I am building the Accurate Miniatures 1/48 SB2C-4 Helldiver for the Battle of the Atlantic Group Build. The kit instructions call for Chromate Green for the interior color. I use Tamiya Acrylics and according to the color charts at the ipmsstockholm website the nearest approximation is XF4 Yellow Green. Based on some reference books that I have XF4 appears to be far too yellow.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can better match the actual interior color? I’m guessing a mix between XF4 Yellow Green and XF5 Flat Green. Any guesses as to a ratio? I’m thinking maybe 3 parts XF4 to 2 parts XF5?
the chromates are a whole big can of worms,there was a post in airbrushing about a week ago stating the various shades of yellow chrome ,but not much was mentioned about green
the easiest way i see to get out of the jam your in would be to get some Testors Acryl,they make a green chromate or interior green,it may be worthwhile to get this one off brand color because it’s very very common in all the WWII planes and you’ll surely need it again
I’m not sure if this helps, but on the IPMS Stockholm site I found this:
Curtiss SB2C Helldiver
Curtiss has reportedly used its own Curtiss Cockpit Green shade, being a variant of Zinc Chromate Green.
While some sources state that this was just their trade name for the standard Interior Green, ANA 611, others suggest that it was, in fact, a different colour, being lighter and more brown in shade.
The bomb bay, gear wells and landing gear struts were all Interior Green, even on late-production Helldivers, differing from the usual Navy practice of having wheel wells and doors follow the underside colour.
BTW, let me know how the build goes. I have this kit in my stash, but I’ve heard there is some major modification needed on the canopy…maybe a little past my level.
I stumbled across this link and after doing some more research I’m thinking I need to mix a touch of the darker green XF5 with the yellow green XF4 and add a bit of brown, or perhaps a drop of khaki. I’m going to have to do some experimenting, but I’m definately not going to put the yellow green on as it is. I looked at a couple of color photos of a Helldiver and the green is very close to the color that can be found by using the link below.
For what it’s worth, my understanding of Tamiya’s Yellow Green is it’s suitable as Chromate Yellow, though perhaps needing a touch more yellow to it. Where as for Chromate Green, I would go with the earlier advice & use MM’s. Or to do Curtiss Green, perhaps add a touch of black to the Yellow Green - that should turn it a slightly browner shade.
I did some heavy duty reasearch into cross referencing Tamiya Paints to Testors paints for my Tamiya 1/32 F-15E and I can say for a fact the closest I found to Zinc Chromate Green was Tamiya XF28 Park Green.
XF28 is dark copper, I assume you mean X28. X28 to my eye looks more like the green used for cowl, belly bands and tail markings on pre WWII gold wing birds but I cant verify as I have yet to paint 1 up that way. X28 appears too bright to match GZC atleast to me.
Thanks for all the very helpful information guys. I think I’m going to experiment with a blend of XF4, XF5 and maybe with a dash of khaki. I have a few color photos available to me in the book “SB2C Helldiver” in detail and scale by Bert Kinzey. Comparing the colors with the colors called for in my Wildcat I think the XF4 and XF5 are the way to go, with just a hint of the kahki to get the slightly brown influence in the color, but which needs to remain mostly green. Make sense? LOL I’ll post a pick of the finished base coat on the interior later today.
I too use Tamiya paints, but when they don’t have what I need I’m not opposed to using a different brand. Try MM acrylics chromate green. They have chromate in green and yellow. Nice stuff.
Looks like there are two Dauntless photos mixed in with the Helldiver pics. If you go to the actual website, there are a bunch of Helldiver Pics with a few Dauntless pics mixed in on the page.