Ive settled on a A-10 warthog 1/48 scale R/M, gonna do the blackbox resin kit.
searching through google to find the color scheme I like first for paint ordering. and decided on this
so the first question at hand; you have 3 color camo; what colors should they be?
for simplicity, heres some reference for you
I was thinking xf-63 german grey for the darkest coloring(conflict of interest with the name? lol)
XF-67 NATO green for the dark green.
and a mix of XF67 and XF49 khaki for the brightest green. all their premixed colors are too bright or too dark for that color. looks like khaki with a green tint. any better choices for this?
any colors Im missing?
beyond that; I have a selection of silvers, blacks, reds, whites ect. your standard stuff that youd find in any model. what else should I need above and beyond?
for interior I found
I see black and white obviously(is it all black? or is that more of a gunmetal? the coloring of the photo makes it hard to tell), a bit of red, bit of baby blue it looks like, some green.that I think the nato green will take care of, and silver. anything I cant see in the photo?
Im also getting some smoke for the panel lines which I plan to try to scribe. as well as some exhaust stains.
some matte clear for a finish coat.
what other colors should I get? I havent dont planes really ever; so I dont know what Im looking at when I get into the engine and whatnot. I can pick some up at the local hobby store; but I like to go ahead and do a prestock from towerhobbies all at once for cost sake.
from what I understand you 1/48 guys need a new tooling for A-10. I built the tamiya and the Revell nearly 20 years ago. unless RM did a new tooling I thought tamiya had it hands down. I have the academy, hasegawa and italeri in 1/72 and Italeri is best. You might consider the Trumpeter, it’s a beautiful kit. I tend to be a little out of control when it comes to A-10’s as there are two bases within a 20 min. drive of my house.
Negative [xx(]. I have said this before but I built the Tamiya A-10 and it’s just bad. A few examples you ask? The canopy has a working hinge-thing that’s inaccurate and overscale, I believe there was only a (bad) decal to use for the cockpit panel, and the overall detail is simplified. The quality of the ordnance to hang from it is such that I threw that out right away; not even good enough for the spares-box. Oh, and the gun barrels look crap too, which would be the most important detail of any A-10 [:p]. Let me put it this way: after I looked into the Monogram box, the Tamiya kit went on its maiden flight- literally [}:)][:D]. Sure, there’s a few raised lines on the airframe but they’re really light, and easily rescribed should you prefer them engraved. Incidentally, I got the Verlinden update set (# 525) to go with it which has a new cockpit, seat and some open maintenance panels. Quite nice if you can’t get the Black Box set.
Ares, the paint scheme on that A-10 looks like a “Europe One” or “Europe Two” wraparound. This would consist of FSN-34092 Dark Green, 34102- Medium Green, and 36231- Medium Gray, in the latter example replacing the grey with a darker shade FSN-36081. By matching your paints to these numbers (=standard US military color codes), you should be able to get the right ones.
For color samples take a look at IPMSStockholm’s great site: http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=36081&fs2=34102&fs3=34092
There’s also a couple of color conversion charts on there to match your favorite paint brand to these FS numbers, but I haven’t had much luck with Tamiya in this case. You could go with another brand or post another question here. Then again, you could also wait until you have the kit instructions in hand. Ops, I just checked mine (Monogram # 5505) and it just has the FS numbers [:(].
I just finished the Hasegawa 1/72 scale version and used Gunze Sangyo acrylics. Paint numbers are FS 36081 (Gunze No 301), FS 34092 (Gunze No 302), FS 34102(Gunze No 303). Hope this helps. Cheers for now, Andrew Williams
Have you built it? I’ve been working on mine since October of last year (300+ hours so far) and it still isn’t done.
The colors you are talking about are the “European I” color scheme (I think). Dice has the colors and patterns on the Warthog Pen web site at this link: http://www.warthogpen.com/paint.html
Revell-Monogramkit gets my vote for best 1/48 Hog. It’s not perfect - seams where wings meet the fuselage and in the air intakes & the typical Monogram raised panel lines - but it’s got a decent cockpit if you don’t want the put down the cash for the black box tub. I’ll agree a new tooling wouldn’t hurt (I still think the RM F-15E and Rafale are two of the best kits and best values out there) but with a little elbow grease you can build a good modern (LASTE) Hog. Now, the 1/72 Monogram Hog is lame. Go with Italeri in this scale.
But, since you’re wanting to finish your A-10 in the Euro1 scheme, I wouldn’t worry too much about any of the LASTE mods since those were post-Desert Storm. The link Filibert Kraxner posted is a great site and those colors are dead on. Model Master bottles all three of those colors.
Three variants to the European1 scheme active duty Hogs wore:
The Korean-based A-10 in your pic looks to be a combo of version 1 (nacelle) and version 3 (nose) and the tail is completely different (this is not unusual).
Other variant schemes the A-10 has worn…
The cockpit is finished in dark gull gray and black. MM Aircraft Interior black is a good “scale” black that dries to a slightly faded finish
ares;
I’ve been working on a cross refferance list for just about all the model paint out there just drop me your E-Mail address and I’ll sent it out to you, as for the cockpit colors there is gray, black, white, yellow, red, green,
the cockpit is gray (I use FS 36270 as the base the wash with black & silver), the instruments on the instrument panel are black faced with white, yellow, red & green details, the side consols tops are black with gray knobs, silver switch heads, Med green O2 hose & “G”-suit hose, the seat is gray with black or O.D. green seat cushions, green o2 bottle, yellow anodized ejection handles (I use chrome silver then clear yellow on top of the silver)
ok got the 3 exterior colors(went with dark grey variation) in model masters plus aircraft interior black.
is your “standard” YELLOW color good for the gauges, and the green as well; I have to purchase both; or is a variation closer. actually that goes for everything green in the cockpit; what color should the seat be; I see you guys models with the seats and belts and so on with the washes and all; stuff like that which makes me want to try my hand; but Im not familiar with what colors to start with as a base.
thanks for all the help with the exterior; those layouts of the color schemes are awesome; I was a tad worried about designing my own camo layout. thatll be a huge help. now just gotta figure out the interior; and I guess any special colors the engines might require and I should be set.
ares;
the seatbelts are mostly white on the ACES II seats and with most US aircraft today, with Black or O.D. Green seat cushions, the yellows & greens are just the basic colors, a very good green is Testors Green in the 1/4 oz. bottle(it’s the same green used on the O2 bottles on the side of the seat also it’s the same shade on the instrument faces for range markings) samew with the Testors Yellow in the 1/4 oz bottles, now the anodized yellow is done by painting the item chrome silver wait a couple of days so the paint is cured then I apply clear yellow and it comes out almost like it was anodized, I also use this technic on navigational lights too.
ok so regular green and yellow will handle pretty much all the cockpit gauges and bottles ect.
so what do you mean with the seats. the seatbelts are white; got that. and the seat fabric themselves is black or dark olive green? Ive searched google for hours and cant find a decent photo of just the seat. what I can see is some shoulder and up shots of pilots in the seat; the belts ussually look black though. the back of the seat looks silver; but that ties in with the fact that they are the 2tone silver exteriorpaint; Id assume it is black on the euro scheme.
Tamiya is not a good kit to buy. Youve got the best one out there in 1/48th the RM kit.
Be carfull when deciding on the 3 color patern known as european camo scheames. There are about 5 or 6 that all look very simlar to each other but in fact are all very different. The Dark color is in fact Dark Grey however it could also be Kackie which is a very different color and the petterns change depending on the color and where they where bassed. I used, and recomend that you use the Squadron walkaround book. It has all the camo scheams and tons of great photos. Dont waste your money on the Verlinden book, its just terrible. The colors I used was Tamiya acrylics. For light geen I used xf-4:1+xf-58:1 Deep Green xf-26 And the Dark Grey I used German grey xf-63. In the cockpit your goin to want to use gold for the ejection levers by the legs. For lots of great photos try Patsworld.com and follow the links to all the other Great a-10 sites.Go to “The Ejection Site.com” Theres tons of photos in there of the seat used.
Hope all this helps and have fun.
PS. mine is a Tamiya kit. Had I known better i would have bought the RM.
I haven’t started it yet as I primarily do 1/72 and have two A-10’s in that scale that come first. I just wish there were decent markings for the two bases near me in 1/72. Have 'em in 1/48 and 1/32.
ares;
your question of which color the cushions are it’s pretty much up to the unit themselves, most unit have gone to the Black cushions because it hides dirt unlike the O.D. or Gray cushions that’s all, I’ve worked on aircraft that had all different kinds of colored cushions going from O.D. to Gray to Black and back to O.D. so if you want an O.D. seat cushions your still accurate
alright; putting together the engine pot; scribed all the lines; and getting ready to glue it together and finish it off; but one thing. the exterior of the reducer cone thing(dont know the correct term). it shows it as steel color and the inside being flat black.
how should I get steel color? is there a prefered method is what Im asking; I know I could paint it with any number of silver shades and get close enough to steel; but shouldnt that get dirty or something? paint it silver then airbrush a little thinned smoke on the outer rim?
ares
Again it depends on the unit, if you are doing the Euro I or Euro II the forward fan cone is going to be Dark Gray, the tail cone would be Dark Gray, for the Ghost scheme both cones would be Dark Ghost Gray, except in the interior of the tail cone they would be Jet Exhaust or Light Iron Gray or even Burnt Aluminum, the interior walls of the Engine nacelles are gloss white until it gets to the outer tail cone and it’ll be the exterior color like the cones or you could just paint them black
(but you all probably knew that)