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New Revell 1/32 Tempest decal colour issue?


t15dja

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Hi all,  hope we are all well. 

I recently purchased the new Revell 1/32 Hawker Tempest mark V. I say "new" but I believe it's actually a rebox of the Special Hobby kit.

On opening the box everything looked pretty impressive with lots of detailed parts and very nice surface detail........and then I got to the decals.

Here's a picture of the ones that came with my kit:

2020-09-08_02-50-07

 

Now I will admit that I am slightly colour blind,  but the red colours on this decal sheet definitely look brown to me. So I checked with the rest of the family to be safe and they concur....the reds are not red at all - they are brown. Hopefully you can see this in the photo above.

I took this up with Revell and sent them the photo (and a few others) and asked whether there had been a printing problem. As per normal with Revell I got a rapid response,  which said

"My Technical Build Team advise that the decals you have are the correct (sic) – there is a brown-ish tinge to the red of the decals."

Now....is it me .....but I would've said there isn't a hint of red in those decals and there's certainly more than a tinge of brown!

Has anyone else experienced anything similar with this kit's decals?

 

 

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The red used for British roundels in WW2 was indeed more a brown than a red, the colour I can see on my monitor of that decal sheet is IMHO quite a good representation

I'm less convinced by the colour used for the codes, these should be in Sky but the colour looks more like a grey to me... but mind, I'm looking at the representation on my monitor and in my experience Sky can look strange when on a decal with a blue backing paper. The codes in the pictures I've seen of the built Revell kit don't look bad

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Thanks both.

I think that taking / posting the photos and then viewing them on line might have subtly changed the shades of the colours. As I sit here now looking at the decals the letters do look more sky than appears on the photo above.....and the red is definitely still brown to me 😆. Especially the tail  flashes and separate roundel centres...here's a couple more photos. 

20200908_160234

 

20200908_160253

 

However,  I do think the camera is changing the shade slightly. 

As a comparison I've just grabbed some decals to compare - in this case they are from the 1/48 Lancaster...see photo below (Tamiya on top)

2020-09-08_04-11-20

Now I really can see a difference...Tamiya reds do look red (although, rightly,  still a tinge of brown)...but look at  the difference in the blues!

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I`ve got this kit too , also have the SH . one made up . You may find the reds lighten a bit when you spray on the final matt or satin coat .

You`re right about the squadron codes , fortunately I`ve have some left over from the PCM kit which were correct .

                                                                                                                                                                                      Don .

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I've the pdf file readings on British paint colours by Nick Millman. 

 

Can only do a digital comparison,  but downloading the larger image in post #4,  the decal red is quite close, but could go slightly lighter to match Nick's sample.

The blue area of the decal looks to be the right intensity, but contains a bit too much red - side by side the decal is approaching  the purple colour spectrum.

 

Forum logo is actually quite good, so here it is copied and pasted over the decal image  - to my eyes, it's the blue that is more wrong:

dclFZli.jpg

 

regards,

Jack

Edited by JackG
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Hi 't15dja'.

 

I have just got hold of  this same kit today -a  superb piece of moulding, which is indeed a reissue of the SH kit.

I'd agree the red is slightly on the brownish side - as Giorgio says the roundel red by the UK used in WW2 was quite brownish in hue. Some other manufacturers, Tamiya on occasion have gone towards the other extreme, with colours I felt I needed to tone down.

 

The codes are a greyish tone of Sky, to my eyes. I'd prefer a wee tad more green in them, but fading in service and general wear & tear?  Plus, I wasn't there so for all I know some codes may have been painted with a greyer Sky. I've sen some interesting variation in paint colours due to age of paint and poor mixing too. No doubt that happened during wartime & I don't imagine it was top of anyone's priority to get exact matches!   

 

Does anyone know if there are any after market decals which might help out 't15dja' ?

 

John B

 

 

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1 hour ago, John B (Sc) said:

Does anyone know if there are any after market decals which might help out 't15dja' ?

There's an Xtradecal sheet for 1/32 Tempest V 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X32061

 

X32061_1.jpg?t=

Other than that there are of course many decal sheets produced for the various boxings of the kit by Special Hobby, whose plastic it is. They don't normally sell those separately but it would not hurt to contact them via https://www.specialhobby.eu/index.php?cur=1&lang=1&cl=contact and ask nicely: it's possible they might make an exception.

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1 hour ago, John B (Sc) said:

Plus, I wasn't there so for all I know some codes may have been painted with a greyer Sky. I've sen some interesting variation in paint colours due to age of paint and poor mixing too. No doubt that happened during wartime & I don't imagine it was top of anyone's priority to get exact matches!   

 

not greyer, but there could be variations, as seen on EJ693 below,  and as to why.

  

On 14/05/2011 at 20:49, Chris Thomas said:

The Sky band would have been factory applied and the unit codes would have been applied by the unit (or its servicing echelon), at Eindhoven in this case. That could be a reason for the difference as well as the years of fading and grime that are evident.

 

 

woodhouse37-1.jpg&key=abc18872c22dfe08e0

 

from

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/70201-tempest-ej693-medium-sea-grey-squadron-codes/

 

 

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5 hours ago, John B (Sc) said:

.......

 No doubt that happened during wartime & I don't imagine it was top of anyone's priority to get exact matches!   

 

 

Hi

    Wish i could have filmed the dockyard painters mixing paint and paint batches to make the  'south atlantic grey' for the falklands warships

   side by side the frigates had different shades 

    cheers

       jerry

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It could my eyes that are calibrated differently, and is more sensitive to red.   So a further test in CMYK (since it is easier to read values in percentage form).  Swatches created from the roundel blue taken from the Britmodeller logo and the Tempest decal.   The comparison indicates 16% more magenta(red) in the latter, and 5% less cyan (blue).  The other two colours (yellow and black) are just 1% different.

 

U07BAul.jpg

 

 

regards,

Jack

Edited by JackG
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There's really no point comparing it iwth the Britmodeller logo, which has no claim to be any kind of authoritative reference and was never intended for that purpose. Can you not try it with something of known referential significance, like the chips in the RAF Museum paint guide?

Edited by Work In Progress
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13 hours ago, brewerjerry said:

Hi

    Wish i could have filmed the dockyard painters mixing paint and paint batches to make the  'south atlantic grey' for the falklands warships

   side by side the frigates had different shades 

    cheers

       jerry

Exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of ! And the Sea Harriers repainting was done in part at sea with what was available, 

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11 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

There's really no point comparing it iwth the Britmodeller logo, which has no claim to be any kind of authoritative reference and was never intended for that purpose. Can you not try it with something of known referential significance, like the chips in the RAF Museum paint guide?

 

I used the Britmodeller logo  after comparing to Nick Millman's pdf file (MAP/RAF Paint Colour Standard 1939-45).  The blue from the logo is much more accurate than what is presented on the decal image.   Sorry, but out of respect to Mr. Millman, I can't just freely post images of his work.

 

regards,

Jack

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On 9/8/2020 at 4:16 PM, t15dja said:

Thanks both.

I think that taking / posting the photos and then viewing them on line might have subtly changed the shades of the colours. As I sit here now looking at the decals the letters do look more sky than appears on the photo above.....and the red is definitely still brown to me 😆. Especially the tail  flashes and separate roundel centres...here's a couple more photos. 

 

 

 

 

However,  I do think the camera is changing the shade slightly. 

As a comparison I've just grabbed some decals to compare - in this case they are from the 1/48 Lancaster...see photo below (Tamiya on top)

2020-09-08_04-11-20

Now I really can see a difference...Tamiya reds do look red (although, rightly,  still a tinge of brown)...but look at  the difference in the blues!

I’ve never been impressed by the colours on the Tamiya Lanc. What colour photos I’ve seen show the roundel blue fading. From what I can see on this iPad monitor, I’d be quite happy with the Tempest decal colours personally

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Personally I don't really like the use of "faded" colours in a roundel for the reason that when the paint fades this rarely happens in a uniform way on the whole surface of the roundel. Using a lighter colour would just look like that, an insignia with lighter colours. To get a properly faded insignia the modeller would have to work in the same way used to add the effect of faded paint on the model

Then of course there's the matter of "scale effect" for those who follow this theory (and personally I partially do), this would indeed call for lighter colours.

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Yes, but how many modellers produced faded/weathered aircraft yet stick with unfaded markings?  There are a fair number of photos showing a much lighter blue on the upper surface of the wings or RAF aircraft in WW2, yet much lesser fading on the camouflage colours: I was suggesting a way of using the transfers he has without too much angst.

 

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