Good matches for Milw 1930's passenger car grey and brown?

[chessie system fan]

I thought I'd start a new thread instead of tacking this onto the Hiawatha hudson build thread.  My personal preference for airbrushing is Tru Color.  They have a Milw freight car brown.  I assume that's the same shade used on their passenger cars too?  Not being a Milw expert, I'm not sure about a good grey either.  Any advice is appreciated.

[Sokramiketes]

Which scheme, Orange sides, maroon letterboard, brown roof?  Or 1935 Hiawatha scheme of orange sides, maroon letterboard, gray roof?

And then, matching some factory cars, or looking for a purely prototype match?

I usually use the TruColor maroon and add in some D&RGW freight car color to shift it more brown to match Kato/FVM.  Gray I like the Testors Flat Aircraft something gray as it is warmer and a good base for further weathering which tends to darken it. 

[chessie system fan]

Thanks! All the schemes (up to the UP colors).     And all the paint matches.  I'm trying to figure out what all I might need before placing a paint order.  I haven't decided whether to go pure prototype or instead try to paint match.  I have a Kato Hiawatha set but don't own any Fox Valley cars.  Knowing a match for Fox Valley's gray would be useful. 

Do you have more specific info on that Testors aircraft gray?

[peteski]

With Testors (or the parent company,  RPM) discontinuing bunch of hobby paint lines, is the military line of paints even still available?

[Sokramiketes]

#1226 Flat Dark Aircraft Gray is my choice.  I used it to backdate the Kato Hiawatha to the 1948 scheme, upgrade MTL to 1948, and then on FVM cars to match them to my other models. 

[chessie system fan]

Great.  Thanks.  I'll pick some up.

[Sokramiketes]

Here’s what it looks like.

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[chessie system fan]

Super.  Looks great to me. 

[Sokramiketes]

Aaron!  You were holding out on us, just saw the weekend update post.  Please keep us apprised on your progress on the Hiawatha cars.  A bunch of us in Modutrak have stalled GHQ projects, since we figured out the cars were stretched to fit the core kits. 

Couple big gaps in the 1948-1950 consists for coaches, parlors, diners, and tap cars from that pre-1946 batch of Hiawatha cars. 

[chessie system fan]

This car just finished printing a few minutes ago.    That's all I've completed so far, but Milwaukee liked to use one jig for everything and just shift the pieces around.  New cars haven't been difficult to design.  And adding the postwar fluting to the older cars will be easy, too.



I'll start a new thread on the car project in the near future.  If you want to gather the brain trust to see what decals we need that would be a help.  That's the next bottleneck and out of my expertise.

[sd45elect2000]

Aaron!  You were holding out on us, just saw the weekend update post.  Please keep us apprised on your progress on the Hiawatha cars.  A bunch of us in Modutrak have stalled GHQ projects, since we figured out the cars were stretched to fit the core kits. 

Couple big gaps in the 1948-1950 consists for coaches, parlors, diners, and tap cars from that pre-1946 batch of Hiawatha cars.

Don’t forget there are still 2 beaver tail cars from 1936-37 that have not been done. For that matter none of the 1936-37 cars are available and I’ll take a bunch of them.

Randy

[chessie system fan]

The current plan is to design them all. 

[Sokramiketes]

This car just finished printing a few minutes ago.    That's all I've completed so far, but Milwaukee liked to use one jig for everything and just shift the pieces around.  New cars haven't been difficult to design.  And adding the postwar fluting to the older cars will be easy, too.

I'll start a new thread on the car project in the near future.  If you want to gather the brain trust to see what decals we need that would be a help.  That's the next bottleneck and out of my expertise.

Yes, great.  They added a bunch of skirting to match the early cars to the later cars, and those are truly the versions I need to fill out the secondary trains.  Good stuff!

Paging @altohorn25 and @skytop35 and @Jim Starbuck on decal art.  I know the 1952 scheme is getting well covered (Circus City?) but the script car names and overall lettering in dulux gold (1947-on) instead of gold leaf is a hole.  I still haven't found the lettering drawings for the script car names. 

[Sokramiketes]

Couple paint and lettering notes that cover the golden era of Milwaukee Road Hiawathas:

1947 - First of the Milwaukee shops built streamlined cars are being delivered for the Olympian Hiawatha.  Paint scheme is the "spaghetti" scheme designed by Brooks Stevens, and short lived.  Gray roofs.

1948-Aug 1949 - Simplified "1948" scheme.  Gray roof, maroon window band and letter board, dulux gold lettering (more deep yellow than gold leaf).

Aug 1949-1952 - Roofs changed to Black in August 1949.

1952 - 1957 Simplified  orange and marroon.  Now maroon is only in window band, with letterboard now part of orange car side.  Lettering switched to maroon.  (This is the stock Kato Olympian scheme for reference. 

1957 - Switch to UP armour yellow and harbor mist gray. 

[altohorn25]

I have no source for the 48 era dulux gold lettering or script car names unfortunately.  Sounds like a project for Matt at Circus City Decals.....