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Airfix Paints Colour Chart?


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Help, Britimodeller - You're my only Hope! :pray:

 

I've ventured into the building of Airfix 1/600 Free Enterprise II - Yes I know! :winkgrin:

The colour callouts are:

 

White G3 (I guess: Gloss White?)

Light Green (?)

Black G4 (I guess: Gloss Black?)

Matt Red M1 (I guess: Ordinary Matt Red?)

Red G1 (I guess: Ordinary Gloss Red?)

Dark Green M3 (?)

Bronze (I guess: Metallic Bronze?)

 

It's the two greens that I have trouble with. :hmmm:

Can you help me finding a Humbroll colour? :worthy:

 

Cheers :bye:

Hans J

 

PS I was trying to get a reference to Marshall Rogers' "A Remembrance of Threatening Green" in, but failed! :crying:

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3 minutes ago, HansReggelsen said:

Hello Hans,

 

From an old Humbrol conversion chart.... Here goes!

 

White G3 (I guess: Gloss White?)               Humbrol 22

Light Green (?)                                           

Black G4 (I guess: Gloss Black?)                 Humbrol 21

Matt Red M1 (I guess: Ordinary Matt Red?)  Humbrol 70

Red G1 (I guess: Ordinary Gloss Red?)      Humbrol 19

Dark Green M3 (?)                                     Humbrol 30

 

Bronze could be 12 (G12), 16 (G7) or 54 (G15)

 

Let me venture into the loft for an even older list!!!

 

 

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You're pretty much on the money except that M1 is Brick Red, not the slightly pinkish M12 Matt Red introduced later.  M3 was Airfix's standard all-purpose matt green for a long time: in those simpler times it was recommended for RAF Dark Green and RLM Dunkelgruen (in the latter case with M17 Dark Green as Schwarzgruen.  Can't remember the number for Bronze: it was quite a late arrival on scene.  Airfix did a gloss green (G6?) which was used for BR and GWR Locomotive Green.  It might have been what Airfix intended you to use on Free Enterprise: I don't think there were any other gloss greens in the range.

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Ah, found the old list!

 

Bronze was G15 so Humbrol would have that as 54.

 

Can't see a 'Light Green' listed.

 

Greens were:

 

G5 Green                     Humbrol 3

M3 Green                    Humbrol 30

M16 Duck Egg Green  Humbrol 23

M17 Dark Green          Humbrol 75

 

This was the 1970s though, so equivalences may only be fleeting.

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Thank you so much! :worthy:

From the photos I've encountered the Light Green could look like a lightend version of the Dark Green, so I'll experiment with that.

Now I have a starting point!

 

Thank you both ever so much! :worthy:

 

Cheers :bye:

Hans J

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Maybe of use to somebody - there is an Android app Hobby Color Converter available to

"Find color equivalences between Tamiya, Revell, Humbrol, Vallejo, Gunze Sangyo, Citadel, Testors, AK Interactive, Ammo Mig and Federal Standard paints. This application helps you to find equivalences between colors of different brand paints used in model kits, dioramas and historical or fantasy miniature painting. It also is useful as a complete color chart."

In the Play Store

 

Edited by clipper
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  • 4 weeks later...

It really was a very light green - I remember seeing her operating out of Dover in the early 70s and may eve have sailed over to Calais on her in the late 70s but by then I think she'd been repainted orange

 

There are a couple of photos here: http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/FE2.html

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On ‎2‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 4:40 PM, Yorkshire man said:

Please see this link, conversion from Airfix to Humbrol...........

 

http://www.vintage-airfix.com/airfix-to-humbrol-paint-list-a-2.html

Not terribly impressed.  The Airfix paints are not, or not consistently, given their original names, only those of their modern-day Humbrol equivalents eg M4 was called Concrete and M5 Earth.   M3 Green was a much lighter, grassier shade than Humbrol 30, and without the blue tinge.  M8 was Duck Egg Blue by name and really was a blue, matching the now discontinued Humbrol shade (25?  28?) whereas M9 was Duck Egg Green, what we would now call Sky.  M12 was a slightly pinkish red, not matched by anything in the Humbrol range today.

 

The first few colours betray the beginnings of the Airfix paint range ie to support the railway accessory range (booking hall, engine shed, etc) - and fuels the suspicion that M3 Green might have been intended to match more the colour of grass rather than MAP Dark Green!

Edited by Seahawk
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I know it's hard to believe, but yesterday in my basement cell I came across some 30 tins of Humbrol and Airfix enamels from the 1970s. And more than 80% of them are still usable !

So I can send you a photo of Airfix M2, M9, M11, M12, and M18 lids together with their Humbrol "equivalents" from the list above - just send me your address on PM.

Then you will see that M2 is lighter and yellower than H27, M9 lighter and pinkier than H72, M11 lighter and greyer than H96, M18 lighter and yellower than H76, whereas M12 has almost nothing in common with H73.

Cheers

Michael

Edited by KRK4m
misprint
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Lots of folks get hung up on colours and the matches from one manufacturer to another. It should be remembered that paint call outs started out with the paint manufacturer nominating Paint X as the colour match for a particular colour whether it matched or not - it was the nearest thing they had in their range. On a conversion chart Paint X by Manufacturer A might be matched to Paint Y by Manufacturer B whether this matched the other paint or the object colour or neither. Then through time formulations have altered due to legislation, cost cutting and various other reasons resulting in changes to the original formulation. Folks like Mike Starmer do a fantastic job it making up formulas to match the object colour, illustrating how manufacturers get it wrong. Then you consider scale colour and maybe even get into weathering and the water becomes a lot muddier. The best advice I was given was to paint my models in the colours I was happy with. We all perceive colours differently, so what looks right to some do not for others. I often see WW2 German splinter camouflage portrayed as a high contrast effect whereas contemporary pictures show much less of a contrast. Is the high contrast perpetuated because of a manufacturer's particular call out and repeated so often that we modellers expect to see it even though reality was vastly different.

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Thanks to all who replied to my cry for help.

I have taken it all in and have bought some paints that I found was the closest equivalent for the paints in question.

As I did, I also had to take into consideration as to what type of paints were available at my LHS.

Once again you have exceeded my expectations with your combined knowledge and enthusiasm! :D

 

Cheers :bye:

Hans J

 

 

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