Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX Underside colour

[gijive]

Hello and Happy New year to all, just logged in after a way too long absence, just to confuse everything, my greys in my work box are Tamiya Acrylic Medium Grey XF-20 Sky Grey XF-19 and Dark Sea Grey XF-54, my question in relation to the Spitfire Mk ix is is which if any corrisponds to the Upper and lower greys of the Spit.

 

[stona]

Thanks for the help guys! and i think we've started a paint dibate.

I have now painted the underside with the paints suggested by wurger and i have now started to apaint the main camoflarge.

Thanks again

Will

Good on you Will. I'm glad you managed to make some sense of all this! I think Wurger probably got it right for you.
Steve

 

[Wurger]

Hello and Happy New year to all, just logged in after a way too long absence, just to confuse everything, my greys in my work box are Tamiya Acrylic Medium Grey XF-20 Sky Grey XF-19 and Dark Sea Grey XF-54, my question in relation to the Spitfire Mk ix is is which if any corrisponds to the Upper and lower greys of the Spit.

The main problem with Tamiya paints is that usually these have to be mixed with othe colours in order to get a correct tonality.

Your paints are named by Tamiya : XF 19 - Sky Grey, XF 20 - Medium Grey, XF 54 - Dark Sea Grey. I think that these colours are much suitable for post war paints than for these of WW2. However the XF 54 can be used as Ocean Greay. As the Meadium Sea Grey you can use the XF 19 or Xf 20. But the XF 19 seems to have too much of the blue tonality. The XF 20 looks too dark for the MSG colour. I think it would be fine to mix the XF 19 and XF 20 with ratio 1:1 or 1:2. Of course the mixture has to be compare to the H.64 sample.
Also the XF 20 can be mixed with the Tamiya white paint in order to get lighter tonality of the paint.

 

[A4K]

Great work again, Wojtek - I like what you did with the spitty pic!

 

[Wurger]

Thank you Even. I thought it would be a good idea.

 

[al49]

The main problem with Tamiya paints is that usually these have to be mixed with othe colours in order to get a correct tonality.

Your paints are named by Tamiya : XF 19 - Sky Grey, XF 20 - Medium Grey, XF 54 - Dark Sea Grey. I think that these colours are much suitable for post war paints than for these of WW2. However the XF 54 can be used as Ocean Greay. As the Meadium Sea Grey you can use the XF 19 or Xf 20. But the XF 19 seems to have too much of the blue tonality. The XF 20 looks too dark for the MSG colour. I think it would be fine to mix the XF 19 and XF 20 with ratio 1:1 or 1:2. Of course the mixture has to be compare to the H.64 sample.
Also the XF 20 can be mixed with the Tamiya white paint in order to get lighter tonality of the paint.

Hi Wurger, your very precise answer is putting me in troubles, because I was ready to purchase the Tamiya AS- 32 paint suggested by them for under surfaces of their 1:32 kit.
Based on your knowledge/experience, what do you think about this colour? Is it correct?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Alberto

 

[Wurger]

To be honest I haven't seen the paint personally yet.This is a paint for spraying in a can as you told. Looking at the sample of the paint in the net and at the profile you sent above I've got an impression it is of too greenish tonality and looks a little bit like the Sky type S.
However If you have a look at the sample of the FS36440 you will see that it is of the same tonality like the AS 32..The calour is mentioned in the Urban's Colour Reference Chart on IPMS Stokholm site as well.
To sum up.It is possible that the variant of painting of undersides that comes with the Tamiya kit is a particular one.And she was painted exactly with the paint of the tonality.
Personally I'm not convinced if these Tamiya suggestions for these new paints are correct.The offer sounds like "We are the best and you have to buy our products only". However the MSG colour has been said to be the light grey for years.So that's way it is very difficult to change sombody's mind.
I think it is up to you only if you use the paint or not. I suggest making a test. Get a sheet of white cardboard . Draw in it three quite big areas ( something like there were on the Spt fuselage .) . One for the Dark Green and next to it the one for the Ocean Grey.Below them the area for the Tamiya MSG like it would be the underside of the Spitfire. Let these paints get dry and then have a look at them when a day is both sunny and dark. If these colours look good when being "neighbours", use the AS 32. If not, use one of those grey paints.

Hopping it help you with making a decision.

 

[A4K]

That's very good advice Wojtek! I have bad kits made up for exactly that purpose - to test colours, paintscemes and decals on.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Wojtek! I too have an old 1/32nd scale model which had a bad landing, now used as a 'hack' for all paint trials.