Paint color for the Walthers Ice House

[Flagler]

I need to paint my new walther Ice House Kit. I plan to paint the loading sheds  the color wood from Model master.
The main Ice storage building I was thinging of Reefer Orange or Reefer Yellow.What colors have been used in real life?

[Flagler]

Ideas about color please

[chuck geiger]

http://www.noehill.com/nv_clark/images/pfe_ice_house_vegas_empty_lot_thumb.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u156/Capndick/icehouse005.jpg
http://www.modelrailscenes.com/assets/images/kits-trackside-131104.jpg

[Flagler]

Thanks for the pictures chuck.The 2nd picture really caught my attention.Is that a Ho Kit,the n scale kit does not come with the ramps that fold down on top of the reffers.Does anyone know how far the main buildong is located from the loading rack.Is it flush or maybe 3 feet from the building?

[cv_acr]

Different railroads typically had their own colour schemes for different types of buildings. Ice house colours may have varied.

Here's a CP one:

http://www.wrmrc.ca/proto118.html

[atsf_arizona]

PollyScale acrylic DRGW Building Cream for the building, roof is PollyScale acrylic railroad tie brown:





Hope that helps!

[Flagler]

Thanks John,that looks great.What color is the loading platform.Its a bitch being red/green color blind.

[Flagler]

I was thinking of a good color for the deckboards on the loading platform.I want to make them look like weathered Teak or Ipp wood.Does anyone have a color match for that?

[atsf_arizona]

Hi, Flagler,

If I remember right, the loading platform is actually the color of the plastic that Walthers molded it in.  From looking at the photos, seems like it could use a shot of paint to dull it down.  Hope that helps!

[cgw]

The color of ice houses varied from location and railroad practices.  Example: Chicago northwestern's Antigo Wisconsin ice house was barn yard red paint.  The ice house in a couple of CNW's Iowa locations were a satin white color.  They typically purchased the cheapest paint that was available,  barn yard red or white .   The icing decks typically were painted the same color but dragging the ice blocks across the deck would scrape off the paint and the exposed wood would weather to a dark gray color, add foot print dirt it would get dark.    Harvested ice during the winter months would be stored in the ice houses until the harvest shipping season would kick in. 

G'day
Stu

[rogergperkins]

I second the approval of John Sing's choice for color/paint.
I did mine in white, possibly Polly S Reefer White.  I thought there was an expectation of ice being pure and clean and the white
emphasizes that aspect.  Just good marketing strategy. 

In reality and retrospect, cheap paint was likely the motivation. For white it may have been lead based pigment. 
Reds were likely iron oxide based.

[cgw]

In white paint the pigment is typically titanium dioxide in the old days it was a whit chalk,  barn yard red its iron oxide.  White was often chosen because it has the lowest solar loading.  It does not heat up much from the sunlight.  Darker colors will absorb more of the ir spectrum of the light and heat up.  Old paints were typically a shellac /varnished based as it aged it would slowly shift to the yellow spectrum.  An off white colol



G'day
Stu

[rogergperkins]

I checked the icing platform of the one on my layout and see that I never painted it because of the delicate elements; it is a pale chocolate milk color.

Lead oxide was common in white,  house paints in the US, and thus regulations banning it and guiding abatement.
The old white paint is allegedly the reason for elevated blood lead levels in some people.