I have been trying to build some 1/72 planes lately to expand my very narrow modelling focus and have stumbled over a few problems with paint colours, particularly interior colours for a US Navy Ventura I am wrestling with. What is the difference between interior green, chromate green, zinc chromate primer, etc etc? I try to look at models on display on the web etc, and I have searched my tail off, but I am still confused?[%-)]
I bought a bottle of Tamiya XF4 to use for the interior colours, but it looks really yellow, so maybe that info was wrong…[B)]
So my question is, is it all supposed to be the one green? If so which green? The only reliable ranges of paint I have here are Tamiya, Gunze Sangyo and Humbrol, in order of my preference. I am having a lot of trouble converting names and numbers into actual tins of paints.[:(!]
Please help, I would love to have a small collection of planes on display, but I am having a heap of trouble with all aspects of aircraft modelling! I have even more respect for the work you people do now! Armour is a lot easier for me.[:I]
Ahhhhhhhh the great green debate. I have seen this question many times asked and the answer is still a little shady to me as well. So let me see if i can help you out a little cause I know someone out there knows a heck of alot more than I do.
Interior green and Chromate Green look to me anyways as the same color. The name used on the bottle depends on the maker of the paint. I know at some point Model Master( I think it was) had a color called Yellow Green. Looked just like the previous two mentioned above.
Zinc Chromate Primer has a little Twist in there though. This one comes in two colors. A green and a yellow. The yellow looks be be like a mustard yellow and the green. Well you guessed it looks just like the above mentioned green colors above.
I have been using the Interior Green, Zinc Chomate primer Green, the yellow green and Chromate Green interchangeably . Since they all the same shade of green ( at least to my eye anyway).
Hope this helps and didn’t confuse you anymore than you say you were.
Yellow zinc chromate was the basic primer applied to most areas, but the aircrew found this to be to reflective. So some black and was added to make the green colour more commonly seen. Depending on the amount of black added the colour varied. The more durable green was also applied to high ware areas. The wheel wells and gun bays (aswell as other areas that aren’t visible) were left the yellow colour.
Tamiya XF-4 is a good match for the yellow (maybe add a little Flat black). And I think they recommend XF-5 for interior green but it is a bit of a generic colour and isn’t a great match. Gunze make a good range of colours in the H300 range that are good matches. But because the real colours varied so much theres no right or wrong shade.
There was also some other colours, like alclad aluminium, grumman grey, olive green etc.
Have a read of this article from the IPMS stockholm site for alot more detail: