Paints, where do I go...

[Courageous]

This may not be the right place to post this but I'm sure the Admin will shift accordingly.

 

After scanning the club model table at a model show recently, I noticed that the dark green used on my 1/72 Typhoon was different to that on my 1/48 Typhoon. Both these models used Humbrol enamel paint but years apart and must be from different tins. On getting home to the 'bat cave', I then scanned my collection of paints, what a disorganised mess and thought; maybe I should re-assess my painting regime.

I am aware of the pros and cons of acrylics v enamels but it doesn’t matter which. I would like a good range that can cover all things RAF/ FAA, be accurate with consistent quality. This may not be possible with one paint manufacturer and I also know that what I’m asking is pretty subjective.

So, what are your thoughts; paints you use, why, pros and cons, and maybe I can get things sorted?

 

Stuart

[Panzer Vor!!!]

Colour coats  from Sovereign hobbies  brush/spray  great  and  good range of colours

My first choice all the time

[stever219]

2 minutes ago, Courageous said:

This may not be the right place to post this but I'm sure the Admin will shift accordingly.

 

After scanning the club model table at a model show recently, I noticed that the dark green used on my 1/72 Typhoon was different to that on my 1/48 Typhoon. Both these models used Humbrol enamel paint but years apart and must be from different tins. On getting home to the 'bat cave', I then scanned my collection of paints, what a disorganised mess and thought; maybe I should re-assess my painting regime.

I am aware of the pros and cons of acrylics v enamels but it doesn’t matter which. I would like a good range that can cover all things RAF/ FAA, be accurate with consistent quality. This may not be possible with one paint manufacturer and I also know that what I’m asking is pretty subjective.

So, what are your thoughts; paints you use, why, pros and cons, and maybe I can get things sorted?

 

Stuart

Paints, even from the same manufacturer, vary from one batch to another: there is a 10% tolerance on British Standard colours (other colours are, apparently, available).  You painted your models, not unreasonably, with two tins of paint which, even from the same manufacturer, are almost certainly from two different batches with slightly different pigments and carrier medium, thinned differently and exposed to light over differing time spans.  They are going to look different, simples!  Full size aircraft would be subject to the same issues and I suspect that IF you could find a good colour photo of two Typhoons with adjacent construction and/or serial numbers they'd look slightly different too (cue Chris Thomas).

 

I've stuck resolutely to Humbrol through thick and thinners, even though the quality of some of their paints has been pretty atrocious in recent years but, as Panzer Vor!'s just posted Sovereing Hobbies, nee White Ensign Models', Colourcoats take a lot of beating; I just wish I could get them locally.  Hannants' Xtracolor and Xtracrylix are widely regarded as good, but the former is also known as "Nevadry" and the latter comes in modeller-unfriendly tall, narrow bottles with openings to narrow to get a chisel-edged brush into, and I hate the waste of decanting paint into bigger jars, especially for small jobs.  Tamiya have introduced a range of RAF/FAA acrylic paints but some of them bear only a passing resemblance to their stated original (and mixing older Tamiya paints to get BS381C colours is not for the faint-hearted or time-poor modeller).

[Stew Dapple]

9 minutes ago, stever219 said:

Paints, even from the same manufacturer, vary from one batch to another: there is a 10% tolerance on British Standard colours

Steve, where does this figure of 10% come from? That's a pretty loose tolerance and not one I would associate with Colourcoats. I'm guessing you mean from a legal point of view a tolerance of up to 10% is allowed, but that does not mean all manufacturers would make use of it, or would need to.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Starfighter]

27 minutes ago, Panzer Vor!!! said:

Colour coats  from Sovereign hobbies  brush/spray  great  and  good range of colours

My first choice all the time

I'd agree with that. I used colourcoats ADC Gray on my recent F-102 model, and it went on like a dream, even though I brush painted rather than sprayed. 

[stever219]

3 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Steve, where does this figure of 10% come from? That's a pretty loose tolerance and not one I would associate with Colourcoats. I'm guessing you mean from a legal point of view a tolerance of up to 10% is allowed, but that does not mean all manufacturers would make use of it, or would need to.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

I had to visit an automotive refinishing paint supplier for my old day job and asked whether BS381C applied in his line of work.  He told me then of the 10% tolerance, as well as the fact that he could also supply paints to RAL standards, although he didn't say whether the Germans also allowed some leeway.  I certainly didn't intend to imply that Colourcoats applied such a "loose" interpretation of the standard when formulating their paints.