02-13-2009, 08:43 PM
Kurt, I never worry about trying to match the factory paint exactly, and in most cases, don't care if it matches at all. One of the major drawbacks of wire grab irons is that it's easy to chip or scrape the paint on them, and shiny brass looks way worse than an off-shade of the basic car colour. 
For freight cars which I paint, (which is probably at least 90% of my roster) I use several variations of boxcar red, altering the colours even as I'm painting. The prototype paint formulae changed over the years, too, so the same road might have several different shades of "boxcar red" in service. Even if the colours appeared the same when newly applied, they also may have weathered differently. Every so often, I gather up all the cars that I notice with chipped paint on the sill steps or grab irons, and using either Engine Black or Boxcar Red straight from the bottle, touch them up as required. That's probably the only time that I use paint without altering its colour somewhat.
If you add these metal details to a factory-painted car, pick (or mix) a colour reasonably close to the basic car colour and apply it as necessary, using a brush. Next, take a small amount of the same colour, thin it severely (at least 90% thinner) and airbrush it lightly over the entire car - this could probably work if done as a wash, too. This will have two effects: first, it kills that "new car" look of the lettering. The other benefit is that it will almost imperceptibly shift the original car colour towards that of the brush-painted modifications. Obviously, one could carry on with weathering to whatever degree desired, further disguising the new parts. Then, when the paint on a grabiron eventually gets scraped off or chipped, a little quick brushwork, using a suitable colour straight from the bottle will make it look like a recent repair.
The overspray technique works well on cars that have already been weathered, too, if you're going back and adding these details to cars which you once considered "finished".
Wayne
For freight cars which I paint, (which is probably at least 90% of my roster) I use several variations of boxcar red, altering the colours even as I'm painting. The prototype paint formulae changed over the years, too, so the same road might have several different shades of "boxcar red" in service. Even if the colours appeared the same when newly applied, they also may have weathered differently. Every so often, I gather up all the cars that I notice with chipped paint on the sill steps or grab irons, and using either Engine Black or Boxcar Red straight from the bottle, touch them up as required. That's probably the only time that I use paint without altering its colour somewhat. If you add these metal details to a factory-painted car, pick (or mix) a colour reasonably close to the basic car colour and apply it as necessary, using a brush. Next, take a small amount of the same colour, thin it severely (at least 90% thinner) and airbrush it lightly over the entire car - this could probably work if done as a wash, too. This will have two effects: first, it kills that "new car" look of the lettering. The other benefit is that it will almost imperceptibly shift the original car colour towards that of the brush-painted modifications. Obviously, one could carry on with weathering to whatever degree desired, further disguising the new parts. Then, when the paint on a grabiron eventually gets scraped off or chipped, a little quick brushwork, using a suitable colour straight from the bottle will make it look like a recent repair.
The overspray technique works well on cars that have already been weathered, too, if you're going back and adding these details to cars which you once considered "finished".
Wayne