Life Colour Paints

[Steve147]

I have the Life Colour paint sets Royal Navy WWII Eastern Approach "early war" (Set 1), and Royal Navy WWII Western Approach "late war" (Set 2).  I purchased these for the IBG 1/700 series of model boats (12 in all).  Since then, I have not used them again.  Are these colours similar to other colours by other manufacturers (Tamiya, Humbrol, etc.- IBG do list Hataka as well in the instructions), so that I can use them if needed? I cannot find any comparison site that list these Life Colour numbers (or the Hataka equivalents).

Many thanks

[Nick Belbin]

Oh dear . . .

 

Yo need to put this in the relevant section - this section is NOT for modelling related issues (It says so in big red letters . . .)

 

Nick

[Mike]

20 minutes ago, Nick Belbin said:

this section is NOT for modelling related issues (It says so in big red letters . . .)

That is correct Nick

 

I'll move it seeing as he's new.  Stand down the firing squad

[Troy Smith]

4 hours ago, Steve147 said:

I have the Life Colour paint sets Royal Navy WWII Eastern Approach "early war" (Set 1), and Royal Navy WWII Western Approach "late war" (Set 2).  I purchased these for the IBG 1/700 series of model boats (12 in all).  Since then, I have not used them again.  Are these colours similar to other colours by other manufacturers (Tamiya, Humbrol, etc.- IBG do list Hataka as well in the instructions), so that I can use them if needed? I cannot find any comparison site that list these Life Colour numbers (or the Hataka equivalents).

Many thanks

Steve, quite a few questions.

 

Apologies in advance, as this maybe a bit of a rabbit hole of an answer

 

Some points, both Tamiya and Humbrol have a limited, and no-specific range of colours in general (they have a few that are specific, or claim to be)

 

When you say, 'use them again'  ,  do you mean for ships, or for other purposes?   

 

RN Navy colours are a subject that has only fairly recently been unravelled,  older references are often wrong.

 

 

My knowledge of RN colour is minimal,  but from reading on here, 507A and 507B are the same, but gloss/matt IIRC

 

so anything that shows 507A and 507B as different colours is perhaps a set based on older research, by this

see here https://www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk/collections/royal-navy

 

"With our extensive primary source research, Sovereign Hobbies offers the most accurate Royal Navy model paints in the world.

We realise we have our work cut out given that so many people are familiar with the erroneous colour palettes published by other authors who did not use the original Admiralty documentation, but it is work which we believe needs to be done.

Our research papers available here summarise our findings, but perhaps more importantly list the unimpeachable primary source references we have used in separating facts from assumptions on this subject. All references are available in the public domain (although to access them without paying for copy services you will need to visit the archives in person). Nothing in our research is anything that you, yourself, cannot read in full."

 

@Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies  is the companies owner, who did the research. 

 

Online colour comparison sites can be tricky,  did the actually compare the colours, or  just list them as the paint    companies equivalents? 

 

We have some very knowledge and helpful posters on here,  but the better, or clearer, the question, the better answer you will get.

 

Your  probably thinking now I wish I hadn't asked!   But, that's why I asked some questions above,  as I'm not totally sure what you are asking.    You can edit your post, and post heading, which can be helpful,  as the post heading is what you see as a question when looking at the forum. 

 

I hope this may help in getting the answers  to your questions though. 

[Steve147]

Hi Troy

Thankyou for the reply.

I did struggle to word the question, so as not to cause any confusion. 

I mostly build WW2 military and aircraft.  When deciding to buy a particular model, I try to research which paints I will need so that I can check if I have that colour already (either in the model makers suggested manufacturer, or it's equivalent in another make),and, if not, I will purchase that colour when buying the kit.  In the case of the IBG 1/700 series of boats, I could not find the equivalents of the Life Colour paints they suggested (hence purchasing the above paint kits). 

So now that I've finished the IBG kits, are any of the colours in the paint kits above equivalent to another manufacturer's paint colours?  e.g. Humbrol 33 is listed as an equivalent to Revell 107 and Tamiya's XF-01 (the shades might be slightly different).

The paints were not listed in the now being redeveloped, paint4models website either.

I hope this makes my question clearer. 

[Troy Smith]

49 minutes ago, Steve147 said:

I hope this makes my question clearer. 

it does.  You are looking for alternate uses.    Your question is really, "is there a paint conversion chart that includes Lifecolor to other brands?" 

 

You might have more luck seeing  if Lifecolor reuse any of those numbers,  some paint companies do this. 

 

50 minutes ago, Steve147 said:

e.g. Humbrol 33 is listed as an equivalent to Revell 107 and Tamiya's XF-01 (the shades might be slightly different).

be surprised if these were, this is black! 

51 minutes ago, Steve147 said:

I mostly build WW2 military and aircraft.

OK, you probably just have to eyeball some matches, unless you have some colour chips, which is really the only way to do visual matching unless you have pocket spectrometer...

 

Problem is colour chips are not cheap, unless you are lucky, I picked up an FS595B fandeck plus a load of decals on ebay for about £25, but that was pure chance.

the only 'cheap' fan deck I know of is the RAL K7 Classic, epaint sells them for about £18

https://www.e-paint.co.uk/RAL-colour-guides.asp

some WW2 German armour colours for example are still in the RAL paint chips, as are some Luftwaffe colours.

 

If you are a Luftwaffe builder, Crecy are doing the paint chips only from their book on Luftwaffe colours

http://www.crecy.co.uk/luftwaffe-colours-1935-1945-paint-chip-chart

I've got one but had a good look vs other that I have. 

 

It may also depend how into colour matching you are,  most paint companies seem to be poor at this, the only one I know that does published what it's paints are matched to, and that will match those standards is Colourcoats, but that's enamel.  

 

I just spent some time today trying to mix and match some Tamiya with the RAF museum MAP chip chart....   I have other acrylics, and their stated colour vs chips are frequently poor....   so much so it's a question of making my own brush out and then seeing if any match, if not, it's mixing time.   At least I'm getting better at 'seeing' what is needed to shift a colour to what I want.  

 

HTH