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Help identifying paint colors

W

wfinnell

Well Known Member
Hi guys,

I am thinking about painting my plane like the 64th desert aggressor. I'm not sure how to match the colors. I know that I can't eyeball it. Any ideas? It seems like it should be on some government website. I don't suppose anyone has a buddy in the paint shop at Nellis?;)

Sorry if the picture doesn't work.

640px-General_Dynamics_F-16C_%E2%80%9884-236_-_WA%E2%80%99_%2829357514316%29.jpg

Any ideas would be appreciated,

Thanks in advance,
 
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When I was trying to match insignia colors I found most paint suppliers could not cross FS codes to their system. However I spoke with the PPG Aerospace division at Oshkosh last year and they speak Federal Standard as their native tongue. But even they could not cross their FS colors to PPG Concept which is what I use. I've got what I need for Insignia red, white and blue so did not pursue it. It might be worth talking to them for the camo colors.
 
They are freely available in the modelling world. Simply paint a small panel and get your local paint shop to match it. Any shop with a full colour scheme will have an analyser that can replicate colour. They may need to scan it wet, so ask before you paint.
 
FED-STD-595 was replaced by AMS-STD-595, back in 2017.

As Mike suggested, find the correct ones in model paints and make up a set of match cards. One thing I'd suggest on making the match cards, is use some aluminum sheet, rather than card stock or paper or wood. Paints have a habit of doing slight color, texture and gloss shift on different materials.
 
PPG can match Federal Standard colors and so can Sherwin Williams in their military aerospace coatings line. I can’t speak of other brands because I haven’t used them for military type schemes.

One of my favorite military type jobs was doing an RV8 in a Cold War era A-10 scheme complete with fake canopy painted on the belly.
 
Blend Supply can mix any FS colors in Sherwin Williams lusterless urethanes. I used them for my A-10 tactical scheme on my -8a.
 
Is there a Revell / Tamiya / etc model in that paint scheme? They list the model paint colors to match. Or you can blend your own colors if that isn't close enough. You could then have a paint shop scan something painted with those paints to match in scale.
 
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