Hey guys....who makes the most accurate warship acrylic colors. I know that WEM has the most accurate enamel colors but enamels are not an option for me (allergic to fumes....to many years as a sign painter, and a 2 year old with health problems). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kenny

I'm with you Kenny, I just gave away the last of my enamel paints. I really have to use acryilics. I think most people find that Model Master has the widest variety of colors, and many of them match FS standards, so I think they are very accurate.

I know I'm going to get crucified for saying this, but I have never given more than a second of thought on which colour of paint I use. If it looks right then use it. I have built too many planes with armour colours and too many tanks with aircraft colours in my life. People who usually ask me what colours I chose for a specific model are somewhat surprised at my answers.

What is important is the quality of the paint. I use Tamiya acrylics and Polly Scale military and rail road line of acrylics, and I have recently been purchasing the Naval line of (self edit: Model Masters) acrylics, and hope to use them when the Hornet and (eventually) the Dreadnought are ready for paint.

Rankless Frank

I prefer the acrylics because they are water clean-up, and occasionally that's a BIG plus for me. :-) :-)

Plus I just find them easier to work with.

I went with the Poly Scale for my Missouri, because they were the only ones in acrylic at my LHS which were listed specifically as "5-H Haze Gray", "20-B Deck Blue" etc.

They have been a pleasure to work with both with the air brush and a regular brush. I still feel like the 20-B seems a bit too dark when compared to BW photos from WW II, but the Haze Gray seems fine.

Tom

Hey Kenny!
I'm gonna vote with Rodge on this one, mate...I LOVE MM Acrylics for ships, armor, fig's, you name it...they flow great, cover great, and for the most part, are quite accurate (and easily available at my LHS! )

~Gunny

As someone who was hell-bent on finding out what Alan Raven's Royal Navy Munsell codes equalled back in the late 90s, today, I'm of the mindset that as long as it's close, it's good enough for me.

I've used White Ensigns Colorcoats and I don't question their accuracy, but some of the acrylics from Polly-Scale and MM are suspect. Still, it's better than 5 parts Tamiya Sea Blue and 2 parts Tamiya Dark gray mixed with 1 part Tamiya IJN gray...

The best advice I can offer is to get your hands on a set of Snyder and Short (the very same John Snyder from WEM) paint chips of your favorite navy.

Then you can match your colors from there and decide for yourself which is the most accurate. I do agree, of all the acrylics, MM flows and covers the best.

Back in WWII, paint was usually mixed onboard the ship using 5-U base (white) and 5-TM (tinting material) in varying ratios. I'm told the 5-TM was a very dark purple-black color in its pure form. The more tint you added, the darker the color. I'm sure that mixing paint in a ship's paint locker was not the exact science it was at the dockyard, especially since it was done in much smaller batches, so variations in colors and tones are always possible if not probable. Factor into that weathering and you've got a wide variety of color possibilities.

Jeff