There is great debate about certain aspects of Southern Railway paint schemes. Time period and shop make a difference. Do you want the Crescent Limited scheme with the moon (only applied to 4 engines) that was used during the relatively short lived two tone green Crescent Limited train or the more common Southern scheme? Economics of the time of the Great Depression and issues with trying to keep a matched equipment consist shortly killed the actual Crescent Limited. I have never heard of or seen a black Crescent Limited engine, only from model manufacturers. Maybe it existed, but if it did it wasn't for long
Early paint schemes used gold paint, but it didn't hold up too well. The later paint jobs used Dulux Gold. You can get gold decals from K4 Decals, but the Dulux were from Champ and are rarer the the proverbial Hens Tooth.
Smoke box fronts vary from silver to black. The finish of heat proof graphite and oil was hand mixed and varied greatly between shops and batches.
Red roofs are also of great debate and there is no original (non retouched) color photo of early paint schemes pre WWII that I and others have seen, color film was expensive, slow, and not stable. There is a common belief among many that the roofs were red to the rain gutters, but the laborers that washed the engines when they came in for servicing only got to the gutters, so the tops never got washed and quickly became "black" There are paint diagrams that call for green roofs but not black as far as I have seen or talked with people.
Tender decks are another question. It is believed that a red deck meant stoker equipped and a black or green deck was no stoker, but there are pictures (an As11 0-8-0 in specific) that is hand fired with a red tender deck.
Locomotive details are even more confusing with the six major shops all doing their own thing.
If you want a true representation find a color picture and follow it. Otherwise you will just have to decide what you want. I probably existed at some point but who can say it did or didn't.
I personally have been told by a retired engineer (now deceased) of a Mountain that in late days was in the freight scheme of black with big tender numbers, but he couldn't remember the number and NO ONE anywhere in any collection or archive can corroborate this. I will not paint that unless I have evidence, but that's me.
Do your research and try to get as close as possible, if that is what you want.
Just my knowledge, hope this helps.
