Bumblesdad

Absolutely fantastic. This build has been the major inspiration in me getting back into modelling!

Hi guys. Thanks very much for your replies. Theres some fantastic comments above and I agree with the fact that if it's close enough it's good enough. Being away from the hobby for so long and the advances it has made since I left I was just wondering if there was some database or other source of information that had details of actual colours etc. As far as I'm concerned I'll be happy to make something that vaguely resembles what's on the box whilst enviously looking at the RFI thread Just to mention what led me down this train of thought initially, I was looking at the fantastic Ultimate Model Paint Conversion Chart when I noticed that the Life Color UA097 'middle stone' had 6 alternatives from Vallejo, 3 from Revell and 2 from Humbrol. So if your kit requires you to use LC UA097 (or one of the Humbroll/Revell equivalents) and you only use Vallejo paints which Vallejo would you use? I guess this is where the research comes in along with the Vallejo colour charts and lots of pictures of the subject. One of those is bound to be closer to the real thing than LC!

Hi all! Like most modellers, when I was younger and bought a new kit I blindly went ahead and bought the recommended paint colours that were on the box and instructions, not thinking twice about how accurate they may be. Now I'm getting older (and more cynical!) I'm beginning to wonder about how authentic the recommended colours may be. When Airfix say you need this type of green from Humbrol is it the exact shade that's used on the models real life counterpart or just the closest approximation that Humbrol manufacture? When I look at paint comparison charts I see references to the Federal Standard number. I'm presuming this is to enable consistency, and so if an American airplane is painted using a colour with FS12345 and I see that Vallejo do a colour that conforms to FS12345 can I assume that the model colour is exactly the same as in real life? Is there anywhere on t'interweb where I can find out the exact colours used by the aircraft manufacturers and is there anything similar to FS for use in the UK. In these days of increasing model accuracy I'd like to be able to paint the same (or most accurate) colour that the real aircraft uses instead of the closest approximation that's limited by the colour palette of a particular model company. Any thoughts?