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which acrylic brand has the most accurate colors?


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I have looked at various paint ref. charts which call out the f.s. number. But when i get that brand of paint, it's not close to this other companies same color. Then there have been times that neither match the 595. I would like to stay with mainly one brand, but i'm finding this to be difficult. Any comments or suggestions that might be helpful? I want something that's readily ava., easy to use. I have heard mr. paint is one of the best, even though it's not acrylic. But it's hard to find.

 

Puzzled in Hawaii......for now

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On 6/27/2017 at 3:21 PM, louie said:

I have looked at various paint ref. charts which call out the f.s. number. But when i get that brand of paint, it's not close to this other companies same color. Then there have been times that neither match the 595. I would like to stay with mainly one brand, but i'm finding this to be difficult. Any comments or suggestions that might be helpful? I want something that's readily ava., easy to use. I have heard mr. paint is one of the best, even though it's not acrylic. But it's hard to find.

 

Puzzled in Hawaii......for now

You're going to get opinions but little consensus. It may come down to the particular subject matter you are interested in. If you like Japanese aircraft you can't go wrong with Tamiya. For them to get a Japanese military color wrong would be unforgivable within their own culture. If you are looking at German colors perhaps Vallejo, AK or Ammo by Mig. I'm not claiming these brands are definitively the best, just making a point for the sake of example. You may find you need to have paint from a couple or multiple product lines to accommodate your specific interests.

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I stopped using only one brand of paint on a model. I've made my own paint swatches for each model color I have. This has resulted in 7 different shades of what is sold as FS36118 by 7 dbrands. Even both ranges from Vallejo have two different shades of FS36118.

 

I just pick the colors of any brand that look okay with the complimentary colors. If you get into the ballpark to one color that looks close, it is more or less a game of matching the contrast and hue between colors on the same subject. Also, the paints on the real subject fade differently to each other. I might end up with Gunze Aqueous for one color and Vallejo Model Color for the other color on the same model.

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On 6/27/2017 at 3:21 PM, louie said:

I have looked at various paint ref. charts which call out the f.s. number. But when i get that brand of paint, it's not close to this other companies same color. Then there have been times that neither match the 595. I would like to stay with mainly one brand, but i'm finding this to be difficult. Any comments or suggestions that might be helpful? I want something that's readily ava., easy to use. I have heard mr. paint is one of the best, even though it's not acrylic. But it's hard to find.

 

Puzzled in Hawaii......for now

I was thinking more about your question and here's a question for you. Can you define the term "most accurate colors"? It's a rhetorical question to be honest, how can anyone do that? Take the color "olive drab". What is it exactly? Granted there is a specific FS number for it but honestly, I dare anyone to categorically determine if one paint manufacturer got "the color" more correct than another. If real world examples are used, for as many examples that show the color to be incorrect, there are probably just as many that show that it is correct.

 

The fact of the manor is, if we're talking about military colors, especially during war, any one color can have multiple "shades" or "tints" that are similar but not exact to the "Federal Standard" (or corresponding standard for foreign services). War is war and weapons of war need to be produced in mass quantities. A particular color may have been produced by multiple companies and with each company having a slightly different interpretation on that particular color. Even from batch to batch any particular color could be slightly different from one batch to the next. Again war is war and the industrial mechanisms needed to produce the weapons of war, not quibble over a particular paint being to shades too dark. 

 

So don't be beholden to what others say. It should be to your eye and what paint line you are most comfortable with using from the stand point of understanding it's thinning ratios and quality of performance through your airbrush (or brush painting). Keep in mind, if you take the same model and photograph it at your work bench then do the same thing at you IPMS chapter meeting, then at a model show that's in a gymnasium, then another at hotel banquet hall and then just for kicks, outside on a sunny day, each scenario is going to present the model differently due to the different light sources. If you use the appropriate paint call out for a particular modeling subject and someone tells you, you got it wrong, I would dare them to prove their accusation.   

 

I was once with a friend at a model show and he criticized one model builder's F-101 as he felt the grey paint had "too much of a green tint to it". He got even more adamant when the model took best aircraft in show. I kept telling him it was fine, the fluorescent lights were bringing the green tones of the paint out. If the model were taken outside under sunny skies it would present much differently.  After the show we were talking on the phone and he brought it up again. I asked if he had the F-101 Detail in Scale book by Bert Kinzey, which he did. I asked him to take a look at the color photos which comprise 4 pages of the book. I knew there were examples of the real aircraft where the "green tint" represented in the photos. I heard a long pause only for him to say, "Do you think I'm being too hard on the guy's model?". That ended the debate.   

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To get the best "match" get the 595 paint chip chart and compare it to that.  I find that Model Master has usually pretty good colors, especially the grey.  To get them to work best I use Model Master Universal Acrylic thinner and a slightly larger airbrush nozzle (about 0.4mm) and Vallejo "Flow Improver."  The other thing I do if a color or "shade" doesn't look right is I find a slightly darker or lighter color that's similar and thinly "mist" it on to the color that needs correction.  The beauty of airbrushing is if you do it in light misty coats its very easy to correct mistakes.

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