Need some color input

[LordsofMedieval]

Here's a head-scratcher:

So, I know that the base of the 20th Century Limited Hudsons was dark grey - it's clear from the promotional material (which was often colorized) that the color of the running gear, etc. on the locomotive and the bottom portion of the tender was too light to be considered a true black.

... assuming that I were going to use LBG to represent the main body of the locomotive and tender, would the theoretical contrast be too low to do the rest in dark bluish grey? Or, to put that another way: is DBG too 'light' to faithfully represent the bottom portions of this engine? Which is the better color to use here - black or DBG?

Thanks.

Edited September 25, 2023 by LordsofMedieval

[witchy]

I would do LBG+DBG; even if the DBG is lighter than the IRL colour, the contrast with other locomotives with black parts would make this one more distinctive. The second picture especially looks quite close to the LBG+DBG combination so it wouldn't even be much of a stretch.

The one place where I think black parts have a place would be in the inner structure of the frame, behind the DBG details, to represent them being shadowed and slightly highlight the contrast with the LBG top. Combine that with a tasteful application of pearl dark grey and suitable silver on the cylinders, running gear etc. and I think it's going to look pretty striking.

[SD100]

Yea I think LBG+DBG would stand out a lot better despite not being quite the correct color.

SD

Edited September 26, 2023 by SD100
oops

[zephyr1934]

If you are going pure digital can't you just build it and change the color at the last minute to see which is better? Or if you are planning to build it in real life and need to worry about part availability, build a sufficient cross section either digitally or physically so that you can see the color options in full context.