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CF-188A, 1 CAG, CFB Baden-Söllingen, circa 1987 (Hasegawa 1/48)


Filler

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That's great thanks. I need some paint too, so handy to get an order together.

 

Talking of paint, I broke out the new compressor today and got some paint on the insides of the intakes. It was the grey at the front ends I was painting. The Mr Color went down a treat and I was pretty pleased at first. A little later I looked at them and started to think that they looked a bit dark. In fact, whilst they are the underside colour, they looked a bit closer to the topside grey.

 

I checked and the Mr Color references in the instructions call H337 (FS35237) for the upper surfaces and H308 (FS36375) for the lower. Gunze state that H308 is FS36375, but it does look too dark to me. The FS numbers I am sure are correct as they are called up not only by Hasegawa, but by Leading Edge, Cannuck Models, WMB Graphics and IPMS Canada.

 

I do sometimes wonder if I am somewhat colour blind, or what ever a condition is where you struggle with the slighter variations in colours. This is the paint in the pots, a colour image in a reference book and the painted intake. (It's just the front part that has the H308 on it. It's painted over Mr Surfacer White. It really does look too dark to me and as H337 is darker, I suspect that the top will look a bit dark too.

 

0-E556709-FCC9-4-ABA-880-A-6392-C860-A33

 

And here lay on a photo of a CF-18 in Baden in 1986

 

50-EB15-DB-722-D-49-C4-8-B42-D72-BEE380-

 

Any advice or suggestions?

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Thanks @Wings unlevel. Just had a look at your SH and it looks a lot closer than the Mr Color for sure. As you say, the Mr Color just looks blue. Perhaps a closer match for the top which does have some blue tones. The AK in yours looks a little light, but that could easily be the lighting condition and that the CF-18s in Europe were permanently grubby.

 

This has undermined my faith in Gunze/Creos. And that’s a shame as it sprayed beautifully.

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2 hours ago, Filler said:

Thanks @Wings unlevel. Just had a look at your SH and it looks a lot closer than the Mr Color for sure. As you say, the Mr Color just looks blue. Perhaps a closer match for the top which does have some blue tones. The AK in yours looks a little light, but that could easily be the lighting condition and that the CF-18s in Europe were permanently grubby.

 

This has undermined my faith in Gunze/Creos. And that’s a shame as it sprayed beautifully.

There’s definitely some blue in the AK FS36375 but not to the extent of yours I reckon.

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I might get a bottle/jar of the AK (never used AK before) as it does look better. The weird thing is that Gunze 308 FS36375 is what Hasegawa call up for their F-16 kits and I have used the Hobby Aqueous H308 on an F-16 and it looked just fine and I don't remember it looking blue. I've lined up jars of H and C 308 and the H does maybe look slightly lighter through the bottom of the jar.

 

I think I'll also escalate this and make a post in Cold War to see if I can get any other thoughts on these Mr Hobby colours.

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I don't know about more informed, but I build in bigger scales so that might make a difference to the colour perception? I've used Colourcoats, MRP and Xtracolour/crylix  for this shade before, and landed on Mr Color as the best looking to my eye. I do thin it about 50% and paint over light grey primer, which might make a difference too! There are so many variables, I guess you just have to go with your own eyes.

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Thanks Alan. And also sorry, I've posted in the other thread so you'll be getting pestered left right and centre by me.

 

I did spray over a white primer. Maybe that hasn't helped.

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1 minute ago, Filler said:

Thanks Alan. And also sorry, I've posted in the other thread so you'll be getting pestered left right and centre by me.

 

I did spray over a white primer. Maybe that hasn't helped.

 

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1 minute ago, Alan P said:

Here's my Mr Color lacquer C308/307. 36375 is the right hand one.

https://flic.kr/p/2n238R4

Hmm, yours does look a little lighter. I have actually sprayed C308 and the upturned jar in my above photo is C308. My jars of H308 look ever so slightly lighter. I wonder if it's a batch thing. Definitely not happy with the colour. I am very reluctant but guess I'll have to do some mixing and trust my eyes.

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Just dabbed a few patches by brush onto the part.

 

024927-F5-F640-41-C2-9-EBE-DF742-C2-FF87

 

The sprayed intake lip is C308. The brush painted bit immediately behind/right is H308. C308 is brushed on again right of that (doesn’t brush well). The darker grey is H337 which is for the topside. I don’t have C337 due to cocking up my last paint order. None of the brushed bits have been thinned and we’re not over primer.

 

Very disappointing, but I’m going to have to paint it with Aqueous paint, not Mr Color.

 

I’ve invested a fair bit in Mr Color for upcoming builds, but my confidence is shaken.

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This is driving me insane now. Apart from Gunze not being able to agree with themselves over the colour of FS36375, let alone match it to the aircraft, I’ve just consulted my wife and she has pointed out that barely two photos between the three reference books I showed her look the same. Although she still concluded that Gunze have failed to match any of them. The levels of frustration in this hobby often both derail progress and kill the joy. I’m sat looking at about nine quids worth of paint for a CF-18 (before p&p) and none of it looks like it will result in the model looking like it should. Shelf of doom, make some room!!

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Another thing to keep in mind too, the paint manufacturers blend their paint based of paint chips which represent fresh paint.  TPS paints "wear" pretty harshly and can show noticeable fading in as little as a year depending how harsh of a wash mix gets used.  Even if the paint doesn't get chemically burned, they still sun bleach...and it doesn't take years to happen.

That doesn't fully explain this particular instance (I agree, the tint on that particular batch may be off...but cameras do funny things adjusting hues)...but just some info going forward when messing w/ TPS paint schemes.

 

Something you may try if you've got some plastic spoons around, is to try painting a spoon half of each color.  If the differential in brightness/hue is sufficient it may be fine.  These colors can be hard to compare when trying to look at them by themselves.

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Thrust through these hickups Filler! Colours are a very strange thing. Put two next to each other and they change. Add decals to the game and it all changes again. 
 

All reference photos are biased as well. 
 

just paint it the way you like it, as close to the original as possible. 

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I don't think there's a chance of being 100% accurate. With photographs you are subject to the vagaries of light, white balance, exposure. If your reference pics were originally shot on film then scanned there is no real standard and the colour could look very different in real life. In digital photography the only way you get what you see on the screen is by calibrating the screen and calibrating the print process using the same calibration techniques.

 

I'm sure this model is going to come out looking 100% great!

 

Edit: Which having just looked at your Flickr feed you must know some about so I'll stop teaching you how to suck eggs!!!

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10 hours ago, Filler said:

I might get a bottle/jar of the AK (never used AK before) as it does look better. The weird thing is that Gunze 308 FS36375 is what Hasegawa call up for their F-16 kits and I have used the Hobby Aqueous H308 on an F-16 and it looked just fine and I don't remember it looking blue. I've lined up jars of H and C 308 and the H does maybe look slightly lighter through the bottom of the jar.

 

With all the usual caveats, looking at manufacturer paint swatches on line does show a fair amount of variation in their FS36375s.

 

Mr Color has more blue:

https://www.mr-hobby.com/en/product1/category_7/2886.html

 

Compared to AK's:

https://ak-interactive.com/product/rcaf-cf-18-hornet-color-set/

 

And SMS's is lighter, but still has more green/blue in it than AK's I'd suggest:

https://www.scalemodeller.com.au/products/premium-us-medium-grey-fs36375-30ml?_pos=1&_sid=2fb5426ac&_ss=r

 

If you do give them a go, AK's Real Colors lacquers spray beautifully, certainly on a par with Mr Color in my limited experience.

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I’m seriously considering getting the AK paints for this now. But before I do, I’m going to prime a piece of plastic in white, grey and black rows using Mr Surfacer. Then I’ll spray columns on them using C307, C308, H337, H308, H307, left to right. That way I’ll get to see them adjacent and over different primers and properly thinned and sprayed. The order gives me side by side comparison of the paints for the F-15 and CF-18 in the two paints I have at present.

 

Thanks to everyone for all the advice and encouragement. It will get finished!

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