Q: Correct shade of "metallic brown" for Northern Pacific freight cars ?

[mmagliaro]

So, in the course of working on my 39000 series radial roof NP boxcar, I have come to the time to paint it.

The HO model I found looks overly orange/red to me:



The color drift card from the NPRHA looks like a much more traditional "brown" for the "Metallic Brown" color.

Were these older freight cars more orange?
Should I ignore the HO model and go with the drift card?

Any NP sharpies out there who can chime in on this?

[wazzou]

Bad lighting.  Go with the drift card.

[nkalanaga]

If you have the drift card go with it.

[mmagliaro]

Thanks, folks.
That is what I'm going to do.   

So far, a mix of Roof Brown and Oxide Red seems to be getting me awfully close to the drift card
(Scalecoat I)

I'll experiment with more and less amounts of the red, but  2 Red to 1 Brown so far looks good to me.

[Palouse51]

I'd say if you are getting "awfully close" then with a little weathering no one could ever tell you the color was off no matter how picky. Of course the artist is always their own worst critic right Max?

[nkalanaga]

Unless it's a brand-new car it probably wouldn't match the drift card anyway.  Between less durable paints/pigments, steam loco soot and cinders, and normal weather wear and tear on a wooden car, paints back then didn't hold their color as well as most of today's.