maclaren red

Oy pingtang,
I just finished a McLaren MP4/8 and, like you, I painted the red instead of using the decals, using an airbrush. I had a heck of a time getting the color right. I couldn't find a Tamiya flourescent red in the jars that was even close, so I first tried Testors Model Master acrylic flourescent red, #4703. It looked a bit off color, but like an idiot I masked the model and sprayed it on anyway. Awful!! Way too orange. After stripping the whole thing, I primed it again, sprayed the white again, and then used Testors Model Master enamel, #2041 (28913) flourescent red-orange, with just a drop of Testors Model Master enamel insignia red #705 (31136), at about 20:1. This came out really well, and it matched the decal colors perfectly.
If you're set on using a rattle-can instead of airbrushing, I'd suggest you try the canned color on some scrap first to test color compatibility. One would hope the Tamiya flourescent red would match their decal color, but don't take chances...
Good luck with it, and let us know how it works out.
Glenn

Model Car World should be able to match it perfectly. It's not on their list, but they do special orders. Here is their website. www.ourworld.cs.com/mcwautofinishes.

Good luck.
Lee

Don't make the mistake of thinking the decals the "correct" color.
McLarens were a very bright red-orange. It doesn't photograph well and I doubt it translates to decal film either.
When Penske raced CART I had the chance to compare the Marlboro red-orange to the Tamiya color and it was almost perfect in direct sunlight. One of the Techs told me the color was the same for McLaren.
BTW, Penske stripped and repainted his cars after EVERY race, so there was no chance for the color to fade!

Don

dkmacin,
You're absolutely correct that you can't use photographs to determine the color of the Marlboro cars. I was surprised the first time I ever saw the Penske cars in person 'cause the color was so much more orange than they looked on tv or in pics. Since then, I've gotten to see both the Penske CART and IRL cars and the F1 McLarens dozens of times (I'm really old), so I was pleased to see that the decals in the Tamiya McLaren MP4/8 have that nice orange glow of the real cars. I already knew that I'd be painting the "red" instead of using the decals, but what really made me glad the color is so close is that some of the decals with color must be used unless you're a wizard on the computer at making your own decals. For instance, the rear wing end-plates have a full size decal that incorporates the car number and the KMart decal, which are hollow with color background. I cut around the various pieces, but was still left with hollow numbers outlined in black but filled with red. Likewise, the other number decals and badging decals (that are very tiny) all use some element of the color. I'd have preferred Tamiya to use separate decals for the outlines and the backgrounds so I could paint the backgrounds and overlay the outline, but the color was so close to the authentic version that I mixed my paint to match the decals, allowing me to use the decals as needed and trimmed without a problem.
Glenn