Newbie with a question regarding different makers and painting instructions

Oh, I'll build it again.  The one I really want to do again was the 1/350 U.S.S. Enterprise.  When I first got back into hobby many years ago, this was the first one I pickked up.  People loved it, but I hated looking at it.  I kept thining, "I messed up here, screwed that up there, what was I even thinking there."   I eventually scraped what I could for parts and moved on. 

16. 

Gmorrison, that is an incredible site, I didnt know that existed. I did buy that warship pictorials book on the yorktown class carriers though

Yeah gymbo I got the testors model master weathered deck blue, gonna try it out, looks good. sorry to here about your loss but looks like you get to have the fun of building her all over again. I built the revell 1/48 scale B-17 but this was before I discovered the wonders of airbrusshing so its got ons of brush marks and Ive been secretly waiting for my kid to "accidently" break it so I can build another one but fix my mistakes! lol

Thankfully there are plenty of photos of the deck from the Doolittle raid.  The deck was quite cramped with some of the planes tails hanging off the edge of the deck.

Im going with the doolittle raid, I got 2 packs of the 10 B-25 mitchells per pack. I have to look up exactly how many B-25's were on her deck but i got 20 just in case

GMorrison

It's best to completely ignore the painting instructions in model kits, esp. mass produced ones. I've learned over the years that the people who put the cartoon section together are dissassociated from both the construction of the kit, and reality.

I also caution against using other builds as reference, although thats somewhat more reliable.

But the web is such a great tool. Take a look at this link:

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/

 

Nice find!!!

 

 

It's best to completely ignore the painting instructions in model kits, esp. mass produced ones. I've learned over the years that the people who put the cartoon section together are dissassociated from both the construction of the kit, and reality.

I also caution against using other builds as reference, although thats somewhat more reliable.

But the web is such a great tool. Take a look at this link:

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/

For the deck I used "weathered deck"(I believe) from Pollyscale.  When I get home tonight I'll look up the correct name of the paint and look for a part number.  It's available on Amazon.  I got mine at my LHS. I had to throw mine out about three months ago.  I had it down for cleaning & my girlfriend walked by my modeling table and her sweater caught a corner and down she went.  It was too damaged for my ability to repair it. It's ok though she always gets me great models for Christmas, Birthdays, etc.  I thought it might be to soon to ask for one this Christmas

I had the sam eproble when  I built this it 4 years ago.  I could find only a few color pictures.  I just looked aat everything I could and made an semi-educated guess.  Just curious are you going with planes that came with the kit  (F4F-4, etc.) or with the
B-25's from the Doolittle Raid? 

If one can't afford to buy books, there's always the public library.

Thanks everyone for the great intel. I ordered a book on the yorktown class carriers and will use it heavily. I'm hoping I can get some quality color pics. Thats the thing about WW2 models, alot of the pics are black and white.

Just echoing what others have said.  Often the paint color recommendations provided in the instructions are only quick approximations, other times they are totally inaccurate.  Before I start on a model, I will typically research and decide on how everything is to be painted.  Depending on the subject, I'll use different resources for this.  I'll look at reference books, websites, and do tons of images searches on Google.  I create a folder on my computer where I save all of these photos for future reference.  I will also look at how others have modelled the same subject, and what colors they used.  Then looking at all of this, I'll ultimately make my color selections, sometimes based on what is "accurate", and other times based on simply what looks best to me.  By the time all is said and done it ends up being unique in one way or another.  That's the beauty of this hobby -- there really is no right or wrong.  As long as you produce something that's pleasing to YOU, that is really all that matters.

-Kizzy

More times than not the colors listed in the instructions are wrong anyway.  Just add researching what you are building as the first step when you start the project.

Another thing I rely on heavily is research books.I realize this is not always financialy feasible but the nice thing about them is the extraa history one usually gets from them as well as the ability to refer back to them for future projects. I'm one of those who gets much enjoyment not only from the technical items regarding a build but also the history as well.Just something to consider.......

You know I never thought of that! Im going to search the web for it. Thank you very much!

Hi,

Well, sometimes you can do a search online over the class of ship you are building.  For example (I'm asuming the CV-8 version of the Hornet not the CVS-12) is a Yorktown class carrier.  Well there was also a USS Yorktown.  I believe Merit makes a version of the Yorktown.  If you can get a copy of their paint scheme you are good to go.  You should also search this forum and FSM to see if anyone has build either your Hornet or the Merit Yorktown.  If so they be able to help.

The largest issue is that the WWII carriers had a wooden (teak or mahogany I believe) flight deck.  So the color of that deck where dark will not be black.

Also do a google search for " Color Images Of the USS Hornet CV-8 ".  Here is a review with pictures for the Merit kit...it may help it may not...  http://cv5yorktown.com/?page_id=546

Good Luck

Shnake

Thank you very much for your response. Revell makes some ok smaller models but im trying to get into a bigger scale now and it seems that revell is not the company for larger scale models. I built revell's 1/72 gato class submarine, which was a good build, but that is as far as they go for larger scale models. Follow up question: 1. What does the advanced modeller do in this case? I have looked up pictures of the USS Hornet but they are black and white and far away. where can I go to find what color some of the smaller details are?. And 2. Who makes quality large scale models with more detailed paint instruction? I have looked at tamiya instructions and they look the same. They will show you the color of a few specific paieces but not nearly all of them. Thank you in advance for any information.

Probably a cost and time to market issue.  Like you said it requires people to do the research to gain the colors and then to assign them based on available paints.  This can be hundreds of items for each model.  Now multiply that over how many models they have in their inventory and that adds up to a substantial amount of man hours for each kit.

Plus this all takes time.  Once this goes into production they must to have everything ready for packaging which includes the instructions and paint schemes.  If those are delayed they can't produce and they are forced to either close the production line or pay people to stand around.

Revell Monogram is a HUGE organization and has been around for ages.  They likely have the resources to provide the most accurate data possible.  They have the whole process down to a science and probably have advanced people working on models while the object is still in production.

I'm thinking that the only thing you can do is go to the company website and see if they have an updated list, and voice your concerns as well.  If enough people do this, they will make a change.  But it must make financial sense to them.  Given this is a Chinese based company that is fairly new I'm thinking your chances are slim.  They will come around but it will take time, or people will stop purchasing their product and they will be gone.