spitfire Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 Well 2015 started with a bang, I had a heart attack on the last day of January and a stent fitted on my birthday (9th Feb), but thanks to the boys and girls of the NHS I'm fully recovered and am probably fitter now than before the heart attack, I'm back to cycling and exercising harder than I was previously, the Cardiac Rehab people did a great job and thanks to the nice people at the Countess of Chester and Broad Green Hospital in Liverpool my ticker has recovered. This has had the effect of making me redouble my efforts to work through the stash, I am now working on kits in threes, 2015 was my VVS year, having held back previously because of a lack of dedicated enamel VVS paints I used AKAN paints to track down matches in the MM, WEM, Humbrol and Xtracolor ranges and I am very happy with the results. First up was a Trumpeter MiG-3 a very racy looking aircraft, and I have always wanted to build a Soviet aircraft with a slogan down the side of the fuselage, thanks to Montex masks I got my wish. Then came 2 Yak 1b's that had been lurking in my loft for quite some time, the same kit but one from Montex and one from AlleyCat, these like most resin kits were very challenging but in the end very rewarding, I decided to do one in the Green/Black scheme and the other one in the Grey/Grey scheme. It turned out to a good year after all Cheers Dennis 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 Good to hear you've recovered. I must take a leaf out of your book and do more exercise; I'm lazy though. And some fine builds to boot as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 Good to hear you've recovered. I must take a leaf out of your book and do more exercise; I'm lazy though. And some fine builds to boot as well. Well heart disease is something that runs in my family so I have always done some regular exercise and it looks like it paid off as I recovered quickly. Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 I'm very sorry to hear about the heart attack, Den, but thrilled to hear that you've recovered! Your VVS kits are beautiful - that MiG-3 with the slogan is especially brilliant! You've no doubt discussed this at length (probably with me), but what are the paints you used - they look great! I have my favourites, but I'm always interested to hear what other people use. The ones I use (Testors MM enamels exclusively, at the moment) are good for my needs, but probably not the final word in VVS equivalents. Best Regards, Jason 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 Hi Jason, glad you like them, after a lot of experimentation and comparing AKAN paints with other makes of paint, I came up with the following: AMT-4 = Model Master Interior Green FS34151 AMT-6 = WEM Colourcoats Soviet Black. AII Blue = Xtracolor X601 Russian Su 27 Flanker Medium Blue A-18 = Xtracolor X602 Russian Su 27 Flanker Light Blue AMT-7 = Humbrol H89 (slightly lightened) AMT-11 = Xtracolour X6 Ocean Grey AMT-12 = Xtracolor X800 Panzer Grey And for the wheel hubs Xtracolor X628 Eastern Bloc Wheel Hub Green Cheers Den 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 (edited) I also use MM Interior Green for the AMT-4. I think it's the closest I've found for an out-of-the-bottle match (I refuse to mix paints - bad experiences in the past). I haven't used the Ocean Grey for the AMT-11; I have the MM version of it so I think I'll try it. At the present, I use MM Medium Gray, or that's what I used on my AML La-5F, the only model I've done with the two-grey scheme. I think it looks pretty good, but that and AMT-1 are still colours I haven't completely settled on paints for (I think MM Israeli Armor Sand/Gray is a pretty good match for the more grey-tinted version of the AMT-1/A-21M Light Brown). How close do you think Panzer Grey is to Gunship Grey? I use the MM Gunship Gray for my AMT-12 Dark Grey - it's probably too light in tone for new AMT-12, which was supposedly nearly black, but I think it works well for faded Dark Grey, as according to Orlov, the AMT-12 faded quickly. I suppose I'm getting off-topic here, especially as there is a current VVS colour thread going on, with someone in a position to actually make the paints (Sovereign Hobbies - who took over the WEM VVS colour line). Regards, Jason Edited February 13, 2016 by Learstang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 Well heart disease is something that runs in my family so I have always done some regular exercise and it looks like it paid off as I recovered quickly. Cheers Dennis I may start more walking to the shop, its only ten minutes away but I always end up carrying bags of spuds and carrots etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 Hi Jason, AMT-1 is one that I haven't tracked down yet, I've just compared paint chips and MM Gunship Gray is a lot lighter than Panzer Grey. Here is a paint chip that I used when looking for the AM-7/11/12 paints. The right hand one is the one that I went with, the one on the left is Humbrol Ocean Grey which did not have a blue tinge to it. Cheers Dennis I may start more walking to the shop, its only ten minutes away but I always end up carrying bags of spuds and carrots etc. They do say that any exercise is better than none these days, no need to bash away in the gym Cheers Dennis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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