Getting back to the original question and concerns on the yellow color: Allow me to delve into my knowledge and past experience in working with colors while at Floquil. First, yes photographs are notoriously a bad tool in determining color on just about anything. Case in point: There is a certain Z scale GP35 painted in CB&Q post 1957 colors but the top gray is silver. I once argued with a dealer from NJ extensively about how wrong that top color was as any CB&Q fan knows that the post 57 scheme is chinese red with a gray top, not silver. A few weeks ago however, while looking at some research for a current project, I came across a nice color photo of a chinese red and gray Geep and if I didn't know better, the top looked a lot like silver. My point is, photos are great for demarcation lines and lettering but not a good tool for colors. This is why Dupont, the auto industry and military all use a paint code system with each number and letter depicting a color, shade, gloss, matt medium, flat etc. Second, it looks like you took the images from your workshop. Does your work shop have florescent lighting? Florescent lighting will cast a green/yellow cast to anything. When I was approving paint sample draws, I always compared them to the originals outside in natural lighting. To the skeptics, I always pointed out that the paints that were offered at the time were based on new factory OEM colors and things such as bleaching, weathering and all around wear were not in the equation. That was left to the modelers. My eyes want to say the colors on your unit are way off, but I cannot say that with any credibility because I'm looking at your original sample on a computer screen and my source for the prototype is just a picture from NS. If I had the model in my possession, I could compare it to one of my samples from my original paint chip book and see. Even that however is speculative as we know Dupont would not use the same formula they used when the original Reading Yellow was used and that would be a whole additional thread. The question here is, do you weather the locomotive to look correct to you or do you return it? I can honestly say, I have not worked with FVM, so I can not say with 100% certainty they use original paint samples from either Dupont or the railroad. However in this era of scale fidelity, I would find it hard that they did little to no research on the colors selected. Sometimes color theory is like discussing String Theory!
My Virginian and NYC units came in the mail today so here are my first impressions. I do not have a Kato ACe to compare them to and I'm a little biased towards FVM so I shall compare them to there GEVO counterpart. First of all they look wonderful! The Virginian's yellow is identical to the 1069's yellow when I saw it last year, in my eyes of course. The NYC's numbers on the number boards are larger than the VGN's but that's okay with me. I've ran them a little as well today. Even though my track is moderately dirty(I've gotta clean more often!) they both are better runners and are quieter than my GEVOs. The NYC did run better than the VGN and I'm still surprised how much smoother they are! There is some light bleed on the VGN in the rear, due to the yellow I'm sure. One thing I've noticed about the lights is that they are too white for the ACe's. The GEVOs have more white lights and the ACes have more of a golden tint to them. Overall I think these are much improved models than the heritage GEVOs I own. The only thing I would probably do is standardize the number board size and I am hoping someone will offer the unique number boards found on the NS ACe fleet. I'm going to have to save up because I have a SD70ACe fleet to build now!
My photos were shot under fluorescent lights. If anything, I think the photos under fluorescent I posted downplayed the Zito yellow nature of these units. I also looked at the engines under incandescent and out in natural daylight both sunny and overcast. The yellow is just way too green. LeonardNichols posted much the same above on his unit: "Hi I concur on all above, got mine from Feather River Trains 2 days ago. DCC install is easy- remove shell pull out shorting plug, replace with EUN 651 decoder. The running qualities are different from any other loco I have, not in a bad way actually good. We are speaking about a non adjusted, factory reset decoder, all CVS are set at default save for the 4 digit address. The issue is, when I advance the throttle to about 65-70% the speed will not increase the unit is going probably at least 100 MPH at that point, so it is a moot issure. Slow speed control is really good, haven't MU'd; with anything yet. The paint seems a bit thick, but overall it is a nice model, I would definitely look at one in real life to see if your color taste is OK with this model the yellow is not right at all....this is after looking at it under Noon sun, setting sun, white fluorescent light. I understand color temperature and that without a photo calibrated to 18% grey there will be variations. I will just call it a bit weathered faded and leave it at that." I sent mine back. I'm not down on FVM. I'm just not keeping the Reading unit. I'll buy the NYC heritage a straight NS unit.
Yep. I asked Matt about this at RPM this past weekend. This is correct. And lets not forget no one's PC monitor is set the same way either. Using photos to compare while viewing on your monitor, not a good idea either.
Received the Fox SD70ace in NS roadname. The reason I purchased it was because the Fox GEO diesel I purchased was in my opinion a very good running and realistic model. The SD70ace, although it looks good, runs poorly. It derails sometimse on straight track, super sensitive to track conditions, and geared too fast. Hard to believe it came from the same importer. Well sent it back to BLW for exchange for an Atlas RS-1 coming out soon. Even if I had test run the loco at a hobby shop first I'm not sure that all its flaws would have been discovered.
I wonder how well these would run with a Kato Ace then, because all of Katos products are geared fast. I am biased towards Kato just because I own 2 GEVO units and a GP60M. The Gevos cant even keep up with my Atlas SD60s or my Athearn SD70/75M's they look great but are very poor runners imho. I may buy an FVM ACe once I see BNSF on the shelves, I just want a good comparison between both models. speaking of which how does the Kato Reading unit color match up to the prototype? https://katousa.com/N/SD70ACe/176-8508.jpg From what I've seen the colors on the Katos are a lot richer (This is something I know as I do have an eye for color) and would seem to be closer too the Prototypes minus the handrails, at least when that unit was new... Granted it sucks Kato doesn't have the ditchlights on the rear deck but who is going to run those backward on point?
Sorry to hear about your misfortune as I too picked up a Horsehead SD-70ACe at first it had a little wobble over 1 turnout but a little front truck wiggling took care of that issue. Now I have it positioned in between my 2 FVM NS Gevos & they all work together beautifully, Very Satisfied
I have run the FVM and Kato SD70ACe's together but I am also running DCC so speed matching is not too hard. If I get a chance tonight, I will post a photo of them together. My two FVM SD70ACe's were smooth and steady out of the box -- and quiet.
