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Boeing 707 & 708 grey & Airbus grey in USA


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I know this topic has been beat to death. Having acknowledged that however since Xtracolor is no longer available in the US,

and Testors has discontinued Canadian Voodoo grey, what are people using to match those colors? Is there anything available

right out of the bottle that is a close match? I have checked all brands and no one has FS16515 or any derivative of that in

their paint line. Unless someone has some tins of Xtracolor they want to get rid of I need advice. As most of us that have been

modeling for years usually have stocks of paint for our interests (I know I do) I haven't done airliners in years so I don't

have much Xtracolor on hand that is in the airliner series. I am working on a Southwest 737 and am ready to paint the wings, so

the need is immediate.

Thanks for your time.

Edited by steel_tiger1
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Hmm I thought I had replied already. If this double posts sorry.

I have been in contact with Roll Models as well as Hannat's directly. Roll Models doesn't have that color in stock. I did however buy most of the ones he did still have in stock. Hannat's says that they have not been able to restock any suppliers in the US due to the Royal Mail no longer taking paint for shipment. Nor can they ship it at all via Royal Mail. Hannat's has not been able to send Xtracolor to the states for over 18 months. So that makes finding it impossible although I have found some misc. tins here and there no Boeing 707 or 708 grey, or Airbus grey for that matter. I do have one more odd place to try but expect the same result.

Thanks

Edited by steel_tiger1
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Geez...that really sucks. Same goes for Gunze paints apparently..."hazmat"!!??

I'll be heading to the IPMS Nats in a few weeks...I'm going to scour the vendors and scoff up whatever paint I can.

Good luck in your search.

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Yeah even though it has been safe for years and years and years, now all of a sudden it could be used to blow up a plane. Give me a break.

It's flippin model paint. Oh and checked my odd source today, no joy.

Buy all you can find. I've got some Dunkelgelb to trade. :whistle:/>/>

Edited by steel_tiger1
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I don't know about Humbrol (not on this side of the pond), but BAC 707/Airbus grey is really, really, really, really easy to mix yourself. Just get some well exposed photos to reference, and add a little bit of black at a time to your favorite white until it matches.

You *really* don't have to rely on paint manufacturers for your specific color needs.

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Ok so after loads more research I discovered Lifecolor has the FS16515 in their line of paints. I hate acrylics but I can use it for color matching. So the plan now is to get some Scalecoat 2 black and white and mix it together to get the shade I need. Why Scalecoat, I feel that is the closest thing we have to Xtracolor. I like the way it sprays it goes down glossy just like Xtracolor.

So results to follow.

Thanks

Edited by steel_tiger1
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There are no FS "matches" to any BAC paints. It's a totally different system. As far as I know, BAC 708 is only used by Lufthansa, and it's very similar to BAC 707, just a little darker.

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99% of BAC colors are customer specific and have no FS equivalent. Whereas BAC707 is widely used and has an FS number, as Jennings said BAC708 is a customer specific color only used by the Lufthansa group as far as I know.

Tim

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But then, in the following thread, you mention BAC707 gray "... Also known as FS 16515" isn't it ?

That's just a lucky happenstance. There are no direct correlations between BAC commercial aircraft colors and the FS595. They are in no way related. Most BAC colors are customer specific.

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I would kill to get the Boeing colour catalog with CMYK, or hexa decimal codes

Stop dreaming. You won't. Ever. Even if you worked at Boeing you couldn't get it (I've had people try).

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Surely shipping by boat or by private courier, while more expensive, would certainly be faster and better than going without for 18 months. Someone just isn't trying for you guys....

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I don't know about Humbrol (not on this side of the pond), but BAC 707/Airbus grey is really, really, really, really easy to mix yourself. Just get some well exposed photos to reference, and add a little bit of black at a time to your favorite white until it matches.

You *really* don't have to rely on paint manufacturers for your specific color needs.

Well that didn't work so well. I added black till it was close but it makes to toward the blue side of gray. The FS16515 looks to me to be toward the brown side of gray. So now I have a lovely bottle of not the right color. Color mixing is not anyway shape or form of my area of expertize.

Thank

Edited by steel_tiger1
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I am just getting back into airliner modeling and was doing some research for my 1/200 Hasegawa 777-300 wings. I read where a 3:4 ratio mix of FS36495 and a flat white is good place to start (adjust as you see fit). I haven't done it myself as I am not at that stage but it may be a start. The Hasegawa instructions call for 16440 wing color, but I would think that too brownish myself.

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Thanks for that, I will give it a try. The worst that can happen is I end up with another bottle of the wrong color. I also tried the local automotive store and they couldn't help either, even with the formula from above. But they can spectral analyze so I painted a sheet of styrene to take in and see what we can get.

Thanks

Edited by steel_tiger1
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I read where you can buy a gallon of the real color from DuPont for the sum of $100 :unsure: ! I have no idea if its true or not or if its some modeling version of an urban legend. I thought also that Sherwin-Williams had a color match...CM0570596...but again, I have not pursued that lead whatsoever. Myself, I intend on taking a little modelers license and using pictures of the actual 777-300 that I am building, mix a grey that is as close as possible using the 3:4 ratio I posted earlier this evening.

It is too bad that we can't get Testors or someone here in North America to field a "707 grey"... heck don't call it "707 grey" if it gets Boeings underpants in a bunch... call it whatever as long as it's a good match. Dare to dream I suppose...

Cheers!

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The local store can mix as little as 2 oz if I can come up with the paint sample for it. As I said it is certainly a warmer gray than just mixing black to white. And lifecolor has the FS16515 but I just don't get along well with acrylics. We will see how the spectral analysis goes.

Thanks

Edited by steel_tiger1
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Guys - as Jennings mentioned - the colors are all over the place - no two look alike - and I've been looking at 'em closely for a living for 24 years. The other day at LAX, I was looking at the top of the wing on my 737-800 (oddly enough - thinking about this thread) and thinking that the gray (on that jet / on that day) was very close to Tamiya primer gray. Go on over to airliners.net - any sort of light to medium gray will be fine. In my humble opinion - airliner models have too much uniformity. One white, one silver, too much gloss, not enough weathering. They are every bit as weathered as any military aircraft. They're busy working - and don't get to go to the jet-wash very often. While it's hard to replicate in smaller scales - any weathering or panel dissimilarity will help with the finished look.

Hitch

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