Lead compounds don't necessarily provide more vivid color,
but are often the cheapest source of color. It is perfectly possible,
as many art supplies testify, to have FAR more vivid colors than
anything we use as modelers, and without a trace of lead. Next time
you're at the art supply store, browse the paints and you'll see what
I mean. Yes, there are plenty of lead-containing paints, but there are
also plenty of bright colors without lead.

Tony Thompson

Mmmm, certainly not what the paint chemist who mixed Scalecoat told me. I was then (and still am,
for that matter) hoping to get a Scalecoat version of the two ERIE greens used for passenger
service. Or, actually, anybody other than Accupaint's versions. I was never able to get Accupaint
to work for me. But to get back to the point, Weaver at Quality Craft referred me to the chemist to
ask about mixing such a paint. He said that he was in the process at that time (this is ca. 1982 or
so) of finding suitable substitute coloring agents to be able to match the colors he'd created when
lead was an acceptable component of paint, and that it was proving to be an extremely hard and
frustrating exercise. He believed that it was simply not possible to achieve a dead match to colors
prepared with lead compounds. IIRC, this also applied to a few other coloring agents, but I don't
recall them at this remove.

The upshot was that he was not interested at all in working with me to create these other colors.
He had far too much to do to finish reproducing the line lead-free.

SGL





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