Help with Tamiya Paints

I'm assuming this is for a standard light gull gray upper / gloss white lower USN scheme based on the AS colors.. with the silver thrown in for good measure.  If this is correct, then you can use the following Tamiya Colors in the bottle without too much difference...

For the light gull gray (FS 16440) you can use XF-20 Medium Gray.

For the aluminum (FS 17178) you can use XF-16 Flat Aluminum.

For the underside gloss white (FS 17875) you can use XF-1 Flat White.

Although these are flat paints...ie FS 30000 series, a gloss overcoat will make them look pretty slick, and help with the decaling as well...

Not that I'm a modeling guru by any stretch of the imagination but I hope this helps..

If you want to use acrylics but not necessarily Tamiya's, Testor's Model Master Acryl paints work well, with better FS color matching...

ewc2003 wrote:

If you want to use acrylics but not necessarily Tamiya's, Testor's Model Master Acryl paints work well, with better FS color matching...

No, I am not tied to Tamiya. . . what MM would you suggest?

Good thing about MM paints.. they list the FS number on the bottle... so I'd use the 36440 for the Light Gull Gray (should be MM#1729), the 37198 for the Flat Aluminum (MM#1790) and 17875 for the Gloss White (MM#1745). 

I tend to use Tamiya acrylics since they seem to last longer and mix better out of the bottle, but that's just my preference.. I use both regularly, but airbrush Tamiya's because of the better consistency they usually have.  MM Acryl formula paints work well but require a bit more shaking to keep them at a decent consistency and coverage thickness...

Hope this works for you Tom...