I mix my own…

When I was a teenager undertaking repaints of my Lima models I had no concept of ‘accurate rail colours’. I used my Humbrol enamels bought from Waltons or Arts and Crafts in Chester and mixed my own… 

As Canadian models became a focus in my late teens I followed the same approach. Today, many of my models and commissions are done in the same way - through a basic understanding of colour and my medium, Humbrol enamels, I’m able to get pretty close to most prototypes. Even better, replicating faded and worn shades with the initial application rather than having to fade a factory finish.

This week I’ve been working on a model for my own collection - but the specifics aren’t important. I made this - I didn’t just do the physical modelling but through choreographing the colour with my own paint mixing it is unique, I made it. It is of me, it channels not only a balance of the prototypes shades in a more subtle, muted, perhaps weathered tone but it is unifying. I note that by using Humbrol shades I often see a deeper connection between the elements of the model railway, this will sit within and become part of the same. More, it’s good fun!

There are great things called colour wheels but for me this process is informed by a deep love of the subject, a great appreciation of how the real locomotives fade over time and a deliberate attention to the shade of colour that alter the basic ‘out of the tin’ over time. Does that faded grey roof have a green tinge? Has that green become more blue or more yellow? Reds fade pink, usually, but not always… notice, observe and copy. Once the prototype is assessed, how to I use the shades I have in my paint collection to replicate the colour? What is close? Which colours can I mix? Also noting for example, with blues, some are more red than others so fading doesn’t always give the effect you expect and once you have learnt this, that can give a further method - the aim is not colour accuracy per se, but colour feel. Warm and cold, tone, tint… bear these idea and thoughts in mind, let that drive you.

For anyone wanting to short cut and make direct use of my experiments, I used neat 28 for the light grey, I mixed 5 into 28 to create the middle grey and mixed 125 into 31 to create the dark grey.

The model? More about that tomorrow in the Friday update and a proper post when it’s reassembled before weathering. Until next time, more soon…

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