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What would be the best touch up paint for a lionel tmcc scale daylight? I was looking at the tru color 106 and 107 for red and orange which is what I need. Would it be OK to use a brush to just dab a little in areas that have some paint loss? Is the fact that it is solvent based bad? Is there another brand that is better? Thanks in advance for your advice.

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I have been down this road with SP engine colors and can say that the red (I think actually designated SP "Scarlet") is an easier match than the orange - not least because Lionel used its own idiosyncratic color mix. Also you have to bear in mind that the finish is not matte or gloss but more like semi-gloss. 

For the red I'd use Tru-Color's TCP106 Daylight Red; they also make a TCP107 Daylight Orange. These are meant to be airbrushed but if shaken thoroughly and applied quickly to a small area can be brushed on. Clean up with acetone as these are solvent-based paints sometimes described as "lacquer" but the formula is Tru-Color's own proprietary mix. Another airbrush paint (acrylic) that I have used for very small nicks is Badger Model Flex 16-36 SP Daylight Red. With the orange I found that it was necessary to look around for a shade that, whichever railroad it was attributed to, actually was a close match for a specific Lionel engine. 

I am not sure if you'll be able to find anywhere the old Floquil or PollyScale SP Daylight colors that were designed for brush application but they were fairly user-friendly.

Last edited by Hancock52

I had some nicks I touched up on the orange paint on my Lionel Daylight Legacy scale SD40, and also on the orange on an Atlas O Rio Grande GP35. For the Daylight orange, I found Tru-Color SP Daylight Orange (TCP-107) to be an excellent match - pretty much dead on - for the orange shade Lionel used on the SD40.

I don't know if the shade of orange used on the SD-40 (made years later) is the same as that used on your 4-8-4. I assume, if it's TMCC, your engine is the GS-2 no. 38079 cataloged in 2004 Vol. 2; it was the first scale GS Daylight Lionel made and the only TMCC scale one I'm aware of, all the others made after that being Legacy-equipped. I think the paint color will be very close, though, if not dead on, so I'd start with the Tru-Color. A little mixing may be necessary, though, as  I mention below.

I mention the Rio Grande GP35, which is a tough orange shade to match, because with that one I had to mix several shades of orange to achieve a match. Point is, you may need to mix paints to get the right shade, which can work very well. I just mixed drops from different shade of orange in a small plastic dish (used wooden toothpicks to pull drops out of the paint jars) and stirred until getting the right blend. I achieved a perfect match for the orange in this case. I applied the paint with a very small brush. Sometimes I use a sissors to trim off some of the hairs from a brush to get it really small.  

Carefully apply a tiny amount of paint so it goes on as flat as possible, so the touchup is less noticeable. With the small paint defects you show in your photos, I think the touched up look will be a satisfying improvement. I'd definitely do it.

Last edited by breezinup

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