WWII RAF Colours - help needed

[Guest]

Hi, I'm new and this is my first post on here. Rather than making a special introduction post I thought I'd get straight to the point and ask for words of wisdom from the masses!

I'm currently finishing a Hasegawa 1:48 Hawker Typhoon (car door version). The kits just had its painting finished and I used the Vallejo Model Air range of paints for the first time on this kit. Very impressed with them and will certainly look to use them in the future, but despite the excellent finish and ease of use they presented, I'm not sure the actual colour is right! I did the usual RAF Ocean Grey/Dark Green top surface camo with Medium Sea Grey undersurfaces, I looked on the Vallejo website and they suggest in their equivalencies list that WWII RAF colours correspond to 012 (dark green), 048 (dark sea grey) and 050 (light grey). However, they look wrong to me when applied next to one another, the dark green being more of an olive drab shade and the dark sea grey being much darker than any other RAF camo'd models that I can find.

Its a bit late now to change it but Im at a loss now for when I need to do this scheme again, Its a very common colour combination so it seems amazing that the colours they've suggested appear to be so wrong.

Can anyone suggest where I went wrong or which colours to use instead (preferably from the model air range)? Cheers.

[Guest]

Hi, I'm new and this is my first post on here. Rather than making a special introduction post I thought I'd get straight to the point and ask for words of wisdom from the masses!I'm currently finishing a Hasegawa 1:48 Hawker Typhoon (car door version). The kits just had its painting finished and I used the Vallejo Model Air range of paints for the first time on this kit. Very impressed with them and will certainly look to use them in the future, but despite the excellent finish and ease of use they presented, I'm not sure the actual colour is right! I did the usual RAF Ocean Grey/Dark Green top surface camo with Medium Sea Grey undersurfaces, I looked on the Vallejo website and they suggest in their equivalencies list that WWII RAF colours correspond to 012 (dark green), 048 (dark sea grey) and 050 (light grey). However, they look wrong to me when applied next to one another, the dark green being more of an olive drab shade and the dark sea grey being much darker than any other RAF camo'd models that I can find.

Its a bit late now to change it but Im at a loss now for when I need to do this scheme again, Its a very common colour combination so it seems amazing that the colours they've suggested appear to be so wrong.

Can anyone suggest where I went wrong or which colours to use instead (preferably from the model air range)? Cheers.

Hi M4rk.

I have read your post and can only comment on the color scheme i use when building WW11 aircraft, the difference being that the scale i build at is 1/8th, however the color scheme is the same, the paint manufacturers ref may be different, for the underside we use 2 colors: Cement Grey and Battleship Grey. The top color will always be Olive Drab. Good luck.

Andy

[stona]

Hi M4rk,

you've got the correct colours. Some manufacturers have better matches than others. As you use acrylics you might try Xtracrylix who have very accurate matches in their range. They are fairly easy to use once you get the thinning right and they can be thinned with tap water. I use a flow enhancer (available in any decent art shop) to ease the problem of the paint drying at the airbrush tip.

If you fancy using enamels then the best matches are the WEM colourcoats.

Remember that in the real world the hues of these colours could vary at the production stage,never mind in application and then there is weathering,fading etc.

I always lighten my colours,no matter how well they match original paint chips,to cater for scale effect. Colours always appear darker on a small model than on the real thing.Varnishes or coats of Klear also darken the colours. You'll find much debate and hot air about this on various sites!

There is a very entertaining, and sometimes heated, thread on Britmodeller about RAF dark green which is worth a read.

I always reckon that at the end of the day it's your model and if you're happy with it then it's OK.

Cheers

Steve

[wonwinglo]

The camouflage paint as used especially on WW2 aircraft varied a lot in shades and tones,this was due to many reasons not even considering pigment instability due to the suns rays,adverse weather etc, as model builders we are far too rigid in what the charts actually state as correct,cellulose dope was the main type of paint used back then and it was manufactured by many different paint people Cellon,Titanine etc being but two of them,whilst Air Min specs were suggested fillers and pigments in the dope varied giving a wide variety of shades,also it was not unknown for sprayers to mix different shades together to put them to good use from different cans,I am not saying that your paint is right or wrong, but please bear these points in mind when considering the accuracy of paint finishes especially on wartime aircraft of that period.

Hi, I'm new and this is my first post on here. Rather than making a special introduction post I thought I'd get straight to the point and ask for words of wisdom from the masses!I'm currently finishing a Hasegawa 1:48 Hawker Typhoon (car door version). The kits just had its painting finished and I used the Vallejo Model Air range of paints for the first time on this kit. Very impressed with them and will certainly look to use them in the future, but despite the excellent finish and ease of use they presented, I'm not sure the actual colour is right! I did the usual RAF Ocean Grey/Dark Green top surface camo with Medium Sea Grey undersurfaces, I looked on the Vallejo website and they suggest in their equivalencies list that WWII RAF colours correspond to 012 (dark green), 048 (dark sea grey) and 050 (light grey). However, they look wrong to me when applied next to one another, the dark green being more of an olive drab shade and the dark sea grey being much darker than any other RAF camo'd models that I can find.

Its a bit late now to change it but Im at a loss now for when I need to do this scheme again, Its a very common colour combination so it seems amazing that the colours they've suggested appear to be so wrong.

Can anyone suggest where I went wrong or which colours to use instead (preferably from the model air range)? Cheers.

[Guest]

I am doing a fire boat and had the Bs No so was able to get the paints mixed localy in airosols. there are branches all over the country and are cheap enough and you can get any type of paint,

BS-381C Colours

Color Reference Charts -  United Kingdom

Car Paint from AutoPaint St Helens (Powered by CubeCart)

Peter