I have got 414146 Polly Scale - "ATSF Catwhisker Yellow" to be used as the Santa Fe / BNSF / LAJ cab yellow together with ATSF blue. However I have serious doubts if I got the right color. The yellow is very pale and does not match any of my Santa Fe engines (P2K GP30, Kato GP35, Atlas GP38). I plan to move the lamps from the cab top to the nose and will need to repair little spots. A good color match is key.
Should I get another yellow from Polly Scale?

ps. I would like to stay with Polly Scale because I have a local source. Some other common US brands are very difficult to obtain on this side of the pond.

faraway Wrote:I have got 414146 Polly Scale - "ATSF Catwhisker Yellow" to be used as the Santa Fe / BNSF / LAJ cab yellow together with ATSF blue. However I have serious doubts if I got the right color. The yellow is very pale and does not match any of my Santa Fe engines (P2K GP30, Kato GP35, Atlas GP38). I plan to move the lamps from the cab top to the nose and will need to repair little spots. A good color match is key.
Should I get another yellow from Polly Scale?

ps. I would like to stay with Polly Scale because I have a local source. Some other common US brands are very difficult to obtain on this side of the pond.

Matching factory paint colors is difficult. You are going to have to take the loco in to the store and compare, or probably have to do some custom blending in order to get a lose match. Different manufacturers have a different interpretation of each road's colors. In real life, that yellow faded rather quickly, and it's possible polly scale matched its color to a loco with somewhat faded paint. Usually, the problem is the other way around in that the model colors look too dark compared to the prototype.

And if you are going to weather the loco, the exact match isn't that important. You're going to grunge it up anyway which will help everything blend together.

I understand the possibility of not exact matching colors but in this case I am under the impression I bought simply the wrong color.

Is "ATSF Catwhisker Yellow" really the yellow paint PollyS intended to be used toigether with it's ATSF blue (not faded at all). May be PollyS created "ATSF Catwhisker Yellow" for some other use I do not know?

Update:
Yes, it is the wrong color!
Wiki says:
"Three thin, pale yellow stripes (known as Cat Whiskers) extended from the nose logo around the cab sides. In January, 1951"

The pale whisker yellow was used for one specific scheme only. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSF

But, what is the right Polly Scale yellow to be used with the blue bonnet scheme?

I've been away from Big Blue for a while and just found this thread Reinhard. "Catwhisker yellow" was used on the original Ft units as delivered just before and during WW2 to the Santa Fe. The scheme came from EMD in Santa Fe blue & catwhisker yellow with red pinstripes outlining the catwhisker yellow. It is a color that is almost cream. The color you want is Santa Fe yellow, I'm not sure of the part number.

Wow, ya gotta a love the internet. To get a same-day answer halfway around the globe is remarkable. Twenty year ago, if your LHS didn't know the answer, you would be tracking down an address to write to, hoping for a response within a month. Remember the "ask paint shop" column in Model Railroader, filled with questions just like this? To think those people probably waited a month or more for a response...

I think it is PLS-414398 BNSF Yellow
It looks not bad ( )

Yes, I love the internet. It is really a very useful tool. It is great to communicate around the world within seconds. I love it!

I'm looking to achieve the 'cream' colour of the middle band on California Northern loco's, and it looks to me this Catwhisker yellow is very close to the pictures I have, have a look at this flickr photo set and look at the GP15-1's in this series. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23065916@N04/sets/72157617157649216/with/4765774434/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/23065916@N ... 765774434/</a><!-- m -->

I think that's quite a close match, I can blend in some reefer white to fade it a bit more I think. Now all I need to do is get a GP15, and find a match for the green and I'm in business :-)

A closer match might be the creme color used on the band of BNSF's "Executive" Paint scheme. Maybe a little white added to lighten it, but it may be good right out of the bottle.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bnsf/bnsf9443mra.jpg">http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bnsf/bnsf9443mra.jpg</a><!-- m -->

If you don't mind using an enamel, Testors makes a Santa Fe Yellow.

The problem with Santa Fe colours is that they varied from manufacturer to manufacturer, and rebuild to rebuild. There is/was apparently no standard colour the way there was with other railroads. Other modellers have the same problem with UP colours.

Other folks have had good luck starting with Railbox Yellow and adding a few drops of different colours to warm/darken or cool/lighten it depending on what they're trying to match.

The other problem with Santa Fe Yellow is that it fades rather quickly so locomotives sitting next to each other that came out of the paint shop just a few months apart will be different colors of yellow. By the way the "Cat Whisker Yellow" mentioned here is not Santa Fe Yellow. It is the yellow that was on the original paint scheme for the Ft's in freight livery when Santa Fe first got them from, EMD. The color is more of a cream than a yellow. The Santa Fe yellow originated in the yellow and black stripe that separated the polished stainless and the red in the passenger warbonnet scheme. It was later adopted for use in various blue and yellow freight liveries used on the Santa Fe.

eightyeightfan1 Wrote:A closer match might be the creme color used on the band of BNSF's "Executive" Paint scheme. Maybe a little white added to lighten it, but it may be good right out of the bottle.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bnsf/bnsf9443mra.jpg">http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bnsf/bnsf9443mra.jpg</a><!-- m -->

Which colour would that be? Do you have a Polly Scale number for this cream colour?

Thanks!

Koos

I'm not sure, but that color in that pic looks a little too gray rather than cream, but it might be a color shift in the picture rather than that color being wrong. I remembered that paint scheme being cream and green, but I may have been mistaken. I don't model or really like the BNSF. The only thing worse in my opinion than the BNSF merger would have been if the U.P. had succeeded in taking over the SF.