Cheers!
Bill

Happy modelling- send a link to a photo of your Hurricane when its finished!

Bill

Thank you for your fast reply. I have examined the color guide in detail in the past as it was this document that I hoped to decipher the call outs.

Then I noticed at the very bottom in small print was a legend indicating that the two numbers actually referred to two different paint manufacturers that are friendly with Trumpeter.

While most of the colors are similar to the ones identified in historical texts, a few are only close.

So now that I know how Trumpeter indicates which part is what color, I am going to recode the color guide to better reflect what the aircraft colors actually were and then match them with the correct Humbrol paint or mix.

This should give me a fairly color accurate model.

Thanks again Bill. Without your input I would not have been able to work out the call outs.

On the glossy, color, sheet (in another Trumpeter kit) that shows the marking options, the helpful label at the bottom reads:
“H[ X ] GUNZE-SANGYO AQVEOUS HOBBY COLOUR (inverse) [ X ] GUNZE-SANGYO MR COLOUR”

On the glossy sheet entries like:
“H[ 3 ][ 3 ]” (points to red)
“H[ 61 ][ 35 ]” (points to white)
show how it works.

In the plain-paper and black ink instructions to the same kit (1/72 Gannet AS.MK1/4), I see a similar pattern- two numbers in square boxes, with the capital letter “H” starting it all, with a color name in Chinese and English:

Black on White
|
| /—- White on Black
“H[ 8 ][ 8 ]

Silver”

These designators are used, without any explanation, on the plain paper and black lines assembly instructions:

In the notes on the front page of the instructions, some hope is provided by the second note from the bottom- “Glue and paint are not included in the kit. Use plastic cement and hobby paints only. Color guide for purchasing paint is included in the kit ”

! wouldn’t be surprised if the Aqueous (and Mr Colour) colours are generally numbered the same as Humbroil.

The Gannet kit sheets list:
H[ 2 ][ 2 ] Black
H[ 3 ][ 3 ] Red
H[ 4 ][ 4 ] Yellow
H[ 8 ][ 8 ] Silver
H[ 12 ][ 33 ] Flat Black
H[ 37 ][ 43 ] Wood Brown
H[ 61 ][ 35 ] IJN Gray (wheel well interior? ) *
H[ 74 ][ 26 ] Light Gray Green (afaik British Sky…) **
H[ 76 ][ 61 ] Burnt Iron
H[ 77 ][ 137 ] Tire Black
H[ 90 ][ 47 ] Clear Red ( Port wingtip & red nav. lights)
H[ 94 ][ ] Clear Green, no Mr. Colour version (Stbd…)***
H[ 331 ][ 331 ] Dark Sea Gray **
H[ 337 ][ 337 ] Gray Blue ****

Notes and comments:

* The glossy color guide lists H[ 61 ][ 35 ] IJN Gray, a silvery gray color, for the nose-wheel-well interior, while the plain paper instructions call for H[ 8 ][ 8 ] Silver. Both call for H[ 8 ][ 8 ] Silver for the nose gear strut. Nothing specific is stated for the main gear wells or the inside of the gear well doors. General UK practice, from the 1920s until somewhere in the 1960s, was aluminum paint on landing gear wells, doors, struts and wheels. But gear wells, in particular, are notorious for getting dust, dirt, grease smears and fluid stains, and the patina of age over whatever they were originally painted… So a flat silvery gray might be a good rendition of aged aluminum paint… Dry brushing one over the other might be even better, and a brownish wash wouldn’t hurt. Your mileage may vary…
The point to using aluminum paint is that its VERY opaque- the metal particles don’t allow a lot of light through, and thus nothing near visible light will get through to degrade whatever is under it.

** The canonical “Post-war” Fleet Air Arm (FAA) aircraft colors are Extra Dark Sea Gray topsides and Sky undersides, carried up the sides of the fuselage, fin and rudder. BS381C/640 is the official Extra Dark Sea Gray designation, BS381C/210 is Sky. H[ 74 ][ 26 ] Gray Green may be Gunze’s closest match to Sky (frequently called “Sky (type S)”, meaning smooth…)

The kit color guide suggestion of H[ 331 ][ 331 ] Dark Sea Gray may be closest to the RN’s Extra Dark Sea Gray, or may represent Trumpeter offering some ’scale effect’ (lightening dark colors, darkening light colors) advice for the best looking finish.

*** Port aka left wingtip lights are red (left, red, get it?) and Starboard aka right wingtip lights are green, but the traditional Stbd. lamp covers for airplanes and ships are closer to a blue-green. This may be because the most stable and long-lived pigment is blue-green (copper oxide?) or because yellow incandescent lamp light with a blue filter gives a green light… A kelly or forest green wouldn’t be wrong, but a blue-green would be more likely.

**** H[ 337 ][ 337 ] Gray Blue might be the closest match to standard RAF/RN Interior gray-green, a fuel and hydraulic-fluid proof paint, or it might be a “jet age” interior color more like the Dark Gull Gray used in USN interiors from the 1950s onward. I’ll have to look into this…

Cheers!
Bill

Your article is very informative on the complexities introduced by the different kit manufacturers when it comes to colouring.

I am currently working on a Trumpeter Hurricane Mk1 and have been having to contend with deciphering the colour call outs.

This kits instructions always gives two paint numbers for every part. The first number equates to a Humbrol paint number and is a number with a box around it. Right next to it is another number that is boxed but is completely inversed. So the first number is black print, white background, black box, the second number is white print, black background, black box.

Can you please let me know what the significance of the second number is and what is its relationship to the first number.

Your advice in this matter is eagerly sought.

It may be the maker thought tan was OK, and you don’t agree. Model companies do sometimes make mistakes.

It may be they expect only people into the subject will buy the kit and will have their own idea of a base color for the barrel/body/whatever. This is more likely for a specialty kit made by semi-professionals- the “Cottage Industry” or “Garage” source. Resin kits, of, say, original Star Trek tv show blasters, in resin, might not have overall painting instrructions, but specify the fine detals

It may be that this is a model of a real object which was finished in a variety of ways, all different, none more ‘right’ than the others. Like a car,
for example. So various little bits are defined colors- turn signals, door handles, but the body itself is up to you.

In any event, its your model, if you think it should all be painted, and you’re willing to try, then by all means paint it.

1) Its easier to paint with a larger, flat, brush, if you brush paint.
2) Spray cans look easist but DO require some care. Best to practice on something (empty bottle, discarded toy, etc.) before spraying your valuable model.
3) Once you’ve painted some of the details, spraypainting means either covering or at least sprinkling them with the spray paint unless they’re masked with tape, paper, etc.
4) Putting masking on and taking it off can be hard on some finishes.

Can you tell me what the model is supposed to be, what color and what material lits made from, and how you think it should look?

Bill

HOWEVER, Ford’s 1994 Mustang production line dipped the bodies in brownish/greenish/goldish primer, baked it, sanded and spotted by hand, then an automated spray system put the color coats over that.. and the spray system did NOT spray the underside of the chassis!

Yes, the outside was painted “Body color” and yes, the bumper covers and trunk-top ‘wing’ are all “Body color” and so are the inner front fenders and the inside of the front of the engine compartment- the top of the front suspension, the area of the front engine mount, area the radiator mounts to, inside of doors, passenger compartment, truck, etc.

BUT, on the underside, above the exhaust pipe, or above the transmission and driveshaft, or above the rear axle, or surrounding the gas tank, its a brownish/greenish/goldish indeterminate color.

So paint you model Mustang carefully! Body color, whatever you choose, where it can be seen from above, a primer, now the brownish, etc stuff, in the 1960s, good old dark red-brown iron oxide, or gray, or some other primer-y color.

I’ve read that Ford used to dispose of unwanted paint by pouring it into the vat of primer that the assembled body was dipped into… so color is variable, and Mustangs were made at more than one factory. Start searching the net for this stuff and there’s a lot of it about the vintage cars.

I was clued into this by a video my son used to watch, “How A Car Is Made”, with I.Q. Parrot visiting the Mustang assembly line in Dearborn in the 1994 or later (pre big-side-scoop) year. You can see the underside color when the workers are installing the engine, from below, the driveshaft, rear axle, etc. You can see the overspray of color against the primer, and before the color is laid on, you get to see the bodies in primer only being worked on.

Various owner’s posts write about the greenish or goldish tone, but I make it out brown and used RLM-02 grau in a semi-gloss with pleasing results.
Even better with some Body color overspray!