So, I am going through my Frisco decal stash and found some Oddballs decals for hood units. Some sets were purchased through the old museum and are a light yellow while his direct set was a darker or deeper yellow. Any idea why the difference? It would seem that these each of these sets over black would be vastly different in their appearance.
Several years ago, the late Richard Napper and I were working with Tom Stolte to produce that set of "cigar bands" in yellow for HO Frisco F and FA units. What resulted, I'm afraid, was only marginally successful. There is too much variation between F/FA body shells for one decal sheet's version of the stripes to fit them all. But, during the discussions with Tom, we both complained about his shade of yellow, which I described as "disappearing" when applied to a black carbody - GP7, RS-2, 44-tonner, etc, with his otherwise very nice hood unit set. Tom tried to fix that by revising his shade of yellow to be more opaque. I have one of the new set, but have not ever used it, so I don't really know if Tom was successful. If my memory serves me correctly, the new set was a slightly darker shade than the old set. The old set on the decal sheet appears as a very bright yellow, the new is more subdued. I have a GE 44-ton critter (SLSF 8) decaled with the old set and the yellow lettering, striping, and numbers look faded. Not really bad, but not bright enough in my view, and not equal to the other decal manufacturer's yellow shades. Tom certainly realized that as he did try to remedy the problem. Ken
That makes sense. Several different yellows for sure. Microscale yellow is deeper or more intense and the Herald King yellow is more orange. Thanks for the explanation.
Bob, while it doesn't really answer the question, I've always found the yellow on the prototypes to show distinct differences in coloring. I always wondered if it was just the film or if the real deal varied that much. For instance, some color photos of freshly shopped/repainted units do look much "oranger" whereas some look almost beige, to my eyes at least. Accordingly, f you used both different sets, I still think it wouldn't look too off base.
Agree - the prototype shade of yellow on locomotives seemed to be quite variable to my eye as I recall it. Different paint shops, different paint systems sometimes, different exposure to the sun, different effects of weathering, different degrees of being washed, the detrimental effects of the wash systems, ??? All are true to some extent I'm sure. I've gotten over my earlier complaints about running the far too pale & light InterMountain shade on their FP7/F7B, with the slightly too light shade on the P2K Alco FA1/FB1, and with the somewhat too dark/orangey shade on the Genesis F3A/F3B. They look OK together to me now. They look Frisco. Ken
