Hey Y'all, Testors has publically announced that they are discontinuing Polly Scale and Floquil Railroad Colors along with other lines of paint, effective immediately. Once stocks are exhausted, that's it. I'll try to post up the public announcement shortly. Thanks, Manny
That's bad news, indeed. It's been a while since I bought any model railroad paint. What other brands do we have as alternatives? Pat Moreland Union Mo.
Pat, On the acrylic side: Model Flex by Badger On the solvent side: Scale Coat That's it for major manufacturers.
Then there is Tru-Color as well. Although, no RR specific colors, the fantasy and miniature group has some interesting paint options. Since I have to buy all new paints, this is going to get interesting for me.
Thanks, Sherrel, for the heads up. They list a Frisco color # 184 frt. car brown for added information. Terry Jankowski
I believe that Tru Color said they could be encouraged to make other colors as well ... Perhaps other Frisco colors? BIG flap on Trainboard about this .... http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?151005-Bye-Bye-Floquil-Pollyscale-amp-Pactra
I'm not sure I feel "bad" about this. It was inevitable. The formula for Floquil had changed so much over the years , it just didn't spray like it used to. For those of you who have been in the hobby a "while", you'll remember the flap between Paul Larson, once Editor of Model Railroader and Floquil. Floquil was a big advertiser, so Larson ran an article on using stove polish to paint locomotives. The advertising dollars won. Now, a senior moment. While typing this I recall Larson also worked for RMC after being dismissed from MR. The flap might have been there, but model railroading lost a very creative personage. So, I don't feel sorry to see them go. Like so many of that era, they sort of TOLD the modeler what was right (and you'll like it or else) rather than providing what was right. Buck
Another alternate to "official" model railroad paints are the acrylic paints from craft stores (Michael's, Hobby Lobby etc.). They're excellent for brushing and touch ups and they come in every believable color. I've only used them for touch up work and non gloss surfaces (roofs, sidewalks, pavement), I've never tried any spraying with them, but I imagine it could be done. They're very cheap. TG
There are some "craft store" acrylic paints that are made to be sprayed right out of the bottle. Sorry, but the name escapes me. Found it - Vallejo makes sprayable acrylics. That and Liquitex makes a product made to thin down acrylics for spraying as well. And no, I haven't tried any of these, just read about them in various places.
I've used cheap craft store paint thinned with water in my airbrush with good results. Just be sure to use a layer or two of dul-coat or whatever to seal it and keep it from rubbing off easily during handling.
For a couple of years now, most of my model painting has been with Testors ModelMaster paints, both the enamel version and the Acryl water based systems. The enamel sprays very well when diluted, and I have had considerable success with Acryl applied via micro-brushes. Both the enamel and Acryl go on well with regular brushes, but at times the Acryl does not cover with one coat with a regular brush. One benefit of the consolidation by Testors is that I'll bet they will start adding more railroad specific colors. I will miss Floquil engine black. It covers anything, any time! They did have a large variety of RR colors, but some of them were not quite accurate. I quit spraying it years ago after a good friend, who painted a lot of models, died of cancer they thought was related to his prolific airbrush use. Polly-Scale was really good when it first came out - mid 1970's. I used it with great success on model aircraft, 1/72 scale, which was my thing at the time. I always brushed it, and it covered well with one coat. They had a lot of specific aircraft colors. I have several bottles of the current version of Polly-Scale paints, and don't like them as well. When new, they are fine, but the paint does not age well in the bottle. (Must be the Floquil heritage!) So, I'm not too upset to see the changes Testors is making; I just hope they do add some more RR colors. I wonder if this will bolster Scalecoat's fortunes a bit. I like Scalecoat II, and use it successfully with both regular brush and airbrush. S-II's loco black will easily replace Floquil engine black in my paint department. Plus, I love S-II's red oxide. I use it on a lot of stuff. One other paint I really liked to spray was Accu-Paint, aka Badger Accu, now Model-Flex. You can't brush it very well, but it sprays well with their solvent as a thinner. I have both a Paasche single-action and double-action airbrushes. I'm a bit of a klutz with the double, so I usually use the single. It will spray most anything if you can vary the air pressure to cope with different systems. Ken
Wow, am I glad I placed my huge order a week or so ago and got my Polly Scale in. I just went back onto eHobbies.com and they are wiped out of almost everything Polly Scale. I didn't even bother to check the Floquil side. I snagged their last three bottles of Engine Black and picked up three more 1/2 ounce bottles of Coach Green for the passenger cars I'm going to build. Say goodbye to Polly Scale and Floquil. Hello Scalecoat and Model Flex.
TG...couldn't get that link to work, so here's a direct link to the cross reference chart. http://www.microscale.com/Floquil Color Chart.pdf BD
Not trying to hijack a thread here but I recently tried using Easy off oven cleaner to remove some Testors enamel paint I brushed onto a couple of dummy locomotives that, luckily, I cared nothing about. (The paint job was an experiment.) A small amount came off with some elbow grease applied but as far as I am concerned, Easy off was about as effective as H2O...and yes, I let a heavy coat of Easy off set on there for a long time...up to about 8 hrs.
Must be security setting or the like. That hyperlink wont work for me either. Good thing is all anyone has to do is visit the microscale web site click and see it for "yoself"
