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AK Interactive Real Colors - Acrylic Lacquer Paints


Mike

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Today sees the launch of a new brand of Acrylic Lacquer paints from well-known company AK Interactive, which have been worked on in association with a number of respected aircraft and armour colour experts for over a year, including our own @Nick Millman.  They have produced a range of colours that will be of great use to anyone making models of WWII aircraft or AFVs of the main protagonists in the European arena, namely Great Britain, America, Russia, and their foes Nazi Germany.  Using their own knowledge of paint manufacture and formulation, coupled with the named experts (you'll see those names later on), they are more than a little bit proud to launch the range, which is accompanied by a book on the subject that looks to be well worth a read.

 

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At time of writing we are waiting for our samples, plus a copy of the book, but from looking at the pre-release publicity material, it all looks very interesting.  If you scroll to the bottom there are some useful links to the initial range of paints and other information, so you can see all the shades that will be available initially, and if you visit their site you should be able to see the new racks with the branding on so that you can hunt them down in your local bricks & mortar model shop if you're not ordering online.  You should be able to buy the pots individually or in themed sets, and as well as the Real Color AIR sets, there are also a range of Real Color AFVs coming too, with 133 available AIR and a further 114 in AFV flavours.  If you're feeling flush you can buy the whole set in one fell swoop, which will ensure you have every colour to hand plus their clear coats right from the outset.  The formulation is suitable for use their own thinners which are odourless (always good), and other thinners that can be used with non-latex acrylic paint formulations.  The pots are glass, and contain 10ml of paint with a textured lid that makes it easier to remove, and the details of the paint colour and number are easily seen on the colourful labels.

 

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To accompany the range of paints, AK have also launched two books, entitled Real Colors of WWII Air and Real Colors of WWII AFV, which are a companion to the colours, and have a serious quantity of information and colour photographs that will amuse you for hours, and serve as a reference for future use.  You can see details of both volumes here, but we have reproduced a few pages of the Air edition here in case you're short of time.

 

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You can find a handy PDF conversion sheet here, the full release information and range of paints can be seen on their dedicated website here along with information about how to use them, the names of the collaborators, and how they went about selecting shades for "The Accuracy".

 

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We're really looking forward to seeing the fruits of their labours, and will report back in due course when we have the paints and books to hand.  Thanks to Fernando at AK for the information, and to all the people that took part in this expedition into colour accuracy. :yes:

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, colin said:

Oh dear, getting ready for the whole round of ' I think you'll find colour X is just a shade too light' and 'colour Y has to much blue tone' happens when you use the word accuracy 😉

:lol: that had already occurred to us, and we were having a laugh about who that might be. Smart-Alecs will be smart-Alecs :shrug: Mind you, should everyone allow their self-esteem to be that low that they don't call anything they do good?  Nope... absolutely not! :yes:

 

I'm really looking forward to seeing them in the flesh, as I do a fair quantity of modelling in the WWII zone, so they'll get some use ^_^

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I really like that they have a color chip on the label.  I use Tamiya often and the cap color is of little use so I have created my own set of "chips" for reference but it would be much easier to simply have them on the bottle.  And also nice that they will readily mix with Tamiya too.  Just have to add more shelves to my paint rack now.

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Having used some of the RC armour colours I can say that they spray lovely, I normally use Mr Levelling thinners to thin them. 

I notice that they have gone for the dark blue for the RLM83, i'd be very interested to know where they got that recipe from? Surely they've not just gone with a few eye witness accounts and a few notes that Ullmann supposedly found? You can hardly call guess work accurate.

That said i'll be giving some of the colours a go.

 

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15 hours ago, tank152 said:

Having used some of the RC armour colours I can say that they spray lovely, I normally use Mr Levelling thinners to thin them. 

That's good to know. It was one of the first things I was going to test when the samples arrived :)

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20 hours ago, tank152 said:

Having used some of the RC armour colours I can say that they spray lovely, I normally use Mr Levelling thinners to thin them. 

I notice that they have gone for the dark blue for the RLM83, i'd be very interested to know where they got that recipe from? Surely they've not just gone with a few eye witness accounts and a few notes that Ullmann supposedly found? You can hardly call guess work accurate.

That said i'll be giving some of the colours a go.

 

I have an AK Acylics set and they went with the Blue 83 in there which confused the heck out of me as I was looking for the other one. Read some about the blue on the net and I would be interested where the research came from for this just out of interest.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Julien said:

I have an AK Acylics set and they went with the Blue 83 in there which confused the heck out of me as I was looking for the other one. Read some about the blue on the net and I would be interested where the research came from for this just out of interest.

 

 

If you've got some  precious time to waste take a read through these threads, 

The 2 people that have been banned are the same person I believe!!

Basically there have been eye witness accounts of Ju88s operating over the Med supposedly camouflaged in blue and the Ullmann found a couple of directives in some archives mentioning blue, so all of a sudden people are saying RLM83 is blue and not green.

I qas half expecting Ullman  to release another edition of his Luftwaffe Colours book to coincide with his findings!!

So far there has been no other evidence, to my knowledge,  to reinforce his findings so the blue offered by AK is guesswork at best.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

I have the book in the flesh and i do like it ..there are no actual paint chips in it so getting the right color from these samples can be doubtfull ..

Nevertheless there are many new pictures and info in it that can help you achieve a good result espacially when using their paints..

I think it is worth the price and is certainly a most welcome addition in my Brooks of color and paints cabinet..

 

cheers, Jan

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  • 1 year later...

I hesitate to resurrect this topic, however having just bought some on the assumption they were like 'normal' acrylics, then finding that they are completely different,  I decided to use them anyway and found a number of problems that I hope someone can assist with.

 

1. The thinning debate :(  I know certain youtube videos show them mixing with distilled water and Tamiya thinners, well I tried both and they definitely do not, unless you like your paint of a putty consistency. However I managed to get a good consistency using straight IPA alcohol, and the finish when sprayed was excellent.

 

2. However............after leaving the paint to set for over 24 hours I masked up and sprayed the second colour. When removing the masking tape (Low tac Frogtape that had been 'stuck' to denim jeans prior to using to remove even more 'stickiness') it took the paint off!

 

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I hadn't used a primer (I normally would but didn't know if my usual Vallejo primer would react to these paints?) but everything I read online suggested that no primer was necessary with these AK Real Color paints.

 

3. My final (hopefully) problem is this. What varnish can I apply over this paint before putting decals on? I would normally use something like Vallejo metal varnish or Humbrol Clear for a gloss coat, then Vallejo matt varnish to finish after decals were set.  Will this react with this paint and do I have to use a lacquer based varnish too?

 

Much as I like the way these spray I certainly won't be getting any more of them that's for sure :(

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Matt,

 

They are definitely lacquers and can be diluted with any lacquer or alcohol based thinner besides their own of course. I have only sprayed over primer and haven’t had any adhesion problems. Do you have anything you can use as a paint mule to test the clear coat. I’m pretty sure I’ve sprayed Vallejo Matt over them but can’t be sure.  My biggest issue with them is some of the colours look a bit ‘iffy’.

 

Regards

 

H

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