Metallic Paint for F-84G

[Paul821]

In the Heller GB I am building a F-84G 

 

 

 

and I posed the following question.

 

The aircraft will finished as a 20th Fighter  Bomber aircraft at Wethersfield, I am brush painting using Ammo Mig metallic colours.

 

Most instructions for this type of aircraft just say use Humbrol 11 or similar (Silver) but the images of F-85G's on the internet show them as being a duller colour, more like the paint finish above. At the end of the day it does not matter that much but I might as well get it correct.

 

Any views?

[bentwaters81tfw]

As always with NMF airframes, there is variance in tonal change with different panels.

Have a look here.

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/bruce_craig/f-84c-16-re_47-1595/index.php?Page=1

[ivand]

Those are preserved aircraft. They were probably less oxidized when in service about 70 years ago. Also, when restored, they often receive a coat of metallic paint. You may want to look at period footage from the time when the ground crews took pride in keeping the silver birds shiny...

[Giorgio N]

There's no lack of period pictures of F-84s on the web, including pictures of aircraft of your same unit, and while old pictures are often not that good quality-wise, at least they will give you an idea of the kind of finish.

Aircraft in natural metal finish are tricky because the metals used are not the same everywhere in an aircraft but different alloys are used in different areas and even when the same alloy is used the manufacturing methods may differ between panels. These result in differences not only in the apparent "colour" but also in the degree of shine

Then there's the matter of use and maintenance procedures, where usage of the aircraft will result in wear and dirt while maintenance procedures may result in the shine of certain areas being restored, to the point that certain aircraft were sometimes even polished to a very high shine.

Now that high shine is not the norm on the F-84G and most other aircraft and while certain areas were shinier than the rest, we's still talking aluminum alloys, not chromed surfaces. I don't know how the Mig metallics are, in general high quality metallic paints offer specific products for the very shiny stuff while the rest is a more typical representation of a natural metal finish.

 

For your aircraft I'd suggest checking as many period pictures as you can, to get an idea of what the typical aspect of the various areas was. You will find that there was a clear pattern, result of the different material and manufacturing of the various panels on this type.

Then you have to match the finish to the paints you have... having never used Mig metallics I can't help with a list, best way to do is to apply all the different paints you have on some unused sprue sections and then compare these to the finishes in the pictures. You may find that you have to mix a couple paints to get that particular section right but of course there's always the option of choosing the closest from the tin.

 

One last word on the shine: if you feel that the metallic finish you have achieved is too shiny, there's always the option of toning this down with a coat of semigloss clear varnish.