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Howdy all, Let me start by saying I'm new again to modeling. Its been many years. My son got me a nice Revell F/A-18 kit(I'm a NAVY guy and worked on them while I served) and it has sat for months because I was unfamiliar to painting (NOT SCARED)as my son put it. Recently he got me a snap together thing that resembles a F/A-18, I wont disgrace anyone by calling it a model, and declared that if I wasn't man enough to do a real model maybe I could tackle the snap together kind. So I went all in, built a nice work area, bought a compressor and airbrush along with all the tools of the trade according to the many post I've read on this site. I choose Acrylics and Createx is the brand I'm using as its the most common in my area. Now I'm ready to paint. The problem is Aircraft Grey isn't a standard color for Createx. I have medium Grey, I've been mixing a little white with the medium grey a little at a time to soften it up but its still not right. I've used up almost a whole bottle of grey and at $5.00 a bottle, trial and error is going to start hitting me right in the wallet. So knowing how inteligent yall are (I've been reading your posts)I thought someone might be able to point me in the direction of a color chart or some way to get the right color. Thanks to all in advance

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Best advice I'd give you s don't worry about being accurate in color. It's your first build so be more concerned about enjoying and finishing it! Eyeball the color and call it good enough. On your 3rd or 4th model start being more specific about the colors.

I'm not familiar with Creatrix. Where are you located (States, Europe, moon, etc). That might give the hive here a better idea of what paint is available to you. Personally I love Tamiya acrylics for airbrushing.

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+1 Never heard of that paint so I would focus on getting the paint thinned correctly to airbrush. If you really want to keep working on the color you may need a small amount of blue added. In the end it may just prove more cost effective to mail order the usual paints needed for a Navy jet. Dark and light versions of ghost and gull gray. No mixing needed, just thin with appropriate thinner. You can use thinner for acrylics but I use Mr. Hobby lacquer thinner with the retarder added to keep it from drying to fast.

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Yeah never heard of that brand either, but a quick google search shows it's pretty specialized stuff and from what I can see might not really suit plastic models? Not sure. Here's a pretty cool site that has a very good colour conversion chart.

Colour Converter

Hope it helps.

If you can get them, I agree with toadwbg...Tamiya are awesome paints as are Gunze / Mr Colour Aqueous.

Edited by Crazy Snap Captain
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It might be worth trying to use those the same way as Apple Barrel and Folk Art acrylics can be used on plastic

go to Golden's site http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/medsadds/index.php

the GAC 100 and up info is here http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/medsadds/polymers/index.php

read the links for the various GAC 100, 200, etc

there is an FSM article about using "craft acrylics" in modeling, by adding GAC 100 to the paints in the 2 oz bottles,,,,,,,,,the same principles might apply

I modified their advice and applied that to my acrylic primers, I found that a concoction using GAC 200 holds up as a primer on plastic without peeling with masking tape

you might find a similar solution (ack, sorry, bad pun) to using one of those mediums in Createx

DickBlick, AC Moore, etc are stores that carry Golden and Liquidtex mediums

hope this helps

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Thank you all for your advice. I'm not sure how this paint will do yet. I may just have to make do with it until its gone then try some of the suggested brands. As too my location the moon was a pretty close guess. I'm in eastern Oklahoma, a small town about 60 miles from the nearest decent Hobby Shop. I do most of my buying on-line but wanted something that i could get semi locally if I needed to. since this seems to be a brand that isn't commonly used I'll post my success and failures for all to use for future reference. Since I've ordered the decals for my old squadron I'd like to make it as authentic as possible so with your advice and some more trails and hopefully few errors I'll get the color I'm looking for. I read a very wise post on here the other night that basically said that no one aircraft has the same paint shades due to weathering and different production times. His advise was to paint it how you best remember seeing it. I have some fond memories on the flight deck of the Kittyhawk so as long as I'm satisfied with the color then I should consider it a successful mission. sorry I don't remember who Posted it but after considering it for a few days, I think he was right. Thanks again for all the advice

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Thank you all for your advice. I'm not sure how this paint will do yet. I may just have to make do with it until its gone then try some of the suggested brands. As too my location the moon was a pretty close guess. I'm in eastern Oklahoma, a small town about 60 miles from the nearest decent Hobby Shop. I do most of my buying on-line but wanted something that i could get semi locally if I needed to. since this seems to be a brand that isn't commonly used I'll post my success and failures for all to use for future reference. Since I've ordered the decals for my old squadron I'd like to make it as authentic as possible so with your advice and some more trails and hopefully few errors I'll get the color I'm looking for. I read a very wise post on here the other night that basically said that no one aircraft has the same paint shades due to weathering and different production times. His advise was to paint it how you best remember seeing it. I have some fond memories on the flight deck of the Kittyhawk so as long as I'm satisfied with the color then I should consider it a successful mission. sorry I don't remember who Posted it but after considering it for a few days, I think he was right. Thanks again for all the advice

Thank you for your service... and good luck with your build.

BW

Edited by billw
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello again to all, So far the createx brand seems to be going on pretty good. My first paint job was a disaster. I found out what happens when you don't wash the parts before painting. After about 15 hours of dry time the paint just slid right off. The second round went on and stayed on with no problems. It was slightly darker than I had planed so I stripped it off and started my third round, this time I found some Model Master Paint locally and I guess the third times the charm because the paint job looks great. It looked so good it showed off every spot that I didn't fill enough or sand enough. So the only issue with the createx paint seems to be they are mainly primary colors. Taking the advice of many of you I'm looking at the Tamiya or Vallejo brands. My quest now is to find a decent selection of Aircraft greys. I'm heading to a model show in Tulsa this weekend, I'm not sure what brand of paint I'll find there but I'm sure someone there will be able to point me in the right direction. Until then My F-18 is on hold and I've started a C-17. Thanks again for all the feedback

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My quest now is to find a decent selection of Aircraft greys.

Gunze Aqueous Hobby has one of the most comprehensive range of "aircraft greys", I think. But, apparently it's quite hard (i.e. impossible) to get in some countries. LifeColor is another brand that has a pretty comprehensive range. It's not as good as Gunze, though.

Tamiya acrylic is fantastic, but their range of "aircraft greys" for modern fighters is non-existent.

Vallejo... well, some people swear by it, but I don't like it.

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Welcome to the forum,and welcome to the hobby. To get it out of the way, I only use Vallejo acrylics, and I love them. There, I said it. I've got nothing to say about the paint you use, as I never heard of it, but from your previous post, I think you're not using a primer. You might want to look in to that, especially with acrylics. The primer is great for detecting areas that need some more filling/sanding, and the paint adheres better to the primer than it does to bare plastic. Washing the parts is still good practice of course.

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I will second (or is it third by now?) the LifeColor

I had been told that LifeColor was more expensive, but, the glass bottle paints are 14.7 ml, tinlets are 14ml, and LifeColor plastic bottles are 22ml

you can get LifeColor paints at any hobby shop that uses Stevens International as their wholesaler, in addition to Red Frog in NY, Mid Tenn in TN, and Sprue brothers in MO

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I had been told that LifeColor was more expensive, but, the glass bottle paints are 14.7 ml, tinlets are 14ml, and LifeColor plastic bottles are 22ml

LifeColor is definitely better value than Gunze or Tamiya, at least here in Australia. Gunze or Tamiya costs $4 per 10ml bottle, while LifeColor, as you pointed out, comes in 22ml bottle at the same price. So, it's effectively less than half the price of Gunze/Tamiya.

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For non-FS colors I reccomend Tamiya. In NA, You can get their larger jars from Spruebrothers.com for the best value going. You can also use 91% ISO alcholhol + retarder for their thinner to further keep your costs down.

I can mix Tamiya for 95% of the colors I ever need. Tamiya does very well without a primer on most plastic.

Admittedly, the modern US aircraft geys are not well represented by Tamiya in a bottle. I use Vellejo or Gunze Acrylic for these specific FS colors.

Edited by toadwbg
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Yeah, the "Airbrush Color" line from Createx is for airbrushing T-shirts and fabrics. I got a bottle to practice with from Michael's/MJ Designs when I bought my first airbrush because it's thin enough to shoot straight out of the bottle. It's great for practicing basic techniques on paper, but my bottle was too watery to adhere to plastic.

I've used Model Master (Testor's), Tamiya, Citadel and even the cheap craft acrylics. The cheap craft acrylics are doable but it's a pretty big hassle and some brands and colors work better than others.

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I'm almost finished with the super hornet. I did switch to Model Master for the fuselage, I just wasn't able to mix the colors I had to get the right Grey. Although the Createx brand seems to be more of a craft paint, With primer, it seems to go on well. I've tried it on several scrap models I've picked up lately. I'm not totally unsatisfied with it and will continue to use it where I can for now. But I have added an assortment of Model Master colors. My plan is to acquire several of the other brands as I start my next projects Reveille's C17 and Academy's USS Kitty Hawk. Thank all of you for your input, what I like best about this forum is the variety of advice. Hopefully with time and experience I'll be able to assist others as you all have helped me.

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I have used Model Master Acrylics for years without any problems. If you use good prep work and clean the plastic

I use 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and you can clean your airbrush with it, you should get a nice results. I have even mixed Future in with the Model Master Acrylics with great effect. Most Hobby stores that I have been to will carry Testor's and Model Master paints and supplies.

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