Josh said, a little weathering will blend them all together. Just as example, this is a brass caboose I painted in 1969 directly from a photo I took of the actual caboose in Yermo. The caboose had undergone rust repairs and the repaired areas were repainted with a yellow much different than the original paint. I had to keep adding white to Floquil Armour Yellow until I got the right shade.
 
thanks for all the replies i wound up painting them with duplicolor automotive paint "school bus yellow" and krylon "smoke gray" and i'm now happy with the results i thought the school bus yellow would be too orange but over gray primer they turned out nice. not as mustard as i would have liked but deffinetly close to my passenger cars and caboose, i still have not lettered them or finished the striping... i could not find a picture of any e-units with the dark anti glare green hoods??? all the photo's i've found of prototype engines had a light gray almost white looking hood?? mine will be getting the green hoods
 
i've also started refinishing a project i butchered as a kid... its a bowser northern i was trying to build into a u.p. fef-3... i've almost wiped the slate clean... going with an fef-1 theme instead i made new domes from white metal reshaped the cab roof opened the cab windows made new running boards and smoke lifters from sheet brass i kept the double smoke stack i had made previously from brass for the "fef-3 look" just cause i liked the look, and no one would know anyways, except a few die hard train buffs, but they would know that the actual loco & drivers are too small anyways to be an fef-1 or fef-3... all and all its a pretty reasonable representation of the loco i'm modeling, and will be painted in the grayhound scheme... and besides its my little world anyways and thats how i want it! (trying to justify it to myself!)
 
Speaking of UP colors, on the P2K SD7's (the light gray roof, not the dark gray on the 700 number series) What color is close to it for gray and yellow? I have 2 SD7 that are going to get details added, but really do not want to completely custom paint them when their already UP. I do not need an exact match, just a close one. A bit of weathering will blend them together. Thanks!
 
something i have tried in the past and had pretty good results with is to use cheap wal-mart craft paint thinned out and sprayed through an airbrush... they have a ton of colors and they are easy to mix and only cost a dollar each...


good luck
jeremy
 
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