1940-41 RAF Dark Green?

[Sir Francis]

Guys,

Most ref I've seen mentions this colour as Humbrol 30. When I got this colour it didn't look right. Didn't seem to have any olive tone at all - a real stark green. I found ref in a few sites where people used Humbrol 163 as they believed it was a closer match to original. So I got this paint, now this paint is nothing like H30 it's very dark olive in tone. I've got a Corgi Spit IX (Green and Grey) and H163 almost matches this green. Photos are hopeless cause I've seen the same plane in different shots and the colour looks completely different in each.

What do you guys reckon?

 

[Wurger]

Hallo Sir Francis !!!
Unfortunately the Humbrol enamels have different tanality from one serie to another one.Therefore the no.30 Humbrol paint can look differently.Although I've been using the paint for very long time, I could suggest the no.116 enamel.You should remember that the tonality of a paint also depends on the scale of a model.You also should remember that a layer of a colour on a real a/c can change themself according to weather conditions,time of its service,an area of the world where it was used,quality of a paint and many others factors.Besides,the big surfaces of 1:48,32,24 scale model look different from these painted with the same colour on 1:72 scale one.Another my suggestion is to use other paints of other firms that should be available at shops for modellers (Gunze,Testors or Tamiya acrylic ones- one of the best paints, for instance).It is also suggested (for 1:72 or smaller scale models) to add a drop of white colour to all main camo paints to make the contrast among them much more noticable. I hope I was helpful.

 

[Sir Francis]

Hallo Sir Francis !!!
Unfortunately the Humbrol enamels have different tanality from one serie to another one.Therefore the no.30 Humbrol paint can look different.Although I've been using the paint for very long time, I could suggest the no.116


Ok Thanks. I can understand local variations due to weather , local batches etc, but I thought the general tone of the paint would be reasonably similar.

So would you say the Spit dark green has an olive tone? as opposed to just plain green eg The green on Zeros is not olive.

Hey guys a 1940 Spit must be the most popular model ever made... thought this would be down pat by now?

Cheers

 

[Wurger]

Ok Thanks. I can understand local variations due to weather , local batches etc, but I thought the general tone of the paint would be reasonably similar.

Yes, you are right,but its similarity can be a bit different and depends on the producers.Sometimes the primer ( if was used) determinates a tonality of paints.

So would you say the Spit dark green has an olive tone?

Rather no.The Federal Standard of RAF Dark Green is FS 34095. I use the old Humbrol serie of oil enamels and no.30 is much grassy than olive.The paint on my models goes excellent with both Ocean Gray and Earth Brown ( Dark Earth) colours.I was wonder if The Humbrol changed something in no.30 and I went to my dude's shop to check this.Unfortunately it looks like Olive Green but not like Dark one.

So If you don't want to use the no.30 colour you can use these instead:
Humbrol 116,75
Gunze H73
Pactra A10
Testors 1764
Tamiya XF61

 

[Sir Francis]

Ok thanks dude, appreciate your efforts!

Cheers

 

[Wurger]

You are welcome, mate.