I am leaning towards Southern Pacific in Grey and Red, so does any one know where I can get the correct colours from and where I can get some decals from ?
Dave will be the SP colour expert, I've got some Vallejo greys and reds that should suffice but they have to be mixed to get the right hues and I can't remember the mix or the colours used (all mixed up in one box now), worse yet, I can't recall where I've written it down.
Firstly you'll have difficulty obtaining Floquil/Polly Scale paints as Testors discontinued these line of paints in 2013.
Joe Fugate produced
The Model Railroad Hobbyist’s Guide to acrylic painting ... in a post-Floquil world Published by MRH Media (Model Railroad Hobbyist) and have attached a PDF copy to this post. It's a useful guide and contains information the paint mix ratios required for various Railroads and tips on using acrylic paints.
Vallejo acrylic paints are the easiest to obtain here in the UK. The equivalent Vallejo Model Air (VMA) colours required are:
VMA 71.003 (Scarlet Red) for SP Scarlet
VMA 71.121 (USAF Light Grey) for SP Lettering Grey
VMA 71.128 (Grey Violet) for SP Lark Light Grey
VMA 71.048 (Dark Sea Grey) for SP Lark Dark Grey
Vallejo Model Air colours are formulated for airbrush use without thinners.
Just to show the Vallejo colours this is model of my finished SSW GP9 using Dark Sea Grey and Scarlet Red. Decals are from Microscale.
This shows the comparison of the completed and weathered SSW model against one under conversion to a SP ex T&NO GP9 (right). This is the Vallejo scarlet red airbrushed straight from the bottle.
And the Dark Sea Grey - when wet the grey appears dark but dries lighter.
Hope it helps.