I’m trying to mix paint to match Aerospace International Orange used on the X-1. I have bottles of Testors 1/4 oz red, orange and yellow to work with. Does anyone know what ratio to use ?
Can you post a picture of the color you are trying to mix? How accurate are you going for?
Thank you, I found Model Master gloss international orange. Im not computer savy enough to post a pic but Im building a 1/72 Bell X-1 to go in the belly of a 1/72 B-29
In an older issue of fine scale modeler, there was a build article on the x-1. The article mentioned reefer orange from Polly scale/floquil as a close match.
A quick Google search will pull up links to a color swatch and places it’s for sale. You could go with this as a base and if you need to darken or lighten it a bit just add dark brown or yellow.
The trouble with mixing Int’l Orange is what to use as a reference. That color seems not to photograph or print well, so every old color photo I see of that bird appears to be a different color!
On the good side, just be reasonably close. No one can really prove that your color isn’t right, as long as it looks orange ![]()
I was looking at one of those old photos, and the paint looked quite faded. Then, I remembered the climate at Edwards, where the plane spent most of its operational career. I have to think that the UV index at that place was pretty horrific, do to the super-low humidity. I wonder if the paint faded so rapidly, this would explain why nearly every picture seems a different color. Of course another problem is that color films in that era were not the most color accurate, plus printing press printing is never accurate.
Better yet, what is the FS (Federal Standard) call out number?
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/170578.aspx
here’s an earlier thread on the same subject