"What model paint color should I use for
DT&I Orange?"

One question that is constantly asked on the DT&I Modelers List at Yahoogroups is
"What model paint color should I use to paint DT&I locos?"

A model paint that exactly matches DT&I Orange is like a word that rhymes with orange:
it doesn't exist. The best solution is to use whatever color looks best to you in the type
of lighting you have in your layout room.

This page will help you decide which color or combination of colors looks right to you.
We were able to compare models painted with several of these mixtures at the meet in
Napoleon, Ohio in 2000; you could see a difference in color when they were sitting next
to each other, but when viewed separately they all looked like they were painted
DT&I orange.

Remember, if it looks right to YOUR eyes, it's DT&I Orange!

Arnt Gerritsen (Yahoogroup Archive message #351) ran an EMD drift panel paint card (this is what the railroad used to check that a new batch of paint matched what they had received in the past) through the local paint store spectrograph and found the results matched a mix of:

Scalecoat solvent-based paint:
50% ATSF Red / 50% Reefer Yellow

Click image to enlarge:

Models by Arnt Gerritsen

To his eye, it looked "very orange, very warm. Looks good indoors under daylight corrected neon or incandescent bulbs, [but] lousy under cool white and worse with a flat finish overcoat."

In 1998 and 1999 Alex (AlcoRS1@...) compared several mixtures of paint under different light sources to an AA/DT&I paint chip he got from Arnt. His impressions were
(Yahoogroups Archive message #20, #652):

"...This [Arnt's paint chip] is the 1964 color, essentially the out-the-shop color. Various stages
of grunginess have appeared over the years, as well as slight modifications and repaints.
The newer GP-38 AA units seem to be a "browner" orange, but then they don't look like
they've been washed in a while. Your lighting may [will] make things look different.

Floquil SP Daylight Red is the closest for straight out of the bottle."
[This is what Jim Hediger uses on his models.]

COMPARISON CHART OF DT&I COLORS

Please send in additional 'recipes' for DT&I Orange to the address at the bottom of the page.

Paint colors courtesy Alex, Arnt, Jim and Scott

Matching Paint on Atlas' DT&I Models

I find a 2:1 mixture of Badger CN Orange #10/NH Socony Red with a VERY TINY drop of
black (use the tip of a straight pin to get the drop of black paint) is a very close match to the factory paint color on Atlas' GP9s and GP38s in HO and N scale.

Badger paint info courtesy Scott Heiden

Tips on using Badger paints:

Click image to enlarge:

Model by Scott Heiden

This HO Atlas GP40 was painted with a
1:1 mix of Badger CN Orange/NH Socony Red

Badger Modelflex paints are great to work with - no dangerous fumes and easy clean-up
with Windex (the Ammonia in the Windex turns the paint into a rubbery goo that peels
off your brush). They dry very fast and if you 'bake' the model with a hair dryer after
spray-painting you can mask and paint another color thirty minutes after applying
the first coat without it peeling off with the masking tape.

The only downside to the line of paints is the lighter colors often cannot be brush-painted
onto a model; they tend to bead up around details on the surface. Sometimes they won't
stick when airbrushed, too; shoot a light coat of Primer Grey paint on the model first if this happens. This 'slipperiness' happens because the paint has been mixed thin enough to go
through an air brush at the factory. Dark colors like black and brown can be brush painted,
but you will have trouble putting orange on a model with a brush.

If you want to use Badger orange paint on a DT&I locomotive, plan on using an air brush
to apply it, even on small add-on detail parts like Detail Associates spark arrestors
and Details West airhorns. If you are superdetailing a factory painted model pre-paint
the detail parts, or mask off the rest of the locomotive body (especially the windows!)
before spraying the modified area.

All material copyright © 2002
do not use without permission

Return to the Painting Index
Go Back to the Home Page