Personally, I still think Bowser has the best RDG color rendition.
Those boxcars are heavily weather beaten which obviously will take its toll on the true color of the original paint.

Not to get the topic too off track, but I’ve gone around in circles trying to color match boxcars to photos or for factory paint touchups.

For example: In the Floquil line, I’ve used SO Freight Car Brown and Zinc Chrome Primer (very similar to a bright rust color). With Polyscale paints, I’ve tried Boxcar Red and Mineral Brown (which is more red than brown). And recently, I’ve used Tamiya Color Brown and Hull Red. Sometimes I’ve mixed colors, but have had limited success.

Back to the GP30: The new release colors are noticeably different, so some weathering may be in order to help it “blend in” with older P2K GP30s. However, the drives used in these new models are smooth and a vast improvement over the cloned Athearn drives in the P2K models.

Yes I agree with you Rick that the Bowser paint is the best color match that I've ever seen from a manufacturer.

I too tried to bang my head trying to get the perfect match for RDG paint over the years. I finally gave in to a close enough. The reason why is because I've seen too many pictures with cars and loco's side by side and they were not the same shade because of weathering. I've finally concluded that it is more prototypically correct to have a few not the same shade. (but don't over do it)

No I didn't submit the photo of the two boxcars to suggest to try to use it for a paint match. But only to use it to show the effects of weathering on 2 identically painted objects.

John Caples

John:

I reviewed the shots I took on the RDG in the early '70s of C630s, SD45s,GP30s, etc.and compared them to the Bowser models. Very, very close. I have 2 of the Oriental GP30s and their colors are almost the same as Bowser. I wish Walther's had used the same paint mixtures as Bowser. Guess we have no control over that. For RDG diesels I painted myself, for the yellow/cream I used Accupaint (now TruColor Paint)ATSF Yellow and added some of their Stencil White. They already made a perfect RDG Green.
I totally understood why you posted the boxcars; amazing what weathering will do to a color.
I've seen numerous photos of ACL purple and silver E Units where the purple had faded to a pale lavender.

Rick

Here are three of the new Walthers GP 30's mued.The 2nd unit factory paint.Personally I like the contrast.

A great green shade comparison can be found in Bossler's book on pages 80&81.According to the text both cars were shopped in June 1974.