Xtracolor X551 BEA grey

[kev67]

Need a little help, I am not after the paint itself just need a painted patch of this paint on some plastic card for me to use as a bases for mixing some acrylic paint that will match it.

PM me if you can help and I can send a prepaid envelope to you

[garryrussell]

What do you mean by BEA grey

The Red Square grey was different to the Flying Jack grey (FJ was lighter) and often aircraft had doors or patches repainted in a different grey. Were they that specific in those days??

I addition it changed colour over time and got dirty or bleached.

Is there any guarantee the Xtracolour is actually that accurate?

[kev67]

You are probably quite correct what grey would you use as a base colour that is, as I use acrylic I was thinking of mixing some greys for the base coat and lightening and darkening some areas

[AMB]

The Red Square grey was different to the Flying Jack grey (FJ was lighter) and often aircraft had doors or patches repainted in a different grey. Were they that specific in those days??

Is there any guarantee the Xtracolour is actually that accurate?

Really, looking at my BEA slides, I would say the grey used on the Red Square scheme was exactly the same as on the Flying Jack scheme. Why would BEA have two shades of grey, when all the paint is doing is acting as a protective coat over natural metal surfaces. What evidence do you have that the greys are different?

Hannants match their paints by placing colour swatches against the real aircraft, so I would be happy to use the Xtracolour grey for either BEA scheme.

[garryrussell]

The greys were different, the RS was darker.

I have seen pics taken in the latter days as the livery was changing with bottoms of doors in a lighter grey. The RS was certainly darker.

When introducing a livery why would it be the same. There were new types of paint strting to get used about that time.

As someone who used to watch these things on a daily basis before my career in colour reproduction and sseing some aircraft together in both liveries there was a difference.

But we live in a world now where the flying jack liveyr is thought to have ben blue when it was in fact green that faded to a messy chky matt blue with a purple tinge.

[garryrussell]

OK try this..I can't link

Google G-APIM

Select Airliners net and scroll down to the pic with the white nose cone

That is not white... it is a cone in the Flying Jack livery grey and looks white due to contrast with the black. This was the last Viscount in that livery

You can see the different colour there

[kev67]

Cheers guys , I have decided to use a USAF light grey, looking at all the photos I have of the BEA Vanguard, it can be quite deceptive to know what is right and what is wrong, as it depends on how the photo was taken, light condition, contrast, etc, etc, which makes the greys on certain aircraft look different, I had sprayed the belly with a darker grey which I felt is to dark and hopefully the light grey will soften it

Gary is right about different shades of grey being used as there are photos that show especially the freight doors 2 different colours of grey.

But also could be a combination of the grey fading as well

[Paul J]

Light Aircraft Grey!

[AMB]

Light Aircraft Grey!

I would agree with that as 'the best of both worlds'. The RS grey might have been a tad darker than the FJ grey, but with weathering, fading, repainting etc.

I actually think Gary is correct in that the BEA FJ grey was a tad lighter than RS grey. However, photos can be deceptive -I think you have to use a Kodachrome slide exposed correctly taken on a sunny day of freshly painted scheme to accurately match colours. Anything taken in different circumstances, i.e. Boots print film or Prinzcolour on a dull day of a weathered machine will produce different results.

Edited October 2, 2014 by AMB