Colour scheme help

[Negative Creep]

I'm having trouble working out the correct colour scheme for a few models I'm about to paint, and I was wondering what paints people here use? I've checked a lot of photos and sites, but they are often contradictory, or because of the old nature of the photos, hard to judge. The ones I'm stuck with are

P-38H PTO - It suggests humbrol 66 and 164 (Olive drab & dark sea grey) but both of these seem way too dark
F4U-1D USMC - Is only listed as dark sea blue, which isn't very helpful!
Typhoon 1b & Spitfire IX - both in the standard RAF 3 tone
MC.202 Folgore - The instructions list the propeller as being silver, yet the box seems to show it as black?

If anyone has the humbrol or Tamiya paint numbers, that would be really appreciated!


btw - It doesn't have to be 100% dead on accurate, a close enough shade will do!

[Wurger]

Hi !!!
With tonality of enamels it is always a problem.You should remember that in reality a tone of a paint depends on many things.For instance: a paint quality,the area where the a/c was used and the weather conditions there, the time of usage ( long ,short period ),dameges during struggles etc....
Certainly,the brand new plane direct from a factory looks better than the a/c used operational for long time.In Internet you can find many articles about it.Look around closely, please.
But if you don't time here you are.

for Typhoon 1b & Spitfire IX

Dark green FS34095
- Humbrol 30,116
- Gunze H73
- Testors 1764

Ocean grey FS 36187
- Humbrol 106
- Xtracolor X6
- Lifecolor UA093

Medium sea grey FS 36270
- Humbrol 64,126
- Gunze H335
- Testors 1725
- Tamiya XF20


for P-38H PTO

41 Dark olive drab FS 30118 - Humbrol 142
FS 34086 - Humbrol 66
FS 34088 - Humbrol 155
FS 34201 - Humbrol 84
- Gunze H78
- Testors 1702
- Tamiya XF51

43 Natural grey FS 36173-FS 36270 - Humbrol 126,156,164,176
- Gunze H306
- Testors 1725
- Tamiya XF20


for F4U-1D USMC

from 22nd of March 1944 to 1955
all surfaces of a/cs ANA 623 Glossy Blue FS15042 - Humbrol 181
- Gunze 54
- Testors 1717
- Xtracolor X121
- Lifecolor UA047

As far as MC.202 Folgore is concerned there is e problem with the propeller blades painting.It seems that they should be black Humbrol 33,Tamiya XF1 but in the pics of early Mc202 they seem to be silver.Or black on back surfaces and silver on front ones.However,in many pics of later Mc202 is clearly visible that blades are dark painted with white or yellow endings.Because there were the general rules of Italian camouflage only and Italians used German colours for painting often so there is posibility that the propeller could be painted with Schwarzgrun RLM70- Humbrol 91,Tamiya XF27,Gunze65.I think you have to find a pic of the plane you want to make.Only in the way you can find out what the propeller colours were.

regards,

BTW Enamels for small scale models (1:72 for instance) should be a bit lighter with a drop of white enamel to make the contrast of camo colours much more visible.

[Negative Creep]

EDxcellent, thnaks a lot for that! My airbrush should arrive tuesday so I can get down to spraying then. Never really done much weathering before, but will give it a go, I'll post the results up when all models are finished

[Matt308]

Look forward to it.

[Wurger]

Negative Creep, don't worry about weathering.It is a next step in modelling.I think it is better to make firstly some models painted like they would be just from a factory and than try make weathering on the next models.Besides, it is better to make a training on old or cheap models at first and get much practice.

BTW.I also look forward to the pics of your models.

[Negative Creep]

I have made a few models before; mostly 1:24 scale cars, so am fairly good at the basics. I found a good FAQ at rec.models.scale FAQ part 15 Being at university we get the entire month off, so at least I'll have plenty of time to practice!

[Wurger]

Nice.So I'll be waiting for the pic.

[Negative Creep]

Cheers for all the advice - a few more quick ones; what would be the Tamiya paints for underside of RAF desert scheme (azure?), and Dark Slate Grey Luftwaffe Himmelblau, and the underside of a winter scheme Yak-3? Again doesn't have to be exact, just a good match

I did find http://www.ip0.msstockholm.org/colorcharts/colorcharts.asp
which is quite useful as well

[Wurger]

1. To be honest I haven't found the Tamiya paint number of the Azure Blue.
There others:
RAF desert scheme Azure Blue - FS35231 Humbrol 89+157 proportion 2:1
Xtracolor X26

2. There were many shades of the colour, you should take it into consideration.Besides, I haven't found the Tamiya one for the paint.
Himmelblau-Azureblau RLM 78 - FS35450 Humbrol 47
Gunze H418
Aeromaster 2087

3. You should remember that Russians painted the winter camo on the standard summer one mostly.Besides I haven't found any pics of Yak-3 with the winter camo so far.There are many photos of Yak-3 with summer camo in winter.So there is a posibility that the model of the Yakovlev's fighter wasn't painted with winter camo at all.
Yak-3 AII goluboy (light blue) - FS595- 25466 Humbrol 65
Gunze H67
Tamiya XF23

For early Yak you can use:
AMT-7 goluboy - FS595- 25550 Humbrol 115
Pactra A109
A-28M goluboy - FS595- 35250 Humbrol 115
Pactra A109
For AMT-7 and A-28M you can use RLM78 Himmelblau.Unfortunately ,Humbrol 115 hasn't been produced yet.

The best model equivalents of the real Russian paints are the White Ensign enamels.You can also find there Luftwaffe ones.There is a link :
White Ensign Models home page for ship kits and upgrades

or

White Ensign Models

[Negative Creep]

Thanks for the advice. I only use acrylic paints (Tamiya, as per, seem to be the best) not just because they are easier to use, but I also have an allergy to white spirit or thinners, and if I get any on my skin it kills! The model shops round here only sell Revell or Tamiya, although the online shop I use also sells Vallejo, who do sell an azure.

As for the Yak, I haven't seen any photos of a white on either. However since I have pictures of the 1 and 9 in winter wear, I can't see the 3 not having had it. Seeing as it was a very rough finish, what I thought of doing was spraying it a general dark brown and green, then roughly spraying white over the top

[Wurger]

I'm sorry to hear that you suffer from the kind of the allergy.It can be really dangerous.So you haven't any choice.Maybe I should look at the all available paints for modellers and make a list of nontoxic enamels that can be used by people who have an allergy to enamels,thinners and etc...

The Vallejo paints are also a good choice and the Gunzo Sangyo Aqueous serie as well.

BTW I've found the mixture of Humbrol 65 (Tamiya XF23) + Humbrol 64 (Tamiya XF12) in proportion 10:1 as the underside paint in the assembly for the Smer YAK-3 kit.