Reply To: Midland Railway transfers

[Paul WillisParticipant]

I asked about colour as last time I spray painted a loco in Midland Red it looked more pink than crimson. I used flat white undercoat on brass then railmatch 610 LMS crimson lake. I was wondering if I used a light grey undercoat and a different source of crimson paint I would get a much deeper result.

Morning!  I had to wait until I was back home before replying to this.  That’s because I could access my Midland Railway reference books for confirmation of what I suspected.

Changing the colour of the top coat won’t give much of an improved result, if any.  What you need to do is follow the prototype, and use a red oxide undercoat.  All reds are very translucent, and the colour of the undercoat greatly affects them.  It’s the same for vermillion for buffer beams as well.

The earliest Midland paint specification that Essery quotes is from 1891, and details (in summary):

• two coats of Oxide
• two coats of Oxide and Lake
• three coats of varnish

Hope that this inspires you to try it differently next time.

Best,

Paul