BOAC Blue

[Justin M]

Hi - can anyone make any paint suggestions for the blue of the BOAC Golden Speedbird livery? I am a seasoned military aircraft modeller but just getting into Civilian Aircraft as I want to make some BOAC aircraft, mainly as I flew on them as a kid (now that dates me). For info, I tend to use either acrylic or lacquer.  

 

Many thanks. 

[Abandoned Project]

Hello @Justin M

Have a read of this

I'm sure others will find other threads on the subject.

It might help to know which aircraft you plan to build.

[Justin M]

Hello @Abandoned Project

Many thanks, 

I looked through the 1969 onwards and never thought to look at the classic forum. 

Many thanks

J 

[Alan P]

This is enlightening... 

Looks like you can eyeball it without fear of embarrassment Justin 😉

 

Otherwise, it appears people have used Humbrol 15 Midnight Blue or Revell 54 Night Blue with good results. 

 

[The Tomohawk Kid]

8 hours ago, Alan P said:

 

Otherwise, it appears people have used Humbrol 15 Midnight Blue or Revell 54 Night Blue with good results. 

 

 

Personally, I would have thought Humbrol Midnight Blue would be too dark, it cures erring to black. I can't comment on Revell Night Blue as I have never used it.

 

Tommo.

Edited July 10, 2020 by The Tomohawk Kid

[RichardH]

There was a definite change in blue when the gold speed bird  scheme was introduced. When the tail markings of two parallel white stripes was in use the shade of blue was very dark (in poor light it was almost black, not dissimilar to the “navy blue” used in RN uniforms, so midnight blue might be a good choice for that era.  When the gold speed bird logo came into being, the shade of blue was noticeably lighter - I think USN sea gloss blue would be close. Have you tried contacting the BA heritage people?

[Skodadriver]

If it's any help I used Revell 54 Nachtblau for touch ups on the Aviaco DC-8 I posted in RFI a few weeks ago. It was a near perfect match to the blue of the cheatline.

[Flying Badger]

Hi Justin,

 

 My first time back on the forum in over 5 years so I'm glad to see my earlier contributions are still useful to people. 

 

Just to say that the BOAC Comet 1A build that was the subject of the thread Abandoned Project linked to came out looking great.

 

RAL 5022 Night Blue (Revell 36154 Night Blue) was indeed a very close match for the pre-Landor blue of BOAC.

 

I took a combined approach of paint and decals in the end so had to match the paint colour to the output of my printer... I painted the blue and yellow stripes (adding decals for window outlines etc. over the top).

Using the RGB/CMYK values for RAL 5022 gave me a close match for the paint colour but to get it spot on I painted a 1inch x 2 inch plasticard rectangle with my paint then printed out test squares of very slight variations in CMYK values around suggested values for RAL5022, coated them in a thin coat of decal film and when dry I compared them to get the perfect match. (all fairly easy)

That allowed me to get the decals that I made for the COMET logos and the smaller decal details like the speedbird logo etc. spot on.

 

If you already have decals you might need to do it the other way around and start with the Revell etc paint nearest to RAL 5022 Night blue and spray some test squares with slightly different mixes of blue (perhaps with a tiny amount of white or black to alter the shade) until you get it spot on.

 

Regards

 

TFB