Question about the paint for gnat, vampire and balliol

[Pablo]

Hi everyone ! I bought the airfix gnat , vampire and Special hobby balliol, all three aircraft are painted "silver" (according to the instruction) but, the real color was a silver paint or was a natural metal finish with only some areas painted orange ?

Cheers

[Col.]

I'd say all three were painted High Speed Silver as the standard finish for that period. Yes even High Speed Silver for the Balliol

[robvulcan]

Likely to be high speed silver and I'm told the real mix for that was 50/50 mix of silver and clear gloss varnish.

[davidelvy]

"High Speed Silver."

In any event, the vampire couldn't be left in natural metal because the fuselage was largely plywood.

[wyverns4]

Hi Pablo,

The silver referred to would be High Speed Silver, a glossy aluminium paint designed to produce a tough resistant exterior finish.

It is possible that some individual airframes had bare metal panels at various times. You would need to study photographs to determine that, but remember that the Vampire fuselage pod was mostly fabric covered wood! I have seen more than one model of a Vampire with a very convincing, but utterly bogus, metal finished fuselage.

HTH

Christian the Married and exiled to africa

[Pablo]

many thanks guys for your prompt response!

[robvulcan]

I used revel Aqua Aluminum brush painted with W&N flow improver added. Its great paint.

I still have to build my new gnat. sadly I accidentally got the box next to the radiator and its all distorted.

[Test Graham]

Orange areas were an early Dayglo (Fire Orange?), later replaced by a redder shade applied in smaller panels.