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Want to Build Tamiya A6M2 1/48, need help with Vallejo paints equivalent to Tamiya's?


Polymath

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Hi there.

 

Want to get started on a kit with time on my hands.

Likely buy a 1/48th Tamiya A6M2 Kit.

Gonna be painting with brushes and planned on Vallejo paint, 

rather than Tamiya which i understand dries too fast while hand brushing...?

Was hoping to get equivalents but there doesn't seem to be for these

Tamiya paints:

 

XF-24 – Dark Grey

XF-56 – Metallic Grey

XF-66 – Light Grey (Vellejo 70990?)

XF-70 – Dark Green

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Jeff

 

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Vallejo website has colour charts that you can download 

https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/hobby-color-charts/

Also look for IPMS colour charts.

 

If you're struggling with Tamiya drying too fast you can try an acrylic retarder which slows drying time. I have used Winsor& Newton acrylic flow improver.

 

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You can delay the drying process of Acrylic colour by adding a small drop of Acrylic Retarder and some thinner (or water). Retarder is available at every stationary store that sells artist products. Works fine with my brush-painting.

 

For authentic IJN colours you better turn to Colourcoats enamels (or - with a little modification - Mr Hobby acrylics). Tamiya colours don't really match. For IJN colour specifics visit the excellent colour instructions by Nick Millman here: http://www.aviationofjapan.com/.   

His PDFs on the Zero and IJN Greens are highly recommendable and answer all questions that you may have reg. colours.

 

Cheers, Michael

 

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Hi AltcarBoB 

 

Trying to patronize a family owned local hobby shop, they had AKI Acrylic Thinner (lot of stuff in supply chain is out of stock) Will what I bought work okay with most Acrylics? I'm somewhat familiar with W&N art supplies as I painted acrylics on canvas back in the day...

I also grabbed the AKI WW2 IJN Real Colors paint set (on sale). My A6M2 is the 2007 Tamiya Boxing. I realize that the colour issue about Zero's is quite a brew up, so for now I will work to do an excellent job with the set colours. It's a training kit anyway. I don't expect to produce a keeper, but just learn from new materials and options that weren't available last time i built a model kit plane back in... the early 90's?! ....

 

And Michael

 

What's the difference between a retarder and a thinner? Way back I painted acrylic and employed washes (thinning with water) but suspect the retarder slows the paint setting?

Will look at Aviationofjapan site, though I have no plans to go deep into IJN, or IJA aircraft.

Once I get my skills up to snuff; i have the A6M2 (Tamiya) and an; F4F-4 (Tamiya), SBD-2 Midway (Academy), Mustang III (Tamiya) all 1/48th to "work up" on. At that point I'll look at Royal Canadian Navy aircraft to build. Have a few "Moth's" tucked away all in 1/72nd scale; Fox, Hornet, Tiger, but  they are for later, when my skills get to the "keeper" phase... 

Happily, I have lots of tools having been a Model railroader for several years, I imagine a lot will be transferable... hope some of the skills will be... 

 

Cheers,

Jeff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Jeff,

 

It 's like the names say. The retarder delays the drying process. (Take only very little or you need to wait days until the paint cures.) It makes the paint a bit 'fatter', therefore I add thinner or water. I paint one layer with retarder first - just one stroke with the brush - and after curing I add a second layer thinned down with water 50/50. This usually gives a nice even surface. It works better with Mr Color than with Tamiya (but still good enough).

 

Good luck, Michael

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Michael, will an art supply shops Acrylic retarder work ok? Seems to be cheaper than the Model branded stuff like Tamiya etc...

I remember reading there are different kinds of acrylics... Acrylic is only the binding agent....

I've bought a 4 oz bottle Luiquitex Acrylic Thinner to try... will pick up shortly.

I'm gonna do some testing on some old model train stuff that is way past it's sell by date... ;)

 

-Jeff

 

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XF-24 Modelcolour  994 Rack No. 166 Modelair 71.053

XF-56         "            864       "        178      "        71.065

XF-66          "           884        "        104

XF-70          None

 

Drying Retarder  70.597     

 

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19 hours ago, Polymath said:

will an art supply shops Acrylic retarder work ok


Yes, it will work fine. Commercial products are usually a lot cheaper than our hobby brands, like retarder, pigments, oil washes, decal softener (= water with a few drops of vinegar concentrate)...

Those guys know how to draw money from your pocket!

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Hi Jeff,

 

if I may throw in my two penn'orth, may I suggest you head over to Nick Millman's Aviation of Japan blog and have a browse there for colour information. Nick is extremely knowledgeable on all things related to Japanese military aviation and he is very, very helpful with any questions. He has also written a very informative paper entitled "Painting the Early Zero-Sen" which analyses the paints used and gives excellent colour comparison notes on the available hobby paints. Incidentally, the closest hobby paint match to the original Mitsubishi Zero "J3 tending toward Ameiro" seems to be the Mission Models colour MMP-110.

 

Hope that helps, but I'd definitely recommend visiting Aviation of Japan!

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark

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