Curt B

Hey All, I've been working on my Eduard FW190 A-4, and have run into a bit of a concern. The instructions call out the wheel wells, and basically all the internal colors, save for the cockpit, to be RLM02. I have done a search on RLM02 and found that there is a huge diversity of opinions on the color itself, running from a warm gray to a darkish grey-green. The Mr. Color C60 is a lighter greenish grey, and the Tamiya paint XF-22 that is called RLM grey, is kind of an odd green-grey. I ended up making my own mixture of a grey-green out of Tamiya colors, medium grey (XF-20) with a touch of green (XF-14) which matches the Mr. Color C60, but avoids the lacquer mess. Since the underside of the plane is going to be a light blue (RLM76), I'm wondering if the greenish grey that I've cooked up will look 'okay' agains the light blue, or at least, will it look 'right'. I know this is nightmare to bring up, but any thoughts out there?

Thanks for your comments, Viper. I got a 61108 myself, and I’m glad that you and many others have good things to say about it. Additionally, I have been debating about what kit to get for a 1/48 FW190D9. Perfect timing on your response!! I’ve read that the Eduard kit for that plane is not particularly good, so if you think the HB version IS good, I’ll definitely consider getting that!

Hi Marvin, Just curious...why do you have multiple airbrushes of the same kind/type? I am not an artist in any way, bu I understand that some modelers dedicate certain airbrushes to one type of paint (say, acrylic, enamel, lacquer), and some artist types work with multiple colors while doing artwork and want the same brush for 'feel'. Do you use all of your airbrushes, or have you just 'ended up' with multiples for no specific reason?

Beautiful model, Jon. After you airbrushed the Mr. Metal Color, did you polish/burnish the finish? Or did the finish end up being fairly 'metal look', simply the result of the airbrush application?

Thank you, sir, I am most interested in your activities, and what success you have. I just did some brush painted Stainless with Mr. Metal Color, on the 'half' molding of radial cylinders on an Eduard Focke Wulf 190A-4. Because there isn't any real flat or smooth surface on that part, meaning there were no spots where I could actually polish the paint, the best I could get in terms of real 'metal look' was on the very thin partitions between the cylinders, but, they shined up amazingly well. I definitely plan to use Mr. Metal Color on the exhausts of most of my 1/48 WWII fighters. The only thing about that is that I'd guess most of those exhausts won't need (or shouldn't have) bright shine to their finish, so it would probably be best to just do the brush painting of the appropriate Mr. Metal Color paint color and let them dry without burnishing. Thoughts?

No, no, no, not at all!!!! 😊 You are the first person I've heard that has actually airbrushed Mr. Metal Color paint. Your experiences will be invaluable to me!

Which 'these' are you referring to? I appreciate everyone chiming in here about their experiences with metal/metallic paints and applying them via airbrush, but I had been mostly interested in the use of Mr. Metal Color paints, which, unless I am completely off base, are not applied with an airbrush, but rather via regular brush. I have yet to hear anyone speak about experiences with applying/thinning Mr. Metal Color with an airbrush. Even the manufacturer videos seem to imply that these paints are not made to apply with an airbrush, but I could be wrong about this. This is one of the only 'fails' I would say apply to Mr. Color/Mr. Hobby paints, that their official videos are mostly all in Japanese (as well as a lot of the documentation on their bottles). Again, I had really wanted to learn how folks end up using the brush applied Mr. Metal Color paints, and what parts of their airplane models get painted with Mr. Metal Color paints. However, please don't misunderstand; I am thrilled with any/all info regarding airbrushing any metal/metallic color paints. I will be building a 1/48 P-51D (the new Eduard kit) fairly soon, and that will be my very first time painting a model with metal type paint colors. It's really scary to be a newbie without any experience, AT ALL, learning to do metal colors on a state of the art airplane model. I know, most of you will suggest painting a 'mule', which I agree is the best option for me at this point. I'll find an old model to use as a test case before slinging metal paint on that P-51D!

Thanks for your response. I've heard about the Molotow Liquid Chrome before, and it seems REALLY impressive. My biggest concern about it, though, is shelf life. I know that my need for chrome, which would be primarily on landing gear oleos, would be used extremely rarely. What is your experience in both the marker itself, and the liquid aspect of the item? If I were to use the marker on, say, a monthly basis, and for very tiny bits, like 1/48 oleos, which as you know are almost zero area, would the marker remain viable for a long time? I'd hate to spend $25+ and then have the marker go bad in a few months. Thanks for your thoughts.

Another older thread but I'd like to add: Since Tamiya has now come out with a new tool 1/48 P-38, and I don't need to include that...I'd like to see: Tamiya 1/32 F-86 Tamiya 1/48 B-58 Eduard 1/48 SU-17 Eduard 1/48 YAK-3 1/48 or 1/32 ultra detailed Apollo Command/Service and Lunar Modules by anybody, but preferably one of the modeling 'big guns'

This is an older thread, I know, but I thought I'd add some thoughts... My builds stall when I reach a point where I'm up against parts of the build that looked appealing at first, but then got scarier as they got closer. I have a Meng Merkava 4M tank that is about 80% done, and I put it aside when I got to the point of having to create scratch built aspects (the tank is going to be an IDF training tank, and as such, has a lot of electronic training parts and wiring harnesses, etc. that sounded fun in the beginning, but got really frightening as it got closer, not sure if my skills are good enough to do it, etc.) Secondly, I was just starting to think about getting back into building airplanes, and a plane model was calling me... Third, I have a tank that that had reached the stage where masking was needed for the camouflage. At that point, I had not had experience in masking, so my fear of doing that simply stopped me from continuing. I'm sure there are more reasons why I stopped building some models, as I have about 10-12 kits that are in various stages of completion, and I probably should analyze each one for the reasons why I stopped them, but I do plan, at some point, to restart and finish every one of them, because there isn't a single one of them that I've lost interest in, in terms of wanting that completed model on my finished shelf. So, they all need to be finished. I just need to get them there.

I can't really contribute specifics to this thread, but when i visit the few brick and mortar hobby shops still around, I always see the big boxed kits sitting high on the top shelves, sitting end-on, with their box tops facing outwards for all to see. I don't know if they are there because they don't fit on lower shelves, or if the proprietors think they 'look good' up there, in essence advertising model kits in general. As I recall, this used to be common practice years ago, when hobby shops were far more common than today. I do pine for the days when such shops were common, just like book stores. I could wander the aisles of hobby shops and book stores for hours, and there certainly is something about having all those 'toys' sitting there in front of you that creates a visceral appeal that the webpages advertising models and books, and records, and even VHS tapes/DVDs cannot convey. I remember the hours i used to spend at Krochs and Brentanos, I think it was a Chicago area bookstore that was my favorite way to while away hours, looking at the paperbacks. And the one really great model store that was maybe 5 miles from my parent's house, where they displayed the most fantastic armor dioramas, which I'm sure, compared to the spectacular builds that so many folks create today would be average at best, is where I loved to go buy models and wish I could build and paint tanks and airplanes even 1/10 as good as the ones that were shown in those glass cases. Sorry to go off on a tangent, but any threads that make me think about the good old days before the internet and Amazon just carry me away... I'm 60 years old, to give you a sense of the times I'm talking about....

Hi All, I'm just getting into all different kinds of airplane modeling, after years of building mostly armor. I have a bunch of the Gunze Super Metallic paints, as well as the current Alclad II paints for spraying metallic/metal colors on airplanes. However, I also have purchased a number of the different colors of Gunze Mr. Metal Color paints. As I understand it, these Mr. Metal Color paints are designed to be applied with a brush, stroked in one direction, and after a short time to dry, can then be polished using a Q tip or similar. From the videos I've seen the resulting finish is spectacular, but very fragile (comes off on hands if handled). (As an aside, I've read that some clear finishes damage the finish, in that they do not allow the 'metal character' of the finish to show through, and actually dull the finish, though I've read that some rattle can top coats retain the finish. I am not a rattle can enthusiast, and am interested if any clear finishes in bottles, either airbrushed or brush painted, retain the metallic finish of these paints.) Mainly, I'm curious if/how you other aircraft modelers use these Mr. Metal Color paints, as compared/contrasted to/with the sprayed metal paints. It seems to me that these would be good for airplane landing gear struts, but that's just me. Wondering how you use these paints, if you use them at all. Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks, guys. I am aware of the differences between the Mitsubishi and Nakajima schemes. However, i didn't know that the green over gray was the only factory scheme that M5 aircraft came in. Many thanks, again!

All, I've searched for an answer to the questions I'm asking here, and maybe I didn't use the correct parameters, but I didn't find any answers. I have the 1/48 Tamiya A6M5 Zero (61103), and I've only been able to find references to the dark green over gray paint scheme, though I've also read that this scheme was rather unusual, thus I presume the all-over gray scheme was much more common. Is this true? For an A6M5 Zero? Are there aftermarket decals that would be appropriate for an all-over gray scheme? Or is the reference to the less common green over grey just meaning to Zero fighters generally, and not necessarily to the A6M5 model? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I really want to do this plane in the most accurate way possible.

And...of course, you are correct! I would say that knowing which kits are molded using the latest technology (one way to discover this is tooling date) is one way to help determine which kit to buy. But you are right, a later tooling date does not imply the best tooling, or the best engineered kit.