Paint colors for a early 1942 SBD

Andy:  for Midway-era SBD's, you'd be using the US Navy's Blue Gray (upper) and Light Gray (lower), with a feathered type of soft overspray at the demarcation line.  You can use rolls of poster-tack to achieve the effect.

I usually use Colourcoats enamels, and they produce the colors.  Not sure about acrylics.

Here's a Wildcat I did years ago, to sort of illustrate the principle, painted with the Colourcoats paints.

Good luck with your SBD!

Testors MM makes a USN Blue Gray 205546 that looks pretty good. I used it over Light Gull Gray.

I've heard Tamiya XF-18 Medium Blue suggested, but it's not right.

For Tamiya, you have to mix, but they look right:

Blue grey 3:1, XF-18 to XF-2

Light grey 2:1, XF-19 to XF-2

Mr Paint has premixed versions (named after the USN designations). They’re a bit expensive and hard to get, but nice.

Don’t know after that.

Cheers

-J

Thanks everyone for the info! I will put it to use!

2 other interesting side notes---

There is a new book out written by Dusty Kleiss---Scouting 6 pilot who sank 2 of the carriers at Midway--"Never Call Me a Hero". Great read! After talking to him in 1979 the book fills in details that he didn't have time to mention. He wrote it at the age of 99!

Also I accidently left Windex residue in my airbrush bottle and then sprayed Tamiya gloss red---And the paint was faded. Looks great! Someone might want to explore this---