RAF colours

[jaffa]

Sorry if it's been asked before but what do you guys use for day colours.

As I've just painted a 1/48th hurricane with the vallejo raf day fighters set and it looks all wrong..

Also what's the best way to fade the paint slightly?

[Mr T]

Cannot help you with the fading, but I use Xtracrylix, in what way did it look wrong? I use vallejo for some stuff, but their product line I find a little confusing as they seem to have a lot of colours , but it is sometimes tricky to match them up to real colours apart from those with FS numbers.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Martin T

[PhantomBigStu]

Xtracrylix all day long

[Greenshirt]

Sorry if it's been asked before but what do you guys use for day colours.

As I've just painted a 1/48th hurricane with the vallejo raf day fighters set and it looks all wrong..

Also what's the best way to fade the paint slightly?

You'll get many different answers but it may be best to use google's search function for each of the colors; Dark Green, Ocean Grey, and Medium Sea Grey but include site:Britmodeller.com in the search bar. Most recent discussion: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992249-is-ocean-grey-supposed-to-be-this-dark/

I personally use acrylics, and prefer Tamiya XF-81 for Dark Green, Tamiya XF-83 for Medium Sea Grey, and Humbrol 106 for Ocean Grey. These are paints readily available here in the US; I predominantly air brush.

Tim

Edited December 6, 2015 by Greenshirt

[JackG]

For fading, something I have tried on a recent build is weathering powders, and it's application is sort of based on the oil dot method.

With a small brush I dab dots of powder randomly, but mostly near the leading edge. Then with a wide soft flat brush, wipe from forward edge to back in direction of airflow. I used a dirty yellow shade, but you can try others or even a combination of shades. This method becomes very subtle the more times you pass the brush. I suppose you can do this on the fuselage as well.

Here is the result, applied on a satin finish:

regards,

Jack

[speedbird]

Xtraclix for me with the odd pot of tamiya thrown in

[jaffa]

What are they like to spray any tips on thinners or flow improves and what to use?

[jaffa]

here you go guys colours look totally wrong to me.....

[JackG]

That looks like the desert scheme, middle stone and dark earth?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

The Dk Earth is probably passable but that's not Dk Green on there for certain.

[jaffa]

Question is now what do I do with it...

Remask and paint the dark green or try and strip the paint off and start again?

[Seawinder]

Question is now what do I do with it...

Remask and paint the dark green or try and strip the paint off and start again?

I think you might be able to cut very narrow strips of Tamiya masking tape -- narrow enough to follow the edges of your Dark Earth segmehts. Then fill in the remaining areas with larger pieces of tape and apply the Dark Green.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Seawinder

[Don McIntyre]

Why not put markings for a Desert Air Force aircraft. You've gone to all that trouble to get a very nice finish, why start over?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

That rogue "dark green" is far too olive to pass for Middle Stone IMHO. It doesn't really look much like anything the British used.

[jaffa]

It's going on the shelf of doom for a while can't be bothered with it at the moment..

[CedB]

Hi Jaffa. The RAF set is a cause of much concern on BM... not so much the paints themselves (which do spray beautifully IMHO) but the pamphlet - the dark green is definitely wrong as they suggest, and include, US Dark Green and not their own Camouflage green for some reason. As Tim (greenshirt) suggest, do a search on 'vallejo wrong site:britmodeller.com' and you'll see the posts including my initial one here which includes my reply to your question here, not sure if you saw it?

HTH

[NPL]

Thre are too many opinions about RAF WW II colours, simply. My advice: Find a good source (e.g., the book published years ago by the RAF museum, including samples) and stay with it. A lot of people will disagree, but then, many others will disagree with them. If you are satisfoed, stay with the colours which you have selected.

But alfa and omega is to have colour chips from some respected source to go by.

[woody37]

My personal preference is Tamiya XF-82 Dark Green and Mr Hobby H72 Dark Earth. I tend to spray the colour on straight from the jar, then add a drop of white and go over to add some faded areas.

[Weatherman]

Getting back to this topic after quite long since last reply. From 2015 until today new things have come up, so I am presenting a photo you my last work, painted with Humbrol 29 & 30 Dark Earth and Dark Green:

 

 

What do you think?

 

Additionally, has anyone checked the new AK Interactive colours for RAF?

[DennisTheBear]

I pretty much use Humbrol enamals and a hairy stick (with the odd Tamiya rattle can for really big areas), so that looks good to me.

But then I'm a tradionalist and believe no model is finished until there is a gluey fingerprint on the canopy.

 

DennisTheBear

[Graham Boak]

As often said, 30 is too green, not olive enough to match the wartime RAF colour - unless perhaps you are looking at some of the faded ones that didn't go yet more olive.  There is a better Humbrol colour in their satin range, namely 163. 

 

If you want to stick to enamels ( and why not) and are looking for the most accurate hues, you are usually better off with either Colourcoats or Xtracolour.

[NPL]

21 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

As often said, 30 is too green, not olive enough to match the wartime RAF colour - unless perhaps you are looking at some of the faded ones that didn't go yet more olive.  There is a better Humbrol colour in their satin range, namely 163. 

 

If you want to stick to enamels ( and why not) and are looking for the most accurate hues, you are usually better off with either Colourcoats or Xtracolour.

And here we are again because if you put too much brown in it to create the olive green, you end up with NATO colours for the postwar time. The dark green on the Hurricane here is too green, but what about scale effect.

 

It is a never ending discussion. I stick with the RAF colour book from the museum. 

[NPL]

But already here the scale effect works.

[Graham Boak]

Scale effect reduces the intensity of the colours, but doesn't change the hue.

 

I must admit that in the 70s when I had more opportunity for observing such comparisons I was of the opinion that the NATO Dark Green was less olive than the RAF colour, not more.

[NPL]

9 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

Scale effect reduces the intensity of the colours, but doesn't change the hue.

 

I must admit that in the 70s when I had more opportunity for observing such comparisons I was of the opinion that the NATO Dark Green was less olive than the RAF colour, not more.

Well, it also depends on what we talk about when we say Olive green. It can be almost everything as you know from the grocer's shelves. So when we say olive green, we may think of many things. The Danish Drakens were in the 1970s painted in olive green, but it was definitely the dark version. I calibrated the RAF colours years ago on my computer (GMYK and all that). Still I prefer the colour chips in the RAF book.