which tamiya grey colors for modern usn and usaf aircraft

Tamiya paints are not matched to Federal Standards. One of their major disadvantages. But there are charts out there with mixing ratios to address that issue. Or you can go with one of the paint lines that market the colors you need such as Humbrol, Model Master, Gunze, Xtracolor, Italeri, that are matched to FS colors.

Toolmaker, there's plenty out there in the way of help. Some times it's tricky to find where they're hiding. Here are some go to sites that I've used in the past:

www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_us.htm

http://ipmsrealcote.pro-forums.org/t832-tamiya-mixes-for-some-fs-colors-full-up-to-date-list-in-english

That second link didn't work when I tried to use it just now, but if you search "tamiya fs color chart" it'll come up.

I have an app that has come in real handy when trying to find colors that don't seem to have an exacty Tamiya equivalent. It's called iModelKit. It'll change how think about modeling. I don't even use half of what it can do. Here's what I came up with for fs36375...

Mix 1 - 7:4:1 (basically, for every 1 drop of Flat Earth you'll have 4 drops of Lt Sea Grey and 7 drops of Sky Grey...be sure to thoroughly mix your paint or your pigment in the paint will not be uniform.

XF19 Sky Grey--7

XF25 Light Sea Grey--4

XF52 Flat Earth--1

Untitled by Britt Vallot, on Flickr

Mix 2 - 3:1

XF19 Sky Grey--3

XF54 Dark Sea Grey--1

Untitled by Britt Vallot, on Flickr

Mix 3 - 1:5:2:6

XF19 Sky Grey--1

XF8 Flat Blue--5

XF52 Flat Earth--2

XF2 Flat White--6

Untitled by Britt Vallot, on Flickr

That last one ought to get you right on top of that FS color. I put up a list of 3 mixes in case you didn't have some of these colors. Sky Grey is a great color to help you get there that just about everyone ought to have in their collection anyhow. Try those out and see how they work for you. 

i guess what i was really asking for was not so much direct equivalents, but if you were going to grab a bottle of tamiya off the the shelf as is, which tamiya xf's come closest to satisfactory.

thanks much for replies so far

cnc_toolmaker

i guess what i was really asking for was not so much direct equivalents, but if you were going to grab a bottle of tamiya off the the shelf as is, which tamiya xf's come closest to satisfactory.

thanks much for replies so far

Without mixing I'd suggest XF-19 for light ghost gray (FS36375) and XF-53 for Dark Ghost Gray (FS36320), the USAF also has a darker gray FS36176, I'd say XF-24 will be the closest. Both use neutral gray (fs36270) for interiors, I'd use XF-20 for this one. That is as close as you will get without mixing. Model Masters is matched, and Vallejo has better close enough colors. Tamiya is really formulated for the Japanese subjects. I can't find fault in them for doing that.

Well I hope this helps some. 

should also say what prompted my question. in the past i've always used mm enamels. been trying to force myself to learn to use acrylics. have so far tried vallejo, akan and most recently mig. to a degree i like them, easy clean up, no harsh solvents. i know tamiya is not a true acrylic, but for airbrushing it's hard to beat. i'll probably end up back with enamels after my current project

i know this is dicussed to death here

bvallot, curious...what is the program or app that you have showing the tamiya mixes?

It's called iModelKit. It's definitely available for iPhone. Not sure about other platforms. I can't recall if it costs anything but I can tell you if you're mixing paints or using it as a reference for paints, there's a scale computer, etc ...it's absolutely worth it. It has every paint and weathering swab you've ever heard of catalogued.