RAF Paint colors 1970 ?

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello everybody I have the RAF Green & Grey for the uppers but whats a good equivalent for Light aircraft grey I have a few light grey's ?  Light aircraft grey like you would see on a SEA Camouflaged USAF bird out of Vietnam ? Or something darker like RAF Med. sea grey from WW2 ? Or a Light ghost grey like that used by the USN ? I know i have asked this before a long time ago but have lost the notes ? I want to paint  an RAF Buccaneer from Honington in 1970 ? 

 

 

This is for the Classic Frog models group build. I was initially going with a different scheme but changed my mind ? 

 

Dennis

[e8n2]

I have always heard that light aircraft gray is equivilant to the USN's light gull gray (FS X6440), not light ghost (or compass) gray (FS X6375)which is an entirely different, and newer, color. 

Later,

Dave

[Sturmovik]

2 minutes ago, e8n2 said:

I have always heard that light aircraft gray is equivilant to the USN's light gull gray

Works great for me and my Canberra. The color callouts for the undersides are light aircraft grey.

 

If you end up not reaching a satisfactory answer, look up light aircraft grey on Google, and match one of the images with whatever paint you have. Don't complicate yourself too much with paints either.

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by Sturmovik

[Giorgio N]

The proper Light Aircraft Grey 627 as used by the RAF is available in a number of paint ranges, like Humbrol, Xtracolour, Gunze and others, get one of these rather than look for something from the FS catalogue.

IMHO FS 36440 is not a good match, being lighter while Medium Sea Grey is too dark.. and the various ghost greys are too blue.

[Britman]

Try looking at the transport fleet for a better idea as it offers a bigger canvas to appreciate tha colour. Using the national markings as a guide one should get a good approximation.

 

Keith

[David Womby]

Nothing is an exact match but you might find Lt Gull Gray acceptable although it is a tad lighter than Lt Aircraft Grey IMHO.  Of course, lighting makes a difference too.   

 

One of these Jaguars is Lt Aircraft Grey and one is Lt Gull Gray.

 

 

David

[iainpeden]

Light Gull Gray and Light Aircraft Grey are interchangeable - as a well known model paint manufacturer once told me.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Light Aircraft Grey BS381C-627 has published colour values L71.9 a-0.9 b3.13

 

FS36440 Light Gull Grey has published colour values L70.54 a-1.29 b5.09

 

They are very close and most would not be able to tell them apart even directly compared.

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

They are very close and most would not be able to tell them apart even directly compared.

That helps a lot Jamie... I consider your paint knowledge to be some of the best I've seen. So that will make me feel better going with the gull grey. Its probably the closest i have currently.  

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

2 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

That helps a lot Jamie... I consider your paint knowledge to be some of the best I've seen. So that will make me feel better going with the gull grey. Its probably the closest i have currently.  

 

Whilst usually quite fussy, I'd say FS36440 is close enough for government work in this case. The published values above show it to be close to on the dot for lightness and green value, but the FS paint is very slightly more yellowish than the British paint. However, the difference is less than the variance that real paint manufacturers would accept as a tolerance in producing either so 10 commercial batches of each would in practise show overlap of each other if sampled out, dried and measured by spectrophotometer.

 

A drop or two of white into the airbrush jar would increase the L value and reduce the other two towards zero making it more like the British colour, but if you can see the difference you made with your eyes then it's more than likely that you've overdone it!