A Spitfire kit lists its camouflage in one maker’s paint numbers, and the shelf holds a different maker’s pots. Everyone who builds from instructions meets this, and a model paint conversion chart is the usual way out. Use the chart above to get to a candidate shade, then treat it as a candidate and not an answer.
Using a model paint conversion chart by code or by standard
There are two ways in. The first is by brand code: you know the number printed in the instructions and want the nearest equivalent in another range. The second is by standard reference. If the instructions name BS381C, FS 595, RAL or RLM, you can look the standard up directly and find which pots in your preferred brand are closest to it.
Standards are more reliable than brand-to-brand matching, because every maker is trying to hit the same target. Going from a Humbrol number to a Vallejo number means one maker’s best guess is being compared with another’s. The reference is the common ground, so when the instructions give one, start there.
A short list of the standards you will meet most:
- BS381C: British Standard colours, found on RAF and Royal Navy subjects
- FS 595: American federal colours, found on US aircraft and vehicles
- RAL: a German system, seen on armour and vehicle schemes
- RLM: Luftwaffe aircraft colour designations
Search the chart by whichever you have. Entering a code from the wrong brand will give nothing useful, so check the prefix first.
Humbrol enamels and the Humbrol to Tamiya conversion problem
Humbrol’s long-running enamel numbers appear in decades of kit instructions, which is why a Humbrol to Tamiya conversion is the most common request there is. A great many older instruction sheets simply name Humbrol numbers and nothing else.
The catch is the paint itself. Humbrol enamels are solvent based and slow to dry, and each colour comes in a matt, satin or gloss finish. Tamiya’s acrylics are alcohol based and dry quickly. The same colour in the two families can look different once dry, because the binder changes how light bounces off the surface. Matt enamel and matt acrylic are never identical.
When a Humbrol to Tamiya conversion gives you two or three candidates, pick the one closer in lightness. Hue differences are easy to forgive; a shade that is clearly too dark or too light will show against its neighbours on the model.
Tamiya acrylics, lacquers and the mixing rules
Tamiya sells several paint families, and they must not be mixed together. Its acrylics use the prefixes X for gloss and XF for flat, and the lacquer range is coded LP. Acrylic thins with Tamiya’s own thinner or isopropyl alcohol, while lacquer needs lacquer thinner, which is far more aggressive.
Three rules prevent most accidents:
- Never mix an acrylic with an enamel or a lacquer, in the pot or on the palette.
- Do not put a strong lacquer thinner on thin plastic; test on a sprue first, because it can craze the surface.
- Clean a brush used with one family thoroughly before it touches another.
Mixing within one family is the safe way to make a missing shade. A shade in the middle of two pots can be approximated with a tiny amount of a third, but write down the ratio, because you will not remember it in three months. For brush technique see the brush painting guide.
Vallejo ranges and why equivalents never line up
Vallejo’s Model Color is made for brushes, and Model Air is pre-thinned for the airbrush; both are water based. That makes them friendly to work with, but it also means a Vallejo paint equivalents list can be misleading. Two pots with a similar name can differ in opacity, and a paint made to go through an airbrush behaves differently from one made for the brush even when the colour is the same.
Vallejo paint equivalents are easiest to find when a pot is sold against a named standard, and less clean when the starting point is a rival’s number. If you are comparing Vallejo paint equivalents against Tamiya, check the finish first: A satin pot will not behave like a matt one, and the label on the lid does not always tell you how a colour will dry.
Before airbrushing, the airbrushing guide covers thinning and pressure for each family.
Why a match is only approximate
Pigments differ between makers. Two companies can aim for the same standard and mix different pigment recipes to get there, and the result looks right under one light and wrong under another. Add finish: gloss darkens a colour, matt lightens it. Add batch variation and age: a tin that has sat on a shelf for years often differs from a fresh one. A model paint conversion chart narrows a hundred tins to two or three; the eye and a test card pick the winner.
Scale effect matters as well. A colour seen at a distance fades toward grey, and a small model is looked at from arm’s length, where nothing has faded. This is why a true-to-standard shade can look too strong on a small model. Many builders lighten slightly or add a touch of white, but the rule is to judge the finished model, not the pot.
Checking a match before it reaches the model
Paint a test card and let it dry fully. Acrylics often shift as they dry, so judging wet paint is a common mistake.
Match the primer. A grey primer under a pale colour will mute it, while a white primer lifts it, so paint the card with the same primer you have used on the model. Compare in daylight and again under your bench lamp, since a shade that matches by one will be off by the other. Hold the card beside the kit’s box art, but remember the art is printed and not painted.
If two candidates are close, paint both on the card side by side. The choice is usually obvious then, where it was not in the pots. Primer choice is covered in the priming and filling guide.
British colour names across brands
British schemes are full of names that sound precise and are not. Dark Earth, Dark Green, Sky, Ocean Grey and Medium Sea Grey each appear in several makers’ ranges, and the same name can mean slightly different paints. Some brands name a pot after the standard, some after the colour, and some after the aircraft it first appeared on. The model paint conversion chart above lists the British names first, with the standard number beside each, so a search by either finds the same row.
Names are a clue, not a match. Treat Ocean Grey from one maker and Ocean Grey from another as two candidates and put them on the card. The same applies to RAF greens and browns for aircraft: a camouflage scheme looks right as a whole, so what counts is how the two tones sit against each other.
Next step: pick your two closest candidates from the chart, paint them on a card over your primer, and decide in daylight.