Luftwaffe paint.

Terry, I'm curious. When you mix paint do you follow a "recipe" or do you just go by your eye?

I normally just go by eye, depending on the colour of course. If it's a 'known' colour, for example RLM76, then I'll mix it as close as possible to a reliable example. I also allow for the 'scale effect', where the smaller the scale of the model, the lighter the paint mix might be. Generally, I use the 'Engineer's Rule' - 'If it looks right, it is right' !!
If mixing for a specific purpose, for example weathering/dirt/fading of a base camouflage colour, then this will be mixed lighter or darker as required, and cockpit colours are nearly always mixed lighter, as using the 'real' shade on, say, a 1/48th scale Spitfire would give a finish that is far to dark for the scale.

Thanks, and that's impressive!

I just bought a copy of Osprey Masterclass - Airbrushing and FInishing Scale Models where it mentioned the scale effect you described. I'd never heard of it and was going to ask you about it. I'm glad I asked before painting my GB's.

You're welcome Dave. That's what makes me giggle when some people argue the toss about exact colour shade matching to the original colours! If, for example, you took a tin of real U.S. Olive Drab 41, and painted a 1/48th scale P47 with it, it would look way, way too dark. So, in this case, a mix to match the actual, original colour, would be totally wrong! Also, on a slight tangent, the shade can also be affected by such things as the batch of paint used (on the real aircraft), the factory where it was painted, whether it was a brand new aircraft, straight out of the factory, where it's based, and for how long etc etc., and that's before we talk about the effects of weather, dirt, chipping, natural fading etc.

I guess there are different ways af achieving the same thing. I tend to start with a colour that is a good match for what I want and then alter it to suit. As Airframes says this is almost always by lightening the shade to take account of the scale effect. I can do this by adding a drop or two of the relevant colour (often white) to the paint cup. By adding more or topping up the original colour I can achieve many variations with minimal mixing. This saves me mixing batches of paint externally and then adjusting them. That's just my lazy way.A good friend only uses Tamiya paints and mixes everything to suit, there is no right or wrong way!
The downside is I do keep a stock of decently matched RLM,RAF and to a lesser extent USAAF colours.
I like the engineer's rule - absolutely right.
Cheers
Steve