I am building a spitfire. I had originally planned to do it in RAF dark green and dark earth. I already had dark earth so only ordered the dark green in AK real colors. I’ve since decided to do it as a Canadian spitfire in italy in DG/OG. I am looking for a mix in Tamiya paints for the following colors
ocean gray
medium sea gray
sky
No I know these all come premixed already from various brands, but I think I have all the colors on hand I would need to mix them, as I have about 6 different grays from tamiya. I haven’t had much luck googling the mixes though. Since Tamiya added raf colors to their range with the release of their 1/32 spitfire any search I enter for Tamiya ocean grey mix just brings up reference to xf-82
Ok then. These formulas are from their older 1/48 Spitfire Mk. Vb kit.
For Sky, Tamiya shows XF-21. I suppose you could eyeball a mix with white, light gray, and green, but I would not know where to begin.
For Ocean Grey, their old mix ratio was:
XF-18 1 part
XF-21 2 parts
XF-24 2 parts
Can you get hold of Humbrol enamels or acrylics?
Their range is colour matched to RAF paints and I haven’t found anyone else who has come close to them.
Thansk for the help! Looks like I am missing one color from each of the mixes. Perhaps I’ll just buy them premixed. I do have access to humbrol enamels. How do they spray?
Really nicely with a little enamel thinner. Quite tough finishes too.
You’d want 163 Dark Green, 164 Dark Sea Grey for upper surfaces and 165 Medium Sea Grey for the lower.
The pale green sky is 90 and dark earth is 90.
Azure blue is the only Humbrol never got right. There’s is WAY too dark. I use Vallejo’s and it’s spot on.
They used a few non-standard schemes in the med to better suit the environment. Would be interested to see how that looks.
Not sure about Tamiya thinner with Humbrol acrylics. Humbrols is a water based paint, whereas Tamiya’s something else entirely. I have used a spot of water and Windsor and Newton Acrylic flow improver and it works really well. A bottle of that lasts a long time.
Might be worth trying first with Tamiya thinner before putting it through your airbrush.
For azure blue I have the ak real colors, it looks decent to my eye.
The spitfire I am building, as far as I know had a somewhat unique scheme. It was apparently originally a US spitfire in Africa and had the standard middle stone, dark earth upper surfaces with azure blue underside. It got transferred to the RCAF 417 squadron in italy. They apparently repainted the uppers DG/OG but left the azure blue underside.
That makes sense. The grey wouldn’t really blend in with the Mediterranean sky!
At least it’s not a Malta Spitfire. That’s a whole can of worms on what blues were used!
Tamiya thinner will not work with Humbrol acrylics. I tried various acrylic thinners with Humbrol acrylics when I first bought some and the Tamiya/Humbrol blend made a gummy mess. DONT DO IT.
The hobby store I went to didn’t have the humbrol colors in stock but did have the al real colors for ocean grey and sky in stock. I couldn’t get medium sea gray but it’s only for the engine anyway
AK Real Colors can be thinned with Tamiya X-21A, but it will come out rough and gritty. Thin it with Gunze Mr Levelling Thinner and you’re likely to fall in love with the stuff.