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MiG-3


Simon Cornes

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I am working my way through a Trumpeter kit and would like some opinion please regarding the interior colours of the flap housing, undercarriage bays, slat housings and radiator bath. Most of those are supposed to be 'light grey' - according to the instructions - but I'm not sure about the rad bath. If it was a Spitfire it would all be underside colour but can anyone recommend a particular colour and clarify the colour of everything inside the radiator intake please? Bear in mind that I use enamels  so its no good referring to Vallejo or similar!! Maybe Humbrol 64? 

Thanks 

 

Simon

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Hello, Simon

I understand all those parts were in AII light blue. Cockpit walls and steel tube construction could also be painted in light gray, aluminum or light green-blue, with instrument panel in all those colours and also in black. Still, the most common interior colour was light blue. Unfortunately I cannot say much about its correct Humbrol equivalent. It used to be H114 Russian Green for upper and H115 Russian Light Blue for lower surfaces, but this colours were guesstimates at best. FWIW, back in the old days I used to add a drops or two of blue and a fair amount of white to H115, as this colour is too gray and slightly too dark. Not much of advice, but somebody with better knowledge will probably chime in soon. Cheers

Jure

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Thanks Jury, all advice is appreciated. I must admit that I thought the colour would be a light grey, not light blue! I've just found a Vallejo equivalent for Humbrol 115 - Vallejo 972 - which is the same as RLM 65!! Also Tamiya XF23 apparently. The thing is, Trumpeter suggest that the gear and flap bays are light grey and then the undersides are pale blue!! But then all over RLM 65 would make life easier! In the days of Humbrol Authentics, Russian Green was HT1 but I'm thinking that any shade of dark green may well do!

 

Simon

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Simon, check out the AKAN line of paints. You should find several references to them in this(aircraft(WW2-Modern) forum); there is also a thread in the "Tips, etc" forum; click on "Paint". It might be on the first 2-3 pages. AKAN makes the most accurate color paints for the VVS from GPW(WW2 to us) to now(and, the IA-PVS Strany, and Naval aircraft). Coastal Craft(or Models, not sure of the name right now); sells them in the UK. While their acrylics are the bulk of their line: they also make a line of acrylic lacquers and enamels.

I just checked; it is Coastal Craft. Again the paint forum in the "Tips, etc." section. Good luck!

HTH

Joe

Edited by JPuente54
New info,mis-spelling
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Thanks guys. As a dedicated enamalist I am thinking I might nip into the LMS to see what AK paints might be available for a MiG-3. One of the things that concerns me about those paints is the tiny bottles. I'm sure they're smaller than tinlets and I get to dilute enamel and don't you spray acrylics straight out of the bottle?

 

 

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I am a dedicated enamel painter as well and use Xtracolor, Colourcoats, Humbrol and MM enamels for Soviet colours, I matched them to the AKAN enamels that I had bought. Here is a link to the Mig-3 build that I did a while ago using enamels.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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Hello, Simon

I should have thought about Massimo Tessitori page, but it just slipped my mind. To illustrate how perception on colours changes: it had been also claimed some time ago that Humbrol 115 is the most accurate RLM 78 colour available. Cheers

Jure

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Simon, I should have also included Sovereign Hobbies Colourcoats line of paints as well; they are enamels. It just slipped my mind. Jamie Duff is dedicated to producing the most accurate colour matches possible. He does have a line of WW2 VVS paints. You can find him and his company on this site. Check out the site and send him an email/PM with your enquiry; he will be happy to recommend and, of course, sell you the colour(s) that you need(or recommend a shop close to you which sell his paints). Dennis' link to those sites can help enormously; the man behind them has done a lot of work for the information.

Joe

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Hi Joe, you have just reminded me that Massimo has been working with Jamie to make sure that the new VVS Colourcoats paints are accurate, I must remember to order some !

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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Well guys, on visiting my LMS I discovered that they still had some Russian AF Testors MM paint so I acquired two bottles of the upper surface green, one of the undersurface pale blue (very much like RLM 65 as has already been said) and a bottle of the underside grey, which I will use for the slat, flap and undercarriage areas. This will be a great relief as I am trying to complete a part built kit that has some parts missing - so I will have to scratch build the entire tailwheel assembly but minus doors as I know that some airframes had the doors removed and a leather gaiter fitted to close off the bay and the wheel was then fixed down. I also need to scratchbuild the gunsight. I will use the instructions as a guide, particularly the parts map so that I can compare the drawing dimensions with parts I actually have to work out things like the tailwheel diameter then I'll see what I might have in the spares box. It's a pity I have to do this as the guy who started to build this had the Eduard cockpit etch and flap etch and had done some great work but not all of the parts came to me so I've had to scratchbuild 'riblets' for the underside of the wing above the flaps using the bits I do have as a guide and the again referring to the Eduard instructions. Not perfect but it will hopefully pass muster and I won't have the flaps more than 10 degrees or so down so it will be okay! This is why I am keen to get the bays painted!

All good fun 

 

Simon

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18 hours ago, spitfire said:

Hi Joe, you have just reminded me that Massimo has been working with Jamie to make sure that the new VVS Colourcoats paints are accurate, I must remember to order some !

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Actually Dennis I got sidetracked then promptly forgot about Massimo's kind offer to discuss that errant light brown shade. I will add that to my action list.

 

(I wish I didn't have to work a day job - I could get so much more done!)

 

Best regards,

 

Jamie

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Dennis, I am glad to be of help, even if indirectly. Simon, delighted that you found a good solution for your model. Jamie, I know exactly what you mean(side tracked, and, another job(not these days though))!

Joe

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Hi all,

the point on the colors of the inner parts of MiG-3 is somewhat confusing, but one should find some help here http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/colors/internal-colors-primers/internal-colors-primers.html

and here http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/board/index.php?board=41.0.

In general, photos seem to show that the internal parts of the canopy were painted all in different colors: black or very dark grey for the tube structure, light blue for the inner side of the side panels, black or very light grey for the instrument panels, olive green for the back armor, bright green for the lower part of the seat, light blue for landing gear bays, doors, legs, flaps, and, I suppose, the tunnel of the cooler, green wheel disks...

Of course, it is very possible that the internal parts of the cockpit of some was painted in medium grey, green, black  or light blue, due to change of production orders or, more likely, to maintenance. 

 

Quote

Actually Dennis I got sidetracked then promptly forgot about Massimo's kind offer to discuss that errant light brown shade. I will add that to my action list

When you want. Only, the best references that the Sovietwarplanes forum can offer are color photos of chips, and photos can induce in error. Anyway the idea that the photos can give to me is that the right shade should be between Humbrol 72 and 84.

A good alternative could be to copy a can of AKAN (of course, you are not obliged to declare here if you'll do so).

Regards

Massimo

 

 

 

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Massimo

Thank you so much for joining this conversation! In my case I am completing a model started by someone else and the cockpit is already painted - what looks like RLM02 overall so I know thats probably wrong based on what I have already read. The kit instructions suggest that the flap and undercarriage bays, also the slat housing, should be finished in a light grey so I have a bottle of Modelmaster Russian Underside Grey which I thought would do. It strikes me though that really they could be any colour and I had considered a natural metal finish for the flap area. Now I'm thinking I should be painting them in light blue - approximating to RLM 65 - but maybe anything goes?!!!!

Thanks again

 

Simon

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Hi Simon,

the painting of the canopy is credible anyway. About landing gear and flaps, I wiuld paint them of the same light blue of the undersurfaces; AII lt blue or AMT-7 are both possible according to the time. I would look on a photo of the chosen plane, it helps to guess the shade of blue; white AII blue appears light as white and strongly contrasting the uppersurfaces, AMT-7 appears visibly darker on bw photos (yes, a photo filter could make the difference, but if a photo shows so, it's nearly impossible to say that this was wrong).

Regards

Massimo

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Hi Massimo

You've convinced me! I'm going with a pale blue about the same as RLM 65. Frankly I'm not surprised the flap/gear bay colour is the same as the underside, makes much more sense!

Regards

 

Simon

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