Since all my models are built and maintained by the motley crew at the ER&I shop, they just paint with whatever they can find. Usually a rattle can from Lowes or Home Depot. 
Being an old model painter and have used mostly model railroad paints which are either not made anymore or just too hard to find, so I have gone with Rust Oleum X2 paints in spray cans. I have found I can find very close matches in most railroad colors, due note here, all my repaints are done in narrow gauge colors so I’m not looking for mainline colors for todays railroads. Rust Oleum has a good selection of browns, reddish browns, dark browns, etc. to get my personal railroad cars in a very close look to actual railroad colors. We all know that railroad cars all fade and to find two cars that look alike just doesn’t happen on the older narrow gauge railroads. Another thing is, I like painting in enamels, none of that water base stuff for me, it just does a crappy job in my estimation, but if it works for you then go with it. I will also add here, I sometimes use the paint from the spray cans and mix them together to get a more correct color if needed, I then spray the mixed color from my airbrush. Here is pic of a LGB Mogul painted with mixed Rust Oleum colors, the color Rio Grande Gold is spot on.
trainman
Honestly I never even considered just matching tattle can paint. Especially for the only railroad I care to get close it probably wouldn’t be hard. May have to give that a try. I already use the 2x paint alot. Should have thought of that myself.
Hey John, cool idea. How do you dispense the paint to mix? Do you spray into a cup or container? I’ve done that to get a bit on a brush. Never thought about re-spraying it!
Here is a video on YouTube that shows different ways of removing paint from spray cans, I have only used the straw method and not the puncher the can method. Pro Tip: Decanting Spray Paint - YouTube Due note there as several videos on this so just type in, Removing paint from spray cans on YouTube. It is important that you let the sprayed out paint air dry in the bottle so the spray propellent can dissolve from the paint, just watch videos for correct ways of doing it.
trainman
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