Model Railroad paints -- not OT

[Gary Tayman]

I've run into a dilemma -- and maybe someone out there has a solution.

When I work on car radios, be they conversions or restorations, at least 99
out of 100 have a faded dial pointer. Not a problem, as I simply repaint
them. Most Motorola and Bendix radios have a metal dial pointer and I just
repaint the pointer. Most Delcos have a plastic pointer that's painted on
the inside -- wipe it off with lacquer thinner, and repaint.

The vast majority of these radios have a fluorescent red dial pointer. I
found some Floquil Fluorescent Red-Orange paint at a local model railroad
hobby shop -- it's an exact match. Strange, this color is also available in
the water-based Polly S version, except it's not quite the same color. It's
just a tad more orange -- perfect for certain Mopar radios of the mid
1960's.

It seems the tiny bottles of these paints would last a lifetime, but the
constant opening-closing causes them to go bad after awhile, so about once a
year I have to buy more. A few months ago I did just that, only to find the
store no longer carried these colors. So instead I found similar colors in
Testor's Model Master. The red stuff works, but is crappy to use -- just
not the same. The lighter orange color goes on dull -- often the faded
original is better than a repaint. I returned again to the hobby shop for
another look -- the store has now closed entirely. Last week I drove up to
St. Petersburg and visited two hobby stores, and came up totally empty. I
searched for Floquil/Polly S paints in the internet and did not find a
corporate website -- but found several online dealers, and none of them made
any mention of these two colors.

Is the stuff still available? Any suggestions?

--
Gary E. Tayman/Tayman Electrical
Sound Solutions For Classic Cars
http://www.taymanelectrical.com

[Buck Frobisher]

"Gary Tayman" <car...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:TzBug.5483$k31.4739@trnddc06...

> I've run into a dilemma -- and maybe someone out there has a solution.

Gary, did you try contacting Testors? Looks like Floquil is their brand...

http://www.testors.com/brand_category.asp?brandNbr=2

[Stewart Schooley]

Gary,

I believe Polly S is now called Polly Scale. You can find it on the net.

Also, search ebay for floquil and polly scale. These paints always seem
to be on sale there.

Stewart

[Rune]

The domestic versions have been reformulated in recent years and some colors
dropped but last I looked the old stuff was still available in the UK. Not
sure about the color selections though.

Testor owns them now (they also swallowed Pactra) and the line is a shadow
of its former self.

There are different Floquil lines for different markets, btw. Check their
automotive, aircraft, military, and gaming figure lines. They may have a
day-glo color that is the same or a close match to the old "railroad" color.

Ray

"Gary Tayman" <car...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:TzBug.5483$k31.4739@trnddc06...

[cuh...@webtv.net]

Drop some marbles,clean pieces of gravel,whatever inside the bottle of
paint,so as to displace the air space in the bottles.Tighten the lid
back on securely.Ever opened up a can of house paint before and some of
the paint had already been used before? You know how thick that paint
skin on top can get.
cuhulin

[Gary Tayman]

The big thing on the model paints is to clean the top of the jar each time,
and store the paint upside-down. This is a big help in terms of paint
longevity. I've got some old-formula Floquil colors that have been around
for many years -- some in the old square bottles. However when this paint
is opened/closed/used several times a day, after a couple years it's
inevtiable.

I guess the answer is that apparently Testor's has purchased this line, and
dropped/changed some of the colors. Someone pointed me to a website, and
I've sent an e-mail to them, asking their advice. We'll see what they say.

--
Gary E. Tayman/Tayman Electrical
Sound Solutions For Classic Cars
http://www.taymanelectrical.com

<cuh...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:19261-44B...@storefull-3254.bay.webtv.net...

[Ken]

I have found a first coat of white, such as Kills, makes the
fluorescence brighter. Ken

[robert casey]

Gary Tayman wrote:

>
> It seems the tiny bottles of these paints would last a lifetime, but the
> constant opening-closing causes them to go bad after awhile, so about once a
> year I have to buy more.

A trick I've done with paint containers is, after tightly securing the
lid or cap, to turn the container upside down for several seconds, then
right side up again. What this does is to let the paint inside to find
and seal up any pinhole gaps in the lid. The paint would dry in the
pinhole cracks and thus block the vapors from most of the paint in the
container from getting out.