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Hobby colors used to paint a French Mirage 2000N?


Eli Raphael

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Just a note that the Mig colors used in his sets are approximate matches. French colors generally do not have FS or BS color matches. I believe the French have their own color system.

 

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Using the official AFNOR colour coordinates, I have compared AFNOR A 620 (Celomer is simply a paint system popular in French aerospace) to the oft-quoted FS35164 Intermediate Blue using the Delta E 2000 comparison, a metric used to compare colour. <2 is considered a close match and >7 is widely considered a substantially different colour.

 

The result was Delta E = 4.2

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On 8/29/2019 at 7:39 AM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Using the official AFNOR colour coordinates, I have compared AFNOR A 620 (Celomer is simply a paint system popular in French aerospace) to the oft-quoted FS35164 Intermediate Blue using the Delta E 2000 comparison, a metric used to compare colour. <2 is considered a close match and >7 is widely considered a substantially different colour.

 

The result was Delta E = 4.2

 

So, not very close is what you're saying? This is fascinating information Jamie. Where can one find more info on the French paint system?

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54 minutes ago, mstorin said:

 

So, not very close is what you're saying? This is fascinating information Jamie. Where can one find more info on the French paint system?

It's not bad, it's just not great. Believe it or not, the French AFNOR A 620's published colour coordinates are a bit greyer / less blue than FS35164. The tone is approximately correct though. I had been wondering if our ACUS08 could be "relabelled" but it's not quite good enough for that. The French colour standard with CIELAB coordinates is available online and someone posted a link to it on this forum not tooooo long ago. I need to go make some slides up for a presentation but will post direct comparisons of the AFNOR paints against the usual-quoted American suspects.

 

What's amusing is that the internet is full of people claiming the FS paints aren't blue enough and posting photographs of different aircraft taken in different places as evidence. According to the official published colour coordinates for both, the opposite is true.

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I made reference to the official French military colour document a few weeks ago in a thread on the F-100 in AdA service. It is possible to find online versions of NORMDEF 0001, for example this one:

 

https://www.derivery.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/NORMDEF-0001-Couleurs-de-ladéfense-nationale.pdf

 

A very interesting document but not really easy to use for a modeller. Extremely useful on the other hand for anyone working in the paint industry, as Jamie's comparison shows.

Unfortunately there's no colour chip visible in the pdf linked above but most of the relevant AFNOR codes can be found online to get a rough idea.

Edited by Giorgio N
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2 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Here's how they look

 

b311ed83-ff01-4b62-9f33-c98dc6866505.png

This is great Jamie. I know its a bit off topic, but any possibility of doing the same for the colors used on Rafale B/Cs and Ms?

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1 hour ago, mstorin said:

This is great Jamie. I know its a bit off topic, but any possibility of doing the same for the colors used on Rafale B/Cs and Ms?

I'll need to find out what those are but in principle yes. I hear though that their final appearance may be distorted somewhat by additional coatings applied as part of making it stealthier, so I can't promise how much value their is in it.

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On 9/2/2019 at 9:58 AM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

I'll need to find out what those are but in principle yes. I hear though that their final appearance may be distorted somewhat by additional coatings applied as part of making it stealthier, so I can't promise how much value their is in it.

Any help would be appreciated. Just want to get reasonably close.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some years ago, Xtracolour did offer a dozen or so colors covering the modern French Air Force. These included several greys, blues, and a green  for the Mirages in service(to include the Mirage IV). They were sold for some years before the line was stopped. I don't know how accurate they were; but, I presume they had a reference available. I believe that I sent a message to @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies asking him to offer some. That and the colors needed for the French helicopters used by the French Army and the French Air Force.

Joe

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  • 2 months later...

Hi guys. As a french modeller i Can Say that it is difficult even for french modellers to find a correct color to paint the Mirages 2000. Grey and blue grey camo are very difficult, and green and grey too. WE generally make mixed colors depending of the scale...it is not easy...

 

Edited by Omak
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Unfortunately, modern French Air Force colors for fixed wing and helicopters seem to be treated like the late great Rodney Dangerfield: "They don't get no respect." There is a demand for them; and a good selection of Post-war and Modern French aircraft to warrant them. Count me as a buyer for them.

Joe

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