Norscott paint

[swampdaddy]

Hi: Has anyone tried mixing a paint to match the color used on Norscott Caterpillar models? I have a few rivets I want to paint and at least come close to the color on the models so the rivets don't show up so much in photos!

Let me know your mix if you've already done this.

Years ago the Shinsei line of very, very large construction equipment had some items that were 1/87 or very close. I didn't have the money for them; but, one day in a drug store I found some cheap knock-offs under the "Lord Jim" brand of the items I wanted. So I bought them. They were a more "orange color" which only required an out of the bottle touch up to fix those rivets.

Swamp Daddy

[RAOlson]

Have you tried looking at one of the Farm & Home Supply stores, for example: Tractor Supply Co. They usually stock spray-paint in farm/tractor colors (IH red, Ford Tractor blue, etc.).

Richard O.

[cfesmire]

Harry,
Sorry to take so long to reply but I only just discovered this. I bought some of the inexpensive Norscot pieces at WalMart and wanted to paint the plastic parts that are on them since the plastic has sort of a translucent look to it and is very obviously not painted. So I painted just the plastic parts with Floquil UP Armor Yellow. Then I dullcoated the model completely (took glass out first). Then I made a thin wash of raw umber from the FolkArt brand of acrylics and again only did the plastic parts. When completely dry I did the whole model with the wash, reinstalled the glass and proceeded with chalk weathering. The color is very close to the original Norscot.

[swampdaddy]

Thanks Chester, I might give this a try. The Norscott pieces I wanted to do are the more expensive, mostly metal ones bought years ago when I had money; and, I only wanted to do the large, shiny silver rivets where pieces pivot so that at a quick glance in a large scene these rivets won't be so obvious.

Still, I will try to mix up something and see what I get. I was being lazy trying to see if someone else had already done it.

I don't know if the company is still around; but a decade or so ago the Shinesi outfit made some really large pieces of construction equipment around 1/87 (and each piece seemed to have it's own scale, some no where near HO). One day I found some cheap knockoffs ($5 vs. $50 in 1970s bucks) under the Lord Jim brand that were identical to the Shinesi stuff but had some plastic parts. These were a hideous day-glo orange and the difference between the translucent plastic and the metal parts was glaring. I did something very similar to what you described. I disassembled them as much as possible taking out windows, black thread for cabling and sprayed them with several coats of a similar orange followed by a dullcote layer. Much better.

Will post the results later on, thanks, Harry