[roowalker]

The underside color IS debatable as to sky or grey.Curtiss,I believe,used Dupont supplied paint that was SUPPOSED to match RAF specs,but Father Time has destroyed the actual formulae/swatches.I just ordered Eagle Editions work on the AVG P40s,and it will be cool to see what their take is.All my other refs are about 50-50 on the color used. Mike PS,I think "Sky" looks better than "Grey"!!!!!

[lanslide]

Originally Posted by roowalker

The underside color IS debatable as to sky or grey.Curtiss,I believe,used Dupont supplied paint that was SUPPOSED to match RAF specs,but Father Time has destroyed the actual formulae/swatches.I just ordered Eagle Editions work on the AVG P40s,and it will be cool to see what their take is.All my other refs are about 50-50 on the color used. Mike PS,I think "Sky" looks better than "Grey"!!!!!

I could only like "Sky" better if it is an accurate color for this actual aircraft. BTW - I have this model too and I like it so I hope we don't find out it should be "Aircraft Gray" or I may stop liking it so much!

[hworth18]

Anyones guess, but I think it is close enough..

[lanslide]

Thanks hworth! You can't really trust color photos totally but it appears that it should be "Aircraft Gray". I think C1's color is close but has a slight greenish tint to it similar to "Sky".

[SKUNKY]

I'm not sure I would even call the shade of gray on C1's model "sky",...looks a bit more like "swamp"...The one's in Harry's pics look more like "aircraft" to me, although it can be difficult to tell from WWII era color shots..

[hworth18]

Originally Posted by lanslide

Thanks hworth! You can't really trust color photos totally but it appears that it should be "Aircraft Gray". I think C1's color is close but has a slight greenish tint to it similar to "Sky".

I have a couple of Eagle Cals decal sheets and they specify the underside to be FS16473 Aircraft Gray, but, considering that the AVG birds were former RAF planes, I think this is speculative since the RAF used a different specification for the undersides of their aircraft.. The Dupont paint which was used to paint these planes was close to RAF specifications, but like with the Brown color, it had a tendancy to have a more yellow hue than RAF specifications..
I agree that the undersides look to me like they are more of a RAF "sky" color, but it isn't such a big deal that I am willing to get rid of it, as I stated above, it is the best P-40 we have in this scale, rubber guns and all..

[jim]

What if you painted a plane gray over RAF blue then let it weather a while?

Maybe the undercolour starts to show through the gray and then you would get neither colour ,if you get my drift.

It could happen, I doubt that they would ever get another coat of paint once they were issued.

Just a thought.

[SKUNKY]

We really want to make this shade be right, don't we boys!...

[lanslide]

Originally Posted by SKUNKY

We really want to make this shade be right, don't we boys!...

hehe - that is so typical of us!

[jim]

A good rule of thumb is to sit the plane in the display case and take a step back, then ask yourself does this model "look" right?

OK the paint might be shade off or the panel lines a bit heavy but overall how does it look?

For my money the P40 looks just perfect.