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Red Arrows Gnat Red - Halfords


rafalbert

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Hi Guys,

after losing the will to live trying and failing to spray Humbrol 19 on a pair of Gnats, I am walking away for a week before stripping them back and starting again. To avoid this in future, does anyone know a good Halfords paint match for the red? If this happens again I can see a midair occurring!

Many thanks,

Dave

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If it is of any consolation, I feel your pain. I've almost completed a 1:48th Airfix Gnat that was going great guns until I attempted to airbrush Humbrol Acrylic 19 on it. The airbrush kept clogging, and although adding more than the recommended amount of thinners and retarder did improve things, it was still a battle. The final finish had many issues that I had some success cutting back via wet sanding with fine sand paper. I've got the finish somewhere near passable, but it's far from perfect.

I've recently picked up another Gnat in the Airfix sale, although I will be giving the Humbrol paints a wide berth for airbrush purposes, although I intend to build this in the Yellow Jacks scheme and the aircraft formerly owned by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.

Edited by March
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If you already spray ( you say spray in your post but you could be using a Humbrol spray can?) and plan to use an off the shelf car paint spray can ( so smelly anyway), why not get a tin of Red Arrows red from Xtracolour? Have always found their brand to be very well behaved.

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According to research carried out by the IPMS(UK) Aerobatic Display Teams SIG , the Red Arrows Gnats were a darker shade of red than the Hawks . Fiat Red Orange , Xtracolour/Xtracrylix and Humbrol Red Arrows Red are matched to the Signal Red of the Hawks rather than the darker red (if memory serves , Roundel or post Office Red) of the Gnats . The SIG came up with a match for the Gnat red of Halfords Peugeot Cherry Red .

Hope this helps

John Green

Nantwich , Cheshire

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Hi
The Halfords colour is the one we used for the 2014 SMW Display sig Stand , but you need to use the RED primer with this paint not the grey one.
And not just one coat of the red gloss 2 coats or more will get it ok.

For the Gnats : HALFORDS PEUGEOT CHERRY RED
For the Hawks : HALFORDS FIAT RED ORANGE

I can not remember the primer colour for the Hawks at this time as I did not do any Hawks for the display only 4 Gnats.
Also note that a/c before 1974 had the D type face blind firing handle on the E-seats and was mostly orange in colour only a small bit in the centre was black and yellow striped and the B handle as in the kit only came in in 1974 so for all the early teams you need to change the handle, this would apply to all Gnats seen to many made in 60's markings with the wrong seat details.

Hope this helps

Paul

Edited by PaulT 876
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Some nice models there guys! Following all your advice I have bought some red primer, Peugeot Cherry Red and Fiat Red Orange. I will test both and see which looks best. Many thanks for all your help!

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I have seen a Gnat model painted with Halfords Peugeot Cherry Red and it looked far too dark, so I have some concerns over this, but maybe the wrong primer was used?

Also it is believed that during the last two years of the Gnats with the Red Arrows (1978-79) when they had 'Royal Air Force' titles on the nose, they repainted them in Signal Red alias Halfords Fiat Red Orange, the same shade as the Hawks are today.

Edited by AMB
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