A Tale of Two Paint Charts

Once upon a time, on the 1:1 scale, full-size, model circus known as Circus Kirk, all the original trucks were base painted red. Later on, when we added semis, they were all base painted white. This was probably because the semi cabs, which were leased, were white.

Every seat plank or stringer, every quarter pole, side pole, or center pole, and practically every thing made of wood or metal was painted in either of two shades of blue, in red, or in white. A little bit of gilt here and there, and no black that I can recall. I personally spent many hours in winter quarters with a paint brush in my hands. I remember those colors well.

Yellow was used sparingly, as a decoration or a highlight only. Yellow is considered an unlucky color to paint circus equipment. Our stake driver (the machine, not the truck) started life as an agricultural post driver. It was trailer mounted. It was yellow.

Dad had it modified by a welder into a circus type stake-driver, but at first, it just didn't work right. He told someone to paint it red, and it started working fine. We towed it at first, then eventually had it mounted to the back of a truck, looking much like the model I presented in an earlier post to this blog.


Back to the paint. Not only do I remember the colors, I remember the cans the paint came in, with the distinctive "Cover the Earth' logo. Circus Kirk was painted with Sherwin-Williams Kem-Tone Bulletin Colors. Bulletin colors are used for painting signs and billboards. I would imagine he would have used a similar sign painting enamel when he built his model circus a decade earlier.

I toddled down to my local Sherwin-Williams store, and spoke with the charming and helpful clerk who had previously helped me with some paint for my remodel. She put forth a mighty search, only to find out that the Kem-Tone Bulletin Colors had been discontinued some years previous. She did give me some suggestions for similar products. One of the two websites listed local resellers. I was able to locate several near my domicile in Austin.

I swung by my local art store, one of the dealers so listed, to check out the paint. They did indeed have it in stock, but no paint color charts, not even in "the back". I returned home and called all the other nearby retailers. Not one of them had the color charts, some of them didn't even actually carry the paint.

I returned to the computer. I emailed the company using the technical questions link on their website. I requested that they snail-mail me some hard copy color charts. In due course I got a reply that I really should get them from my local dealer, but they would forward my request to Chicago.


About a month later I had not heard anything, so i emailed them back, told them they were not too good at customer service, that their local dealers were not cooperating with them, and that they needed to get with the online age of expectations. I almost immediately got several email replies, and the color charts came in the mail a few days later.

In the meantime, I had emailed the other company I had located online. They sent me color charts by return post.


The upshot is that I will be able to match paint colors, in the same type of paint Dad originally used. Which company I end up using will depend on availability, package size, and convenience.

Next time, more about the Boas Brothers.