Painting technique experimentation - Tamiya 1/48 F4U-1A Corsair paint mule

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Now completed (minus the ordnance which hasn't arrived yet) and RFI is here:

 

Thanks for looking in

[azureglo]

On 10/9/2018 at 3:18 PM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

It was a similar holding me back from a few aspirational projects!

 

Since my last post, I have been able to confirm that the hairspray can be decanted from its aerosol can into my airbrush (a Badger Renegade Krome with 0.2mm needle/nozzle) and airbrushed neat with far better control than by aerosol. That is now drying.

 

This is the hairspray I am using:

 

 

 

At long last, I can now set my quiff perfectly and at the right Elvis angle, you sir have changed my hair and my life.

 

Anil The Rockabilly

[Col.]

On 12/29/2018 at 8:41 PM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Hi Col, thanks for looking in! The ship is HMS Repulse with mods/corrections to make it 1941 fit as intended by the kit (which is actually correctish for immediately pre-war). Would you believe I have guessed at paints on it?!?!? I had originally painted the hull before I started on the research project and did what I was told, painting it 507C and black. I didn't quite believe the black so I actually used ACRN17 RAF Night, and the light tone was the Synder & Short matched 507C. As part of the project though I encountered a letter written by Captain Tennant (of Repulse) discussing the camouflage and its principles, and he described the paints he'd used on Repulse as "a very dark grey" and "a grey between Light Grey and Dark Grey" where Light Grey was the common service name for 507C and Dark Grey was the common service name for the shade used by the Home Fleet. This told me two things; firstly, it was yet more evidence that Alan Raven's "AP 507B Medium Grey" didn't exist - if it did exist when would a well clued-up capital ship CO describe something that should be about it by referring to something lighter and darker rather than comparing to the Medium Grey. Secondly, it told me that the lighter tone wasn't 507C. In addition, my research put meaningful objective numbers to the colours and the 507C was too light even for 507C. The hull sat on the shelf of doom for a while until very recently when I chose a colour I liked! The lightest tone here is the Snyder & Short 507C which is too light at 52% LRV. The tin on the far left is the corrected 507C at 45% LRV and which is the absolute lightest the lightest paint on Repulse could possibly be. On the far right is the corrected 507A "Dark Grey", the absolute darkest the darkest paint on Repulse could possibly be. The second from the right is Alan Raven/Snyder & Short "AP 507B Medium Grey" which measures at 20% LRV, and the second on the left is the aviation modellers' friend Medium Sea Grey. I chose to use Medium Sea Grey on the ship as it looks good compared to surviving photographic evidence - it's a bit darker than 507C at about 28% LRV.

 

 

Bloody hell! Here's me cursing inaccurate profiles and thinking I was having it hard trying to interpret the markings from old photographs of Pacific Fleet Seafires  

So do you think AP 507B is a figment of someone's imagination and Captain Tennat's "grey between Light Grey and Dark Grey" was something produced on-ship by mixing the other two greys together?

On 12/29/2018 at 8:41 PM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Hi Col, thanks for looking in! The ship is HMS Repulse with mods/corrections to make it 1941 fit as intended by the kit (which is actually correctish for immediately pre-war). Would you believe I have guessed at paints on it?!?!? I had originally painted the hull before I started on the research project and did what I was told, painting it 507C and black. I didn't quite believe the black so I actually used ACRN17 RAF Night, and the light tone was the Synder & Short matched 507C. As part of the project though I encountered a letter written by Captain Tennant (of Repulse) discussing the camouflage and its principles, and he described the paints he'd used on Repulse as "a very dark grey" and "a grey between Light Grey and Dark Grey" where Light Grey was the common service name for 507C and Dark Grey was the common service name for the shade used by the Home Fleet. This told me two things; firstly, it was yet more evidence that Alan Raven's "AP 507B Medium Grey" didn't exist - if it did exist when would a well clued-up capital ship CO describe something that should be about it by referring to something lighter and darker rather than comparing to the Medium Grey. Secondly, it told me that the lighter tone wasn't 507C. In addition, my research put meaningful objective numbers to the colours and the 507C was too light even for 507C. The hull sat on the shelf of doom for a while until very recently when I chose a colour I liked! The lightest tone here is the Snyder & Short 507C which is too light at 52% LRV. The tin on the far left is the corrected 507C at 45% LRV and which is the absolute lightest the lightest paint on Repulse could possibly be. On the far right is the corrected 507A "Dark Grey", the absolute darkest the darkest paint on Repulse could possibly be. The second from the right is Alan Raven/Snyder & Short "AP 507B Medium Grey" which measures at 20% LRV, and the second on the left is the aviation modellers' friend Medium Sea Grey. I chose to use Medium Sea Grey on the ship as it looks good compared to surviving photographic evidence - it's a bit darker than 507C at about 28% LRV.

 

 

Bloody hell! Here's me cursing inaccurate profiles and thinking I was having it hard trying to interpret the markings from old photographs of Pacific Fleet Seafires  

So do you think AP 507B is a figment of someone's imagination and Captain Tennat's "grey between Light Grey and Dark Grey" was something produced on-ship by mixing the other two greys together?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

18 minutes ago, Col. said:

Bloody hell! Here's me cursing inaccurate profiles and thinking I was having it hard trying to interpret the markings from old photographs of Pacific Fleet Seafires  

So do you think AP 507B is a figment of someone's imagination and Captain Tennat's "grey between Light Grey and Dark Grey" was something produced on-ship by mixing the other two greys together?

Bloody hell! Here's me cursing inaccurate profiles and thinking I was having it hard trying to interpret the markings from old photographs of Pacific Fleet Seafires  

So do you think AP 507B is a figment of someone's imagination and Captain Tennat's "grey between Light Grey and Dark Grey" was something produced on-ship by mixing the other two greys together?

 

I think the 507B did exist but that it wasn't a medium grey but rather it was exactly the same shade as 507A. I think the confusion has slipped in somewhere because mid-war once disruptive pattern camouflage came in and the Admiralty introduced emergency schemes for painting without pattern or the correct camouflage paints. One of these measures was a medium grey achieved by mixing equal parts 507A and 507C.

 

Logically, and in the absence of a timeline back to the turn of the century, it sounds like that would be called 507B and sit between 507A and 507C, but we do have a timeline back to the turn of the century and only 507B and C survived WW1 and were used continuously between, being adjusted in formula and by adding increasing strengths of blue pigment until their WW2 forms were finalised in 1936. Both contained likewise-tinted gloss enamel, 507B much more so by proportion, which made them attractive and hars wearing. In 1939 an order came out re-introducing 507A and expressly stating that it is exactly the same as 507B except it lacks the dark grey enamel to achieve a flatter finish.

 

In 1940 an order discontinued the use of enamel for wartime economy, thus 507B was effectively dead. It reappeared by 1947 and from then until the mid 1950s all vessels wore the 1936 formulation of 507B and 507C again, depending on station.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Shortly after the fire, the bomb arrived. It hasn't been my top priority lately, but I have now assembled it and begun painting. There is more to do.

 

My enthusiasm for rebuilding that bomb rack thing evaporated so I simply carved it out a bit with a scalpel.

 

[Col.]

It took me a minute to realise this was a photograph of your model rather than a reference photograph of the real machine Jamie.

[Biggles87]

What a great thread, and full of useful information.

Thanks for starting it.

 

John

[Johnson]

@Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies

 

Hi Jamie,

 

A bit late to join this thread I know, but I'm using Colourcoats for the first time on my Spitfire, and I was interested in paint chipping techniques, so I found your thread. Having read it I'm still undecided whether a hairspray experiment is a good idea.

 

But what did get my attention were the decals on your Corsair which look excellent, no sign of carrier film at all. Might I ask, were the decals applied directly onto the satin Colourcoats finish or did you use a gloss coat?

 

And I have to agree with Col's comment above;

 

On 1/20/2019 at 8:50 PM, Col. said:

It took me a minute to realise this was a photograph of your model rather than a reference photograph of the real machine Jamie.

 

Regards,