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That's unfortunate Especially if they end up ditching the current glass jar line up Gaz

That's interesting. I hope they don't ditch the colour variety, though. Gaz

Thanks, neilspen ^-^ Gaz

Oh I meant that newer brownish colour they were using Gaz

Oh its not so much using FS for German vehicles, but the other way around for U.S. Also the particular green and tan tones for modern UK vehicles are also quite elusive. Gaz

I would often highlight mine to give them a more faded look based on images I saw. I had a couple of HEMTT trucks I put together for a diorama but due to procrastination they have remained on a shelf in a near completed state, and are now covered in the dreaded 'dust that won't come off' 😩 Oh lord, lol Gaz

I haven't. I have a spray booth to catch particulates but I don't have a setup for super smelly stuff. The AK Real Color is the limit I can get away with for lacquers. NATO colours are supremely difficult to get correct, sadly. Hataka has a set with NATO colours in it, including NATO green in the Federal Standard range instead of RAL, but its also quite dark. What always confused me is when I saw someone having painted up a U.S. truck with Mig Ammo NATO Green, and another painted a Leopard with Meng's NATO Green. Both paints are very dark, yet in their images the paint was incredibly bright green and no mention at all is mentioned of adding anything to it to lighten. But it is bizarre that companies either seem to go for FS only, or RAL only, and then model manufacturers will refer to one of those sets for either U.S. or European NATO vehicles interchangeably, even though they are incorrect. I just find it curious how with very well documented paint chips, the paint manufacturers still can't get it correct. For most its probably no big deal, but I'm a stickler with trying to get a colour to look as correct to the real thing as possible, to the point of spending hours trying to nail down the correct shade and which company has the best match. Gaz

When I first noticed it (probably a few years back now) I ended up trying to get a different bottle form elsewhere, but the result was the same. The colour was much, much darker than it had previously been (over a black base just like before), and had this noticeably bluish tint. This was when I switched over the FS 34102. Gaz

I have Tamiya and Gunze Aqueous. I use X-20A in the former, and Ultimate Thinner in the latter Gaz

I never realised they had changed the formula from the original. I got some of the paints quite early on, and did my usual task of filling up the jars with thinner so I didn't have to faff about with the pipette each time (I do that for all of my Tamiya, Aqueous), but since I added X-20A as I was told would work, it had no effect). One saving grace is that you can just add the high compatibility thinner to those original mixes now and it should still work. But it cost me those paints at the time, plus the thinner used on them. Something else they did that was a pet peeve of mine was completely change one of their colours. FS34102 became a staple alternative colour for my NATO vehicles as other NATO greens were far too dark (I still couldn't understand how people were getting such bright greens with Mig Ammo/Meng etc when those NATO greens are super dark). Tamiya's NATO green seemed to change its hue to something darker, almost blue tinted. FS34102 with the clear cap was a good replacement for a vibrant green as often seen in photographs (AKs NATO Green is the Bundeswehr colour, and not correct for U.S. tri-tone), and then they went and made it part of the air series instead (specifically the South East Asia scheme) and the tone was totally changed and thus no longer suitable. I was lucky to order two jars of FS34102 with the clear cap after confirming with a store, but likely no more exist to replace when gone. It also seems like they stopped adding colours to the range all together, and went all in on 3G (which doesn't work for me beyond brush painting small details). Gaz

Andres, I originally asked on the AK Youtube Channel specifically advertising the product, and the video at that time mentioned acrylic thinner and water as being able to thin it. I asked the question to confirm, and was told yes. Only later, after I did testing, did I discover this did not work. X-20A would just thin it, but inconsistently and it required a lot. When I emailed them about this, they ultimately ignored it, and later took down the video and reuploaded it minus the mentions of water and X-20A. Hunker, yeah, when I originally tried using water for cleaning it just turned into pure gunk. I ended up with the high compatibility thinner in the end and it did work, but it was the entire issue around the false advertising, and confirming the bad advice in the video, that was the original issue. It played out again with AK 3rd Gen, which still to this day never sprays as well as shown no matter how much I thin it. Gaz

Thank you, Keith ^-^ Gaz

Thank you Keith, Steve ^-^/ Gaz

Thanks, Bullbasket, Andy, and Ed 😊 Gaz

Thank you, Carius ^-^ Gaz

Been a while since I posted, hah. Also been a little while since I finished this, but finally got around to taking and posting images. I was asked by a family friend if it was possibly for me to replicate this vehicle for their dad as a Christmas present, as its his dad in the picture. Took a bit of searching to uncover the type of truck, and while I'm not explicitly clear that it was necessarily the one they drove (rather they may have posed with it) and only one angle, I set about doing my best to do a model version. Luckily found that IBG models did one in 1/35, and while I'd never used IBG before, I was pleasantly surprised with the detail. Went together without much issue, painted it up, and then had to steadily hand paint some of the markings on the front (the rest were kit decals). Bought a little case for it and had to modify the bottom so it could fit inside. Oddly, after about a week in the case, the entire truck went glossy and slightly tacky. I had to pull it out and respray with matt from VMS again to tone it down, and sadly ended up affecting some of the windows. Not sure what caused that, but a MiG-29 model I also did and put in a case has subsequently gone super shiny as well. Wondering if its something going wrong with VMS varnishes. Anyway, put a small hole in the top of the case as a precaution and it doesn't seem to have turned shiny again, so that's a plus. Sadly, leaving it out to thoroughly dry for a few weeks resulted in that super clingy dust in places. Not ideal, but the friend is happy with it. Thanks for looking ^-^ Gaz

lol, thanks, bissyboat Gaz

Thanks for the pointer, Casey ^-^ SafetyDad, I did consider it but I wasn't sure it'd match up correctly. What I ended up doing was using the KitsWorld T (did nearly get an Xtradecals set but thought it was a bit much for just one letter) and then tried to match it. Sadly, none of my blends would come close to the correct shade. In the end I mixed up AK 3rd Gen Rotbraun and Blood Red to hand paint over all of the letters to get them to match. Its not perfect, but it at least harmonises their colour. The serial I'm not sure about. Whenever I have a super fine brush it never collects paint to deposit properly, and anything else will likely go over. I may just leave the serials as is. Not ideal, though. Not sure why KitsWorld made them so bright. Had a disaster with them as well on the first attempt. One serial code on the starboard side instantly glued itself to the surface at an angle and would not come back up except in pieces. Even scraping and sanding wouldn't fully remove it >< I had to get it down as much as I could, paint over it, and then reconstruct the code from other bits on the sheet. The rest didn't have much issue but it was a nightmare in the making Gaz

So I gave the different paint mixes a try for the red so I could fill in the T from the KitsWorld decals, which was noticeably brighter and more orange. Curiously, the two mixes ended up being close to the KitsWorld tonally than the stock Airfix ones, which are considerably darker, but also have more of a red hue to them. I tried adjusting the mix, but it still came out much more brown than red. Closer than it was, but you can still tell they're different (on top of the slight line of lighter original decal colour at the ede where I couldn't get close enough with a brush to risk going onto the black. Bit stumped in how to hit that correct shade without either going to much red or too much brown 🤔 Gaz

Thanks for the replies fubar57, Troy. I'll give those a try Gaz

Hi all. Currently working on a 1/72 Airfix Lanc, and I have a little bit of a dilemma requiring any knowledge from those more experienced with RAF markings of the WWII period. I'm aiming to use the kit decals for the roundels so its not so much a case of painting those on all together, but more for highlighting after for a bit of fading as I've done with the camo. The other aspect is the actual aircraft code. I need AJ-T, but the Airfix kit is only AJ-G and AJ-W. The T I have in a KitsWorld decal set, along with the aircraft serial, but the problem is KitsWorld has used an entirely different (and brighter) shade of red. In order to match the shade I have to either mix up something or use something premade. I spray with a booth in a room in the house so it really needs to be acrylics. Lacquers at a stretch. Anything close enough which can be lightened with a drop of white/buff/deck tan, or any combinations would be appreciated. A test I did a little while back for the red had my combining Tamiya XF-7 Red and XF-9 Hull Red for a fairly close approximation (until I forgot the mixture and will have to try it again ><), but the blue is a little trickier. XF-8 Flat Blue is not only too bright, and I'd assume the same for Medium Blue, but also tonally off. Can't just darken with black either as the test for that wasn't too convincing. So anything acrylic ideally. Real Color lacquer would be a potential option, and along with Tamiya (likely have to be a mix) would be best just for ease of spray in a confined area, otherwise I risk spattering. I think I have the red down but again any pointers would be appreciated. Chiefly need help with the blue if you can. Cheers. Gaz

Hi, Mippie. That's really strange. I think I might have had a similar (albeit small) amount of success spraying one of the 3rd gen metallic colours (which is ironic given they're usually a little harder to spray) by using Hataka acrylic thinner. When I tried the 3rd gen thinner I never had much result with it. Their primer also wasn't great. Its a shame because they have so many colours, and they stopped adding to their RC line as well. While not quite paint related, can also mention that the AK atomiser cleaner for acrylic had a tendency to make my airbrush bubble up after, like it was affecting the seals temporarily. Only ever did it with that particular cleaner. I mean it was good for cleaning certain things but not much use if it does that 🤔 Gaz

Ah, I see. My bad. Gaz

Hi, Kingsman. I think it might be white. Seems like it shows too brightly to be red, which might appear more like a pale grey? 🤔 Gaz