More patch jobs coming up but tonight I thought I'd try an experiment in grayscale especially since this picture was too desaturated to do anything else with it. The highlighted chip is GMC Polar Gray...

Okay, if I aim the green toward the lighter shaded pixels, I can bring the gray in closer to Suede...

Outside of the Reading shops again, the open hatch on #552 there, which would most likely be Suede Gray, more closely matches the covered hopper on the right...

#15012 here is from one of the missing classes as listed on the Reading Modeler website but unfortunately, it has what appears to be three different shades of gray applied to it, the last of which seems to more closely resemble the limestone ballast. LOL

UPDATE EDIT: The Conrail Historical Society website is the source of the photo. The Reading class is LOo...

https://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/photo ... -class-loo

The stenciled shop date is June of 1976 so that lower patched area should be CR's covered hopper gray...

The car on the left is one of the darker grays. #15071 has closed-in sides and rounded roof hatches along with lots of surface rust and somewhat of a blanched lime wash look so perhaps that one was painted the lighter gray...

That limestone under #15012 looks a lot like our local variety so here it is on the 1967 color chart...

93-503 Suede Gray is close to GMC Dusty Gray which I am now able to identify as 93-3152. This fleet color was used by GMC from 1935 until 1940 and the Ditzler/PPG number is 30023...

https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetail.cgi?ppg=30023

Suede Gray's oldest Ditzler/PPG number is 30022...

https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetail.cgi?ppg=30022

Anyway, it still remains a toss-up between Ford Dovetone Gray and GMC Polar Gray for the lighter color. I still like the Polar Gray just by the way it looks in person...

According to this 1940 Sherwin-Williams sheet, 1935 to 1938 for GMC Dusty Gray...

Today's grayscale comparison features the Annville shifter with the Venetian Yellow chip included. While Venetian Yellow and Polar Gray seem to fall into line with the caboose and the Center-Flow respectfully, the Suede Gray chip now appears to be a bit too dark. It does match the sky, however... LOL

GMC Dusty Gray is a slightly warmer color compared to Suede Gray like GMC Polar Gray is compared to Ford Dovetone Gray. I'm assuming PaintRef scanned 30022 and 30023 from the same chip sheet so here are the Encycolorpedia pages for each of those...

30022 Suede...

https://encycolorpedia.com/b6b6b9

30023 Dusty Gray...

https://encycolorpedia.com/c1c3b7

Considering just about all the other Reading colors I've found so far are known General Motors-oriented fleet selections, Dusty Gray is definitely worth considering. LOL

This is what happens when I try to do chip matches with the color included but Dusty Gray does seem to fall right in there...

My Acme sample of Dusty Gray is slightly darker than the DuPont Suede Gray chips I have on hand so I'm not exactly sure where that color lies. Hopefully, at some point, I'll try to pick up the DuPont sheet for a better comparison. WE5720 Gray in the fan deck is a potential candidate for GMC Dusty Gray.

Anyway, since I had nothing better to do this morning, here are the Venetian Yellow, Morat Green, and Suede Gray chips just plopped down over one of the SD-45's without any color manipulation...

No, that is not gray... LOL

Yeah, that's about as desaturated as you'll ever see the yellow so I'm wondering how that happened. The EL gray is fairly close to the ballast color, though...

#6104 was the other SD-45 that received the deluxe two-tone patch job. The green appears to match on both of these units along with the yellow...