Issue with Vallejo Air Greens for SEA paint scheme US Forest Green(71.294) and US Dark Green(71.289)

Greetings all,

I am currently building an A-1H in SEA camo pattern. The greens I am using for the build seem to be so close together in tone that I can’ttell the difference. I am attaching a photo but any thoughts on the issue? Am I doing something wrong? Just need to add more paint, shake it up, anything? My only other thought is to possibly use Vallejo’s Intermediate Green as the lighter green for the camo scheme or mix it in to lighten the Forest Green.

SAM_8850 by Darren Keller, on Flickr

I stopped using Vallejo Model Air after the first time I tried it because the colors were way off from what they were supposed to be, so I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong that is causing that issue.

You can shake your arm out of it’s socket trying to mix Model Air that has settled and never get it back together. Thus washed out colors. And if you pull the dropper top off the bottle you discover that a Badger mixer doesnt quite fit through the neck. So the hack is to grind down the mixing end of a Badger mixing blade, enough to fit in there. It just takes a minute or so of mixing this way to get it all mixed up nice.

Now I’m not saying that is your problem. But it could be.

Vallejo is your problem. Their color ‘matching’ is a joke. They will put anything on a label to get you to buy their paint, only to discover that it is not even in the same country, let alone ballpark, as what it’s supposed to be. Vallejo is notorious for sloppy color matching.

Vallejo color match is terrible, but I don’t count on any of the manufacturer’s color names or FS numbers. I buy a bunch of paints close to what I am looking for and spray up some samples. I compare those to as many photos as I can find and decide what looks right to me. Sometimes I mix custom batches with several different colors to get closer.

At this point am considering the possibility of using the color and toning it down with either a couple of drops of white or seeing how a mix of INtermediate Green works out. I always considered fleshing out when I had to weather it in a future stage.

I agree, not to mention weathering on top of that.

Although Model Master was very good with color match. Even so, as good as that was and you might get a great match, but then want to fade it, dirty it, oxydize, etc…

So as an update, I went ahead and mixed Vallejo’s US Forest Green with Intermediate Green to brighten it up. It worked a bit, at least enough to tell a difference between the two greens. I am happy with the results, just ahd to get out of my comfort zone and experiment a bit.

SAM_8853 by Darren Keller, on Flickr

SAM_8854 by Darren Keller, on Flickr

Also, don’t mind the tan on the first picture, it got runny so I will need to touch it up again.

Welcome to the world of color mixing, tinting etc !! Good job.

Since I had to do some touch ups I went ahead and redid the Med. Green. Brighter than the original version, but not super bright so I am happy with it. Guess this is all part of the process, enjoy all. I will post when I finish the build.

SAM_8857 by Darren Keller, on Flickr

SAM_8858 by Darren Keller, on Flickr

SAM_8859 by Darren Keller, on Flickr

SAM_8860 by Darren Keller, on Flickr

I’m sorry, but the revision bears no similarity to ANY SEA painted aircraft I’ve ever seen in my life.

I’ve seen a build with a green close to the tone used and I’ve seen the green with what I had prior. At this point it is more of a matter of is it worth the effort to repaint it or just deal with toning it down and making it darker during the weathering stage. Worse comes to worse, I will count it as a practice on what to do for a future build in the future, but too be fair. It is way brighter than what I was expecting and like! :slight_smile:

I was able to re-tweak the colors again and finish the build. It can be seen here: https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/194692.aspx