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Mixing colors

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  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Philippines
Mixing colors
Posted by constructor on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 1:12 AM
My whole inventory of paint is Tamiya enamels simply because it is the most readily available here in my country. My problem is I need us navy blue. What paints do I mix to get this color?
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Indiana, USA
Posted by cassibill on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 1:41 AM
First of all, can you be specific?  Which Navy blue do you need?  The navy used several blues over the years and for different things.

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  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: EG48
Posted by Tracy White on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 2:29 PM
Are you referring to the enamels from a rattle can?

Tracy White Researcher@Large

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Philippines
Posted by constructor on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 3:08 PM
I am currently building the USS Buchanan and I chose to paint it in its navy blue livery. So I need that kind of navy blue and my enamels are in bottles and not spray cans. Thanks for infos.
  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: EG48
Posted by Tracy White on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 3:23 PM
I'm only familiar with their Acrylics and not enamel paints, sorry. One thing you could do would be to order the Snyder & Short (AKA ShipCamouflage.com) paint chip set "US Navy Set 1" as it would help you mix most of the Navy's main colors for WWII.

Tracy White Researcher@Large

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Friday, December 4, 2009 2:37 PM

Well, my first thought would be to start with XF-50, the Field Blue, but, it's going to be a little pale/light--but, that mihgt not be so bad at, say, 1/700 for scale effect.

Add a bit of XF-63 German Grey and it'd darken nicely.

You could probably start with XF-17 Sea Blue for the decks, but it definitely needs grey added.

You want to be able to tell the horizontal surfaces from the vertical ones.  It's a dark blue overall, but not the deep navy blue of the aircraft blue.

If you already have a good range of greys and blues, take a sheet of styrene and scribe some squares on it.  Paint the squares and label them (fine point sharpie pen is your friend here). 

Then, pour through as many photos as you can find and eyeball the effect you want.  While you are online, see if you can find Buchannan photos, they ought to help out with minor Measure-22 details, like whether the gun barrels and the gunhouses were counter shaded (and getting that deck blue on the top only of a 5"38 barrel at 1/700 is a fascinating exercise).

The styrene "pallette" trick is one I have used for sorting out 4 or 5 different Olive Drabs or Panzer Greys, or having things like "blackgreen" or "sky" handy to pick out detail and the like.

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