Paint as a spare part

[Coachman]

It would be great to have Hornby's major paint colours available as a spare part. Uses range from renumbering, repair, modification, matching kit built rolling stock to Hornby's etc etc.

[ellocoloco]

Or they could incorporate them into the Humbrol range and make sure their models used the Humbrol paint code. Even easier would be to give the RAL/Pantone/FS/BS etc code used and we could get it mixed ourselves.

[Bulleidboy]

I think you will find that most colours required are available from one or two model paint suppliers. So I cannot see Hornby moving into that field despite having Humbrol under its umbrella. Mind you, you can never say never!

[Going Spare]

Hornby did offer a small selection (24?) of the main railway colours (nothing particularly modern) under their Humbrol umbrella around 10 years ago but they presumably did not find favour as they did not stay in the range very long.

As BB says, there are well-established specialist manufacturers of authentic railway colours, but whether their products will be an exact match for those used by Hornby is another matter.

[ellocoloco]

I remember the Humbrol authentic railway colours from many years ago and may still have a tin of LMS crimson lake somewhere!

I have repainted a number of Hornby's Electrotren locos and was fortunate enough to find a website that listed the RAL codes that RENFE used and for the colours I couldn't find from Railmatch/Humbrol/Extrcolor/Phoenix etc, I ordered from Ebay as car touch up paints mixed to order. The difficulty is paint scaling and sometimes the 'real' colour doesn't look quite right and of course, many years ago there was no exact standard and depot paint mixes would vary. Once in service the actual colours fade over time so no two locos will look alike after a while.

Coachman appears to be looking for touch up paints so as to avoid a complete respray and also for kit building. I reckon a listing of paint codes used (if available) you be a great addition to the service sheet included with models.

[atom3624]

Don't forget Hornby do have about 15 shades of BR green .... !!

Al.

[The son of Triangman]

Whilst colour specifications were laid down, it was not unknown for staff at sheds and works to use up old paint to mix shades. Paint fades over time when exposed to the elements.

As for Hornby colours, if you can visit the visitor centre there is a paint mixer display in the visitor centre museum complete with British standard and RAL colour charts, you could ask if you can see the charts to get a match.

Revell enamels are useful as you can usually get a colour match by mixing Revell colours or direct from the tin. I believe from memory Revell supplied some of the paint Tri-ang used at one time.

A good investment is a RAL colour chart as most manufacturers use them.

[The son of Triangman]

[The son of Triangman]

Tins of factory paints as spare parts is a good idea. I've been asking for this one since Tri-ang days.

[atom3624]

Understood there is a firm basis of the colours selected for use, but there is no doubt that Hornby have applied quite a variety of Brunswick Greens in the last, perhaps 15 years.

Could be interesting to see if these could be generalised into no more than 5 or 6, even understanding the 'old paint' and 'weathered' considerations!

Al.