BR early blue to match Heljan, any idea's?

[piranha230]

I am looking a building a class 310 emu, in early BR chromatic blue, the darker shade of blue that was used before BR rail blue, I have attached a pic of the Heljan class 128 dmu in the earlier darker blue shade, to show what I mean, can anyone recommend a good match.

[John Tomlinson]

At risk of opening a very old can of worms, I'm not at all sure that "chromatic blue" exists, rather that the difference to "rail blue" is simply the effect of the initial method of spraying adopted by BR, which gave a very matt finish.

 

On many photos the early blue looks to be lighter than later blue as the surface finish weathered quite badly, and faded almost to white.

 

I stand to be corrected.

 

John.

[tractor_37260]

Phoenix Precision paints have 2 shades of BR Rail Blue in their range

 

P 132 (1966-1985)  

P 152  1985 - on 

 

P 132 is the lighter shade which I think suits early BR Blue diesels etc well

P 152 is darker, and AFAIK it was first used when L/L livery was introduced.

 

I've not heard of "chromatic" either, only Monastral Blue. Its possible ? the very first coaches trial painted in Blue/Grey livery (the XP64 rake I think) ? may have used a different shade of Blue to what was later adapted as standard.

 

It is believed that Heljan may have used paint shades/samples supplied by Howes/Railmatch, although some of my Heljan BR Blue 26/27's have noticeable different shades ! depending on when they were produced.

 

HTH

Ken

[BrushVeteran]

The specified colour on these models was Railmatch 207 Rail Blue. There was never a Chromatic Blue, this being Rail Blue but without full yellow ends which gave a different perception to the overall presentation to the subject. Unfortunately by the time the full yellow ends were specified the original paint finish had faded to such an extant that it was perceived that the original shade was different.