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Selecting Paint

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  • Member since
    November 2011
Selecting Paint
Posted by Phlyers on Saturday, November 19, 2011 7:49 AM

What do you guys do if you can't find the exact paint that your build calls for?

Dre
  • Member since
    June 2007
  • From: here, not over there
Posted by Dre on Saturday, November 19, 2011 8:15 AM

Phlyers, welcome to the FSM forums!

If my at-hand paints are not too far off of the required paint then I'll try to mix a color that is close to it.    Otherwise I use a close enough color or WAG it entirely if it isn't in a critical place.  Depending on what you're building the weathering, if used, can do alot to disguise inexact colors. 

In the end, I think it depends on how "exact" you need your paint to be. 

 

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Saturday, November 19, 2011 9:37 AM

Mix your own.  To learn about paint mixing (to get the right color) check out a book for artists, and invest in a color wheel (they are usually not expensive).

There are the purists who worry about duplicating the shade the prototype had the day it left the factory. Others of us like to depict a subject after it has been in service awhile. Unless it is a recent subject, older paints weathered very rapidly.  Cars can be kept in garages, but most military subjects are affected by UV rays from the sun and oxygen in the air and the color changes depending on their exact environment.  So if you depict weathered subjects, the paint mixing does not need to be absolutely precise.

As a way to get started in paint mixing, try a little weathered black.  No real surface looks absolutely black- certainly not tires or things like that.  Sure, you can by a weathered black color at the hobby shop, but try mixing your own.  Add just a drop or two of white or medium grey, maybe a very small drop of brown, to a flat black.

Best to stay with the same brand and type, however.  Do not mix colors from multiple brands or types.

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    February 2011
  • From: Monterey Bay,CA-Fort Bragg, NC
Posted by randypandy831 on Sunday, November 20, 2011 7:35 PM

search online for an accurate match. 

tamiya 1/48 P-47D $25 + shipping

tamiya 1/48 mosquito $20+ shipping

hobby boss 1/48 F-105G. wings and fuselage cut from sprue. $40+ shipping. 

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