Color matching the RGS Depot

 I enjoy researching the history of narrow gauge railroads in Colorado. The Rio Grande Southern (RGS) in Southwest Colorado is my favorite.

The RGS had a depot in Dolores Colorado that was lost when the railroad went out of business, however the town recreated the depot on their main street through town and did a wonderful job on the recreation. For years they sold plans for their recreation. We bought a set and used it as a guide to the proportions of our cottage in the mountains.

The Dolores Depot includes restored Goose #5 on trackage out front

The depot is a museum and includes all kinds of memorabilia of the RGS RR

This includes a very nice model of the depot as it existed during the time of the RR

The scale model shows the depot in relation to other buildings in existence at the time.

This kit image shows the red and green color scheme used in the early days of the railroad. I am modelling a later period which painted the buildings in a yellow and brown scheme.

I am building a 1/64th scale model of the Dolores, Colorado Rio Grande Southern depot and needed to paint it in the correct colors. The paint recommended by the kit manufacturer is no longer in production. 

Fortunately the entire history of the railroad is documented in an eleven volume set of books telling the story. We took one of the books from the Rio Grande Southern series to Home Depot. The intent was to get the depot image scanned, but they will not do that due to copyright, so we instead matched the image to paint sample chips and had them mix up the sample containers of paint you use to do test paints. Turned out to be a very good match.

The paint colors I came up with for the Dolores Depot are Behr colors with samples mixed at Home Depot.

The lighter color is Cork, #PPU6-05m. The paint sample card has the number OM8-4

The darker color is Ancient Root, #PPU4-20d. The paint sample card has the number YN1-7

The mixed paint is available in sample containers which will be a life time supply for modelling needs

Here is a few images of the work in process

I look forward to getting this done and made into a diorama.