Yes yes i know… but which yellow is the best match[;)]
Sorry Marc, couldn’t find an exact match but did stumble across this while searching.
For RC planes, there is actually covering material called “cub yellow”
I think it’s also called “cadet yellow” sometimes.
Hope this helps
Marc:
Cub Yellow is a bit oranger than insignia yellow. It’s always a problem to match. For my RC models I had a can of it custom mixed in acrylic enamel from a Randolph formula. You could start with the Tamiya Deep Yellow, I think Model Master enamel might also come in that color and spray a sample on some scrap plastic and see how it looks first. Doing it over a white base would be good. It may need some lightening with chrome yellow , but after a coat of Future it may look OK.
Sometimes I have seen it in R/C stores in spray cans, but I haven’t used those. It has been a common subject in RC circles. Here is an old photo of one of my R/C models, 70 inch span.
Thanks for the responses guys. John, while I am by no means color blind, I can’t look at a color and say, “Oh that just needs a drop of red.” On the rare occasion I can. All I needs is a good starting point. Based on your comments I took some insignia yellow added a drop of int’l orange and lighted it with a touch of white and it looks real good to me.
Even the Cub community has a hard time matching the color. Here is a tidbit from the owner’s club. You may be able to find a Randolph color chip card from one of the aircraft supply houses like Aircraft Spruce and then mix your own to match it.
Ashley
This question comes up from time to time on the Cub Builders list, and most recently was given this answer by Magnus Lord, who notes that “the info comes, as usual, from Clyde Smith Jr and the Cub Clues Magazine.”
Piper originally used nitrate dope for the J3. This is the darker, more orange shade that Piper called “Lock Haven Yellow”. Some time after the war, when the supply of nitrate dope was dwindling, bids went out from Piper for a paint manufacturer to come up with a pigmented yellow butyrate dope that would as closely match the nitrate shade as possible.
None of the companies could match the Lock Haven Yellow exactly, but Randolph was the closest and thus was awarded the contract. This butyrate yellow was a little brighter and more a pure yellow and though Piper continued to refer to it as Lock Haven Yellow, Randolph dubbed it “Piper Cub J-3 Yellow”.
So, all J3s up until the change of dope during 1946 was painted with the darker shade which Randolph refers to as “Lock Haven Yellow” (#M-9521), while the butyrate doped J3s and ALL PA-11, 15, 17, 18 and PA-20/22 aircraft were finished with the light butyrate, Randolph’s “Piper Cub J-3 Yellow” (#F-6285).
A nice detail: After changing to butyrate dope, Piper couldn’t use dope for the boot cowl. The boot cowl had to be painted with enamel, and that is why the butyrate doped J3s (especially from Ponca City, Oklahoma) had a shorter black lightning bolt, ending (starting) behind the boot cowl.
Best regards,
Magnus