Standard Paint Colors for WWII Aircraft?

I have been stocking less and less paint, and buying fresh stuff for each kit.  I use enamels, and they certainly do not have a long shelf life :-(  Only things I now try to keep a stock supply of are "steel", a semigloss black and a flat black.  Oh, and matt aluminum, since I often have trouble buying that color- sometimes hard to get.  I get it when I see it.

Life color do some box sets such as WW2 Royal Airforce etc which may be of help. As you get and your kids get more info the hobby standard green, brown, blue etc may not be enough but we all have a few like that in a box somewhere

Phil

Much of that question, I believe, can better be answered by the nationality of the planes being painted.  US Navy?  Can't go wrong with some Dark Sea Blue (generally speaking.)  US Army Air Force?  Some olive drab, aluminum, even some black.  UK?  While I haven't built any, I've seen lots of earth colored camouflage.  As mentioned before, the boxes will give a good indication of what might be needed in a general sense.

here is LifeColor's home page,,,,,,there are other sites that can be of help, also

If I have the settings right, this is English (upper right if I am wrong), and set to show 48 of the 53 sets on the first page

www.astromodel.it/.../set.html

I use LifeColor for every color that I can't get from PollyScale or Aeromaster, if they list it

hope this helps

Rex

I will always keep on hand flat black, flat white, zinc chromate (green), olive drab, a silver metallic color, bright red and a bright green (for nav lights). The rest, like Don, I buy for each kit as needed.

   The black and white are especially handy because you can mix lighter and darker tones of any color rather than having to go buy a dedicated color, but I'm cheap like that.

Chris

I might mention Testors Black Chrome Trim. It is a semi-gloss black.  I like having both a matt and a semi-gloss black available.  And for small airplanes (1:72 and 1:144) I just put a small dot of gloss black on instrument cases to make them stand out from the matt or semi-matt panel.

As far as weathered or dirty black goes, I just mix that up myself on the fly when I need it.