SPA Modeler

Ok gents, as a part of my side project I am working on I just need a final stamp of approval.

No, I am not doing the aircraft in the picture (wish I was, none available in 1/48).


Spent hours back and forth, researching what the color should be, marching them up with different pictures, so on so forth. I know about the whole matching paint with pictures on a computer but what i have found is what you see on AK Interactive is pretty damn spot on (plus I am happy with the brand so far) to what you get. The lower portion is as good as it is gonna get, other light blues are too gray and not enough blue or just too much blue killing off the gray. The green was just a complete chore to find something with the right amount of pop to it. Too much brown, not enough green, too green with no brown, too dark, to bright, you get the dilemma. My main focus was on the green portion anyway and I think I got the “feel” of the scheme down with the two colors. Remember it’s not about matching the color 100% it’s about the “feel” the colors are giving off together (f/e: oh that is USA Vietnam colors, or RAF BoB colors, or Luftwaffe BoB colors). I think I got it where it is a “hmmm” /

I’d say that those paint chips are a good match to that photo in that lighting. Certainly “close enough for government work”

Stikpusher wrote:I’d say that those paint chips are a good match to that photo in that lighting. Certainly “close enough for government work”

Thank you Stik! You always have a good eye

Looks about right to me!

My opinion is both colors on the chips are saturated and the final results will be too dark once sprayed over the surface area of a 1/48 aircraft. I arrived at this based on what shades are used (basically one dark over one light color, to simplify). I think the crucial component for matching is the darkest color component, which may be black, blue-black or simply dark grey. I like using dark grey as the darkest planned dark component because to get contrast with the primary shades those shades must be lightened accordingly. Your green and blue grey become two points lighter on the scale. The other issue for me is a photo taken indoors with electric light is going to be much warmer or cooler than one taken outdoors. The effect will skew the paint color to each end of the spectrum. My experience with Gunze and MM through an airbrush shows each have varying amounts of curing changes in saturation. I will take your word about AKI, though!!

Let me give my .02 worth. 1.Where this AC is there are what appears to be mercury vapor lights. This gives off a yellow to orange hue to everything around. 2. the undersides are quite dirty on that AC and a lot of the color is in shadow or oil coated which really mucks up trying to get a real close match. However, IMHO, I think that the colors that you have chosen look pretty darn close to me. I hope that this helps.

Here is an alternate aircraft with similar colors:

More photos of paint and lighting:
(Also the second picture in the previous post has been restored and colors might not be 100% correct)

This was the color that the too was calling out for:

That forest green looks way to dark, I think you got the right color combination maybe lighten the green just a bit.