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Here is the reply from Nick Molo concerning the color process for these cars.
The colour selection is a long one and it isn’t easy. First up we purchase all the yellow paints on the market, mostly railroad colour some not. I actually spray all of them on the real car sides that they would appear on, like the General American cars in this case. They are then compared to photographs, noting that some images have a slight shift in colour during processing and age. The short list is then sent out to a well known modeler with an excellent eye for colour and a discussion is made with which to go with. One of the colours is selected.
Unlike other companies barring one other that I know of, I send the actual wet painted sample to China to get it matched. It gets sprayed in a first round production sample and it is checked again by me with a side by side physical comparison. Likewise the matching coloured plastic that is used on the model, specifically the ladders in this case is also checked to the finished samples. If another round of sampling is necessary this process is done again.
Sometimes I’m lucky and a colour like NYC jade green is sprayed from one of the paint brands is a great match straight out of the bottle. Sometimes like the reefer yellow used on the WADX and MODX cars it takes 16 yellows to go through to get the correct colour.
