Hataka Orange line paint

[nsmekanik]

As there was a question about using Hataka paints, although I believe about the Red line, or water based version. I have used their Orange line, which is the Lacquer version which is I think essentially a synthetic lacquer like the Mr.Hobby/Tamiya paints and I did use regular nasty hardware store Lacquer thinner as well as Mr.color thinner and leveling thinner, as I found them a bit thick out of the bottle, and didn't notice any difference in how well the paint sprayed between them, but it did help to thin the paint to get a better finish I think. I have no idea how well they work with Hataka's thinner.

Once they are thinned they don't have the coverage of the comparative Mr.Hobby/Tamiya paints, or freehand quit as nicely, that said though I'm not unhappy with the results and find them to be a good alternative to the Mr.hobby/Tamiya paints. I generally use a Badger 100 for my basic work and a Sotar 2020 for all my detail painting and had no problems with them. A bit of freehand

As far as accuracy goes, I don't have any references to commonwealth colors unfortunately so I've had to rely on what others have to say, and as far as I can tell Humbrol 106 is supposed to be a very close match to Ocean Gey and FS 34079 to Dark green.

And with Tamiya

 

[Crimea_River]

Good review Tim. The Tamiya Ocean Grey always seemed a bit too blue to me and you've confirmed that.

 

[nsmekanik]

I got to playing around and I thought I'd do a bit of an add on. Now I don't have an official set of chips for the colors used by the The RAF/FAA, but I did spend a large (for me) sum of money on AK's Real Colors of WWII. AK's Real colors paint is a very user friendly paint, but they have been Bashed pretty good (notably by Mike Starmmer) for their less then stellar color matching as well as taking a few liberties with the authors submission., so I think it would be fair to say that the colors offered can be considered somewhat suspect.
With this in mind I have used their book as a bit of a guide with a caveat.

First up is a comparison of Humbrol 106, Ocean grey, and Floquil 34079, Dark Green painted on a piece of scrap, and Hatakas versions compared to the the chips in the book

Maybe not the easiest to see, but Hataka's Dark Green is very close match to the printed swatch , and Floquil's is a touch darker, and Humbrols Ocean Grey is an almost exact match where as Hataka's is a bit light and a touch blueish.

Next is more of a footnote as I used Tamiya's Medium Sea Grey which is supposed to be a close match but is a bit light compared to the swatch in the book.

Then I did a bit of painting on an old kit, I used both Tamiya's Lacquer Thinner, and Mr.ColorThinner, what I found was that a mix of 3-5 Paint to Thinner gave the best finish with the Mr.ColorThinner seeming to give a better result then Tamiya's Lacquer Thinner. Mind you this was done a bit on the fly so individual results might vary. This little device is indispensable to me in mixing paints in these droppers such as Hataka and Vallejo.

The far right is sprayed with no thinner added, the left is thinned in the given ratio, using a Badger 100 with a fine needle.

Next up the top Lancaster tail fin is painted in Humbrol 29 and the recommended I think 172? With Hataka's Dark Earth/Dark Green, which are almost identical, although the Hataka Dark Earth is a touch less grey then the Humbrol color.

And just for kicks a Tamiya Mix for Extra Dark Sea Grey

Any comments about the Dark Earth swatch and paints would be most appreciated.

 

[fubar57]

Good stuff Tim. Gonna have to get me one of them shakey shakey machines as I shake the bejaysus out of the Vallejo bottles before I use them

 

[Crimea_River]

Having been deeply involved in establishing colours for our Hurricane restoration, I can say that the general opinion is that RAF Dark Earth is one of the toughest colours to get right. One has only to look at the varying shades of extant warbirds to see how different some of the presentations are. I have also noticed that the colour seems very sensitive to varying lighting conditions.

 

[nsmekanik]

Thanks Andy, what I am try to determine is which would be considered closer to reality, the AK color swatch, or Humbrols 29. In the world according to Edgar Brooks, Dark Earth didn't so much fade as chalk, whereas Dark Green tended to shift more towards the brown end of the spectrum as they aged.

 

[nsmekanik]

Geo you won't regret it, I paid around 26+ for mine on eBay. The bonus is it's one of those things that you could buy it "for" your wife/girlfriend and "borrow occasionally", it does a great job on nail polish too........

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Andy, what I am try to determine is which would be considered closer to reality, the AK color swatch, or Humbrols 29. In the world according to Edgar Brooks, Dark Earth didn't so much fade as chalk, whereas Dark Green tended to shift more towards the brown end of the spectrum as they aged.

Understood. My point is that "reality" is different depending on who you ask.

 

[nsmekanik]

Fortunately these question do come up fairly regularly on Britmodeller so one can get a reasonable as to what is close, or not. In the case of Dark Green and Dark Earth , According to one gentleman, who also states that Humbrol 106 is the best match for Ocean Grey with the chips Vallejo 70.921 English uniform is the best match for the Dark Earth chip, and 70.893, also seconded by Jamie of Soveriegn Hobbies fame, is the best match for Dark Green.

Lucky me, I just happen to have those (and way to many more)

colors on hand, so with that in mind I repainted the Dark Green on my test piece and went on from there.

As it is, my opinion so far is that AK's DE/DG is not a good match, where as Hataka's are a reasonable match for a chalky/faded DE, who knows what that exactly looks like? The DG appears, to me, to have a touch of violet which, although not visible in the pics, throws it off a bit, but most might no notice it.

I will also say that Hataka's Sky is well within the ballpark compared to Lifecolor's and Hu90, at least, in my opinion, it won't be mistaken for anything else. One of the reasons using pictures to determine what a color is is often times one ends up with what a color isn't, as in this case.