Matching a Discontinued Paint Color

[dmidkiff]

I've been asked to use a particular color on a custom painting project, however, that color has been discontinued. The color is Model Master Acrylic Emperor Blue #4373.

I'd really like to try and find an equivalent color in Tru Color, but any match would be good.  Does someone here have a good way to match older colors? I can only find reference to the Emperor Blue in one eBay listing, and I really don't want to buy old stock acrylic.

Thanks, Doug

[peteski]

I find a color that is close, then mix other colors until I get the right color (or close).  I make sure that my samples are dry when matching, because paint changes color slightly when it dries.  Also, if patching a spot it is better to paint a larger area (like entire panel) instead of just a small spot. That way a slight color mismatch is not as obvious.

[dmidkiff]

Thanks Pete, agreed on your comments.

As usual, I should have put more info in the initial post. I do not have the Emperor Blue color and neither does my customer. He wanted this color based on a recommendation from another modeler. Since the color is discontinued, I was hoping to find a database that had a crossover to another brand or a mixing guide to get me close. I could certainly match the way you mention if I had a sample, but alas, no luck there.

Doug

[peteski]

Maybe you could contact Tru-Color paint manufacturer and request for that color to be produced?  They seem to be always expanding their color range.  Which railroad uses that color?

[dmidkiff]

This is for the UP Salt Lake City Olympic units.

To be honest, I can’t find a decent blue to begin with looking at photos online. Some look purple, some look dark blue, light blue and everything in between. The models I’ve seen others do look too dark to me. I used Tru Color D&H blue for the first coat, but my customer wasn’t happy with that color, I thought it was a good choice.

If someone has the Emperor Blue in their stash and could send me a chip or sample, I could match it on my own.

This is a tough blue to match without anything other than photos online.

Doug

[learmoia]

It seems like the base color is just a bit darker (purpleish?) than the blue in the UP shield..

The 'too dark' comment could be the customer looking st the model as a whole mixing the 2 tone scheme in his mind.. (I once painted an NYC 2 tone gray locomotive and the base coat looked really dark.. but once I added the decals.. it looked just right..)

Maybe paint him a sample, and add a UP shield and a piece of the lite tone decal so he can see everything together.

Take your D+H.. Blue and what the customer wants and add a bit of red to each.. (I'm guessing the D+H plus a drop or 2 of red will be pretty close.)

If your base coat is a bit darker than the blue in the shield.. your on the right track..

~Ian

[dmidkiff]

Thanks Ian.

I can definitely see a bit of purple in the proto color, so the red drops are a good idea, just not much.

The decals for this one are very light and darken just a bit with the base coat underneath. I thought I was on the right track with the color combo of the decal and the D&H blue. MP Jenks blue looked really good for a darker shade until I put a piece of decal on it, then it looked too dark.

I have not compared to a shield, so I'll look at that as well.

Doug

[Lemosteam]

You could try this process https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=37774.0 on an image you have.

[Lemosteam]

@dmidkiff Here is an attempt- the Long Island Blue is the closest IMHO the L&N is really close too:

On the left upper is the MM Acryl swatch snip from the internet.  On the upper right is the eyedropper MS paint fill from that color.  I tested the the original swatch on the fill to ensure MS Paint did not affect the color between the two.

On the bottom are swatch snips from the Tru-Color paints website.  i modify them to put the white cross through them an a box around the edges to eliminate any borders.

Then I copy-pasted the 5 railroad colors I found that I thought were close to the Emperor Blue using the transparent selection in MS Paint and dropped them onto the large fill.  you will notice subtle shade differences on the top three, but the bottom two are nearly imperceptible.

This is the process i use just as a start to get very close to the color I want.  You can do this over a photo as well.

[dmidkiff]

@Lemosteam Thank you! That is a huge help.

When I first started this project, the ICE 137 Color was one of the ones I was considering.

Doug