Silver bridge color recommendation

[SOMECALLMETIM]

Looking for recommendations for a sliver color to paint my plate girder bridge. I normally work with Modelflex paint, but open to other suggestions. Would one of the Imitation Silver colors (16-193 or 16-179) be a good option?

[Christian]

Cheap aluminum paint was what went on bridges. Frequently over orange lead primer. (back in the lead years) To my mind, silver is too dark. Tamiya makes flat aluminum paint. Vallejo, AK Interactive, and Mission also make aluminum, each in several shades, but I have not used them.

[wp8thsub]

DSC02751 by wp8thsub, on Flickr

I like Rustoleum flat aluminum. Since metallic paint can craze styrene, I make sure to use a primer first.

[SOMECALLMETIM]

Christian,

Thank you for the recommendations. For the orange lead primer - I can really see it coming through the paint now (visited the bridge two months ago) compared to when I first photographed it back in 2004 - do you have a primer recommendation? I can see pink and red faded to orange in the primer coat on the bridge. I'm leaning towards using Tamiya flat aluminum for the bridge color. I see Tamiya also have a spray fine surface primer in pink - item #87146. I wonder if the pink primer would be a good stand-in for the orange lead primer?

I like the idea of the Rustoleum flat aluminum, but not sure of my control with spray paint cans. Just spray painted my cement bridge piers with Rustoleum and it made me super nervous that I would spray too thick and make paint runs. On the bridge and the telegraph pole brackets I think I wouldn't have enough control over the spray.

[Christian]

I grew up a few miles from both the Illinois River and the Mississippi rivers. To go anywhere meant crossing one or the other at some point or another. In the summers (1950s) I hit the jackpot when one of the bridges was being repainted. That happened frequently since the aluminum paint had crap durability. The lead primer was BRIGHT orange or BRIGHT red. Almost day-glo but that was a word for the future. BNSF orange reminds me of lead primer at the orangy end of the range. As a kid I always wished they wouldn't put that aluminium all over the nice orange and red paint.

When folks finally decided that two thousand years evidence of lead poisoning needed to be addressed, remediation on these big river bridges cost too much money for government and railroads. If they didn't do anything to the existing paint they didn't have to put out money. So bridges turned to rust and traffic vibrations dusted the aluminium and lead into the rivers. Where is is today.

I'm guessing if you are seeing a bridge that is now painted that the primer isn't lead. It's been effectively banned since 1978 and it isn't likely that the paint on your bridge predates that. If modern the primer would be the common red used in automotive primer. If your bridge is that old, the lead would have oxidized into a dark red about the color of, get this, automotive primer.

By the way, occasionally a bridge would have zinc chromate primer which was lime green. That lasted into this century. Model Master has this color.

EDIT: The Golden Gate bridge is the classic example of the color of lead primer.

[riogrande]

Christian, have you traveled across the Potomac River bridge on Route 15 north/south. Is that the green you are talking about?



I've crossed that bridge more times than I can remember driving back and forth to NY state and seen so many bridges over the years that color.

[Christian]

Feb 24, 2021 8:58:11 GMT -8 riogrande said:

Is that the green you are talking about?

I'm not sure a primer would be used as a top coat. If it is, then it is really faded. This swatch is Mission Models paint and seems to be about the same for Vallejo, AKI, and Model Master.

All the warnings about color and computer monitors and paint swatches on mystery materials and all that other stuff we read so often apply here. It makes you just want to give up and collect stamps, sometimes.

[nebrzephyr]

I've seen highway bridges painted a bluish-green that reminds me of the "green" Union Pacific used on the MOW equipment in the 80's (and maybe still do).

Bob