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high speed silver


modelmaker

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hello, I find myself building a Revell 1/72 scale Hawker Hunter; jets are relatively new territory for me and I am wondering what 'silver' I should use for the undersurfaces? I am told 'RAF high speed silver' although the interweb doesn't really help to describe exactly what this is, so to speak. I would be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction, thank you

Edited by modelmaker
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From what I've read, high-speed silver was a 50/50 mixture of aluminium paint and a gloss lacquer/varnish. You could try the same, or gloss coat over say a Humbrol silver.

Haven't tried it myself yet, but it sounds about right.

Those with a much greater knowledge of it should be along shortly...

HTH

p.s. Welcome to the forums!

Edited by John Laidlaw
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From what I've read, high-speed silver was a 50/50 mixture of aluminium paint and a gloss lacquer/varnish. You could try the same, or gloss coat over say a Humbrol silver.

Haven't tried it myself yet, but it sounds about right.

Those with a much greater knowledge of it should be along shortly...

HTH

p.s. Welcome to the forums!

Sounds good to me......

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hello, I find myself building a Revell 1/72 scale Hawker Hunter; jets are relatively new territory for me and I am wondering what 'silver' I should use for the undersurfaces? I am told 'RAF high speed silver' although the interweb doesn't really help to describe exactly what this is, so to speak. I would be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction, thank you

Games Workshop Mithril Silver acrylic. It looks perfect under a coat of satin varnish.

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Games Workshop Mithril Silver acrylic. It looks perfect under a coat of satin varnish.

Seconded. It sprays very nicely thinned with a drop of window cleaner, the only snag is it doesn't stick too good onto bare plastic. Humbrol Metalcote Polished Aluminium used to be OK. Spray it on but don't buff it up.

peebeep

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hello, I find myself building a Revell 1/72 scale Hawker Hunter; jets are relatively new territory for me and I am wondering what 'silver' I should use for the undersurfaces? I am told 'RAF high speed silver' although the interweb doesn't really help to describe exactly what this is, so to speak. I would be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction, thank you

I've used a variety of "silvers" over the years, and I'd certainly agree with xtracrylic and Mithril Silver for starters; Halfords Aluminium is a great finish for larger models!!

Regarding the use of this colour on Hunters - the colour faded, and in doing so matted down a lot - and being underneath - got quite dirty. Look at photo's of Hunters and its often difficult to differentiate between Silver and Light Aircraft Grey which superceeded it!

Have a look at colour pic's of Meteors or Canberra's in "High Speed Silver/Aluminium" on Google Images - you will see the basic colours and variations.

HTH

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hello, I find myself building a Revell 1/72 scale Hawker Hunter; jets are relatively new territory for me and I am wondering what 'silver' I should use for the undersurfaces? I am told 'RAF high speed silver' although the interweb doesn't really help to describe exactly what this is, so to speak. I would be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction, thank you

On my Billy Bunter, I used Halfords Nissan Silver.

Lokked fine to me, and won it's class at my club night.

Even though it was innacurate - oops! (not the colour, by the way)

Stew

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Regarding the use of this colour on Hunters - the colour faded, and in doing so matted down a lot - and being underneath - got quite dirty. Look at photo's of Hunters and its often difficult to differentiate between Silver and Light Aircraft Grey which superceeded it!

Have a look at colour pic's of Meteors or Canberra's in "High Speed Silver/Aluminium" on Google Images - you will see the basic colours and variations.

HTH

(Italics Added)

That is an important point with which I totally agree. Remember that "Light Aircraft Grey" looks a lot like "High Speed Silver" precisely because it was formulated to do so. IIRC it had something to do with changing paint specifications in the mid-1960’s. A durable true silver just was not possible with the new formula.

In 1/72 for in-service “high speed silver” I have mainly used a 50-50 mix of Hu11 & Hu28. Humbrol matt aluminium “Metal-Cote” – unpolished! – is not a bad second choice I have found. In either case my preferred top coat is a "semi-satin" varnish.

I hope that this is of some help.

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Just an additional point on the use of HSS or LACG on Hunters, it appears - generally anyway - I suspect there will be instances to the contrary - that when they changed to LACG in the mid-late Sixties it seems that the upper camouflage colours wrapped around on the leading edges.

As a general rule then if theres a wrap around on the wing leading edge then theres a good chance that its LACG, if not then it should be HSS......

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You could always try this ?

http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=X038

Cheers

Mick

Yes, sounds like a good idea & I've used it but frankly, like other metallics within the Xtracolour range, it's crap. If the top doesn't fly off explosively on first opening, the contents are sludgy & virtually unsprayable. Their RAL9006 is better.

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Yes, sounds like a good idea & I've used it but frankly, like other metallics within the Xtracolour range, it's crap. If the top doesn't fly off explosively on first opening, the contents are sludgy & virtually unsprayable. Their RAL9006 is better.

Sorry Graham , cant agree. Thinned down with their thinners and strirred thoroughly allowed me to airbrush with no problems, hence I managed this:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...p;hl=sea+hornet

Cheers

Mick

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Sorry Graham , cant agree. Thinned down with their thinners and strirred thoroughly allowed me to airbrush with no problems, hence I managed this:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...p;hl=sea+hornet

Cheers

Mick

Nice, and I used it on this:

DSCN0397.jpg

but I had to try 2 or 3 tins of the stuff before I got a useable one! "Variable" quality Id say.

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While talking, last year, to Bill Matthews, he told me how, back in the 70s, he was told, by a sprayer, that so-called High-Speed Silver was exactly the same as the dope they'd used pre-war, presumably the main difference being that it would have been sprayed over a primer, on metal aircraft, instead of the red dope on fabric.

Regarding the fading, in the 70/80s, when Halton was an engineering training station, I used to go into the workshops, and walk among the Hunters. O.K., they were getting on a bit, but, even though I knew that some had to have been silver, originally (there were Is, 4s, and 6s in there,) from a range of 2' it was impossible to tell one from the other, without rubbing away some of the top surface.

Edgar

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Hi all,

led to believe that the colour know as "High speed silver" comes from a change of nomenclature!

'Silver' previously know as aluminium (dope?)

'High speed' Semi-gloss / Gloss.

Ergo - High speed silver = Semi-gloss / Gloss Aluminium.

Pick yer favorite Gents!

In the words of our favorite ad, Simples!

:cheers:

Paul

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Just an additional point on the use of HSS or LACG on Hunters, it appears - generally anyway - I suspect there will be instances to the contrary - that when they changed to LACG in the mid-late Sixties it seems that the upper camouflage colours wrapped around on the leading edges.

As a general rule then if theres a wrap around on the wing leading edge then theres a good chance that its LACG, if not then it should be HSS......

Hello!

I fear that you may be right in your doubt.

Donning sacred vestments…

A reading from MODELDECAL SET No.7, 1970

“Up to the mid ‘sixties cellulose paints to DTD 772 were used on most aircraft of the RAF…”

“The cellulose was applied over a grey primer…”

“These cellulose paints weathered very quickly in service… “

“…adversely affected airflow…”

So far this is all canonically sound.

Hence the introduction of LACG - not due to a paint spec. problem as I had thought.

However both the drawing of the Hunter F. Mk. 6 XJ646 of No. 14 RAFG as it appeared in September 1962 and the instructions indicate that it has been noted that the green/grey camouflage frequently(?) wrapped around the leading edge.

So who is the heretic? R L Ward or anyone of the many of us who believed as I did that the introduction of wraparound and LACG undersides occurred at the same time?

I am inclined to the latter.

Is it that wraparound leading edges were ordered/standardized (if not fully applied) pre LACG? Is there a "T.O. 114" for the RAF that could clear all this up?

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Hello!

I fear that you may be right in your doubt.

Donning sacred vestments…

A reading from MODELDECAL SET No.7, 1970

“Up to the mid ‘sixties cellulose paints to DTD 772 were used on most aircraft of the RAF…”

“The cellulose was applied over a grey primer…”

“These cellulose paints weathered very quickly in service… “

“…adversely affected airflow…”

So far this is all canonically sound.

Hence the introduction of LACG - not due to a paint spec. problem as I had thought.

However both the drawing of the Hunter F. Mk. 6 XJ646 of No. 14 RAFG as it appeared in September 1962 and the instructions indicate that it has been noted that the green/grey camouflage frequently(?) wrapped around the leading edge.

So who is the heretic? R L Ward or anyone of the many of us who believed as I did that the introduction of wraparound and LACG undersides occurred at the same time?

I am inclined to the latter.

Is it that wraparound leading edges were ordered/standardized (if not fully applied) pre LACG? Is there a "T.O. 114" for the RAF that could clear all this up?

Many years of speculating and typothesising has taught me this: nothing is black and white, and that sometime applies to HSS and LACG. Never say never - anomolies will always occur - and it could be that wrap- around of a few inches and the introduction of LACG just happened co-incidentally. I thought about this earlier - why? Why would they change - maybe I thought , the silver caused "blinking" with the Hunter approaching head on - I dunno, but I'd certainly like to know if, when and why...

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Many years of speculating and typothesising has taught me this: nothing is black and white, and that sometime applies to HSS and LACG. Never say never - anomolies will always occur - and it could be that wrap- around of a few inches and the introduction of LACG just happened co-incidentally. I thought about this earlier - why? Why would they change - maybe I thought , the silver caused "blinking" with the Hunter approaching head on - I dunno, but I'd certainly like to know if, when and why...

AFAIK the "wrap around" was introduced because the paint on the leading edges was easily worn way by the airflow. The wrap around had two effects: 1) it effectively doubled the thickness of the paint in that area & 2) it removed the need to touch-up in a possible three colours! I have an idea that it was introduced at the same time as the LAG undersides - something to do with the quality of the new paint types??

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