I would be interested in how you guys replicate the difficult GSB finish of the 1950s USN. I still don't know of an 'off-the-shelf' paint that does it justice.
I would be interested to hear what your suggestions are?
Cheers
Jon

Hi Jon,

I feel your pain. I guess in the last 20 years i have built about a half dozen 1/72nd scale USN aircraft, and i have used Model Master, Aeromaster, Humbrol and Xtracolour. In terms of the off the shelf enamels i liked the Aeromaster and the Humbrol the best. Problem is, at least in 72nd scale, the end result is a model that looks too dark.

Add to the confusion that the ANA Gloss Sea Blue is not the same as FS 15042. Nobody ever told me exactly HOW they are different.

Rato Marczak recently did a Revell Box-Scale Convair Tradewind that he painted overall in Insignia Blue, FS 35044 (IIRC) and the finished result looks very good. He posted it here somewhere.

Bill Dye also recently finished a Revell Tradewind and his color combination was 75% Sea Blue, 25% Insignia blue. I haven't tried it out yet but my F6F-5N is getting close to painting and i was gonna give that approach a try.

I recently build a Brewster FG-1D which i primed with Yellow Zinc Chromate, in the hopes the underlying color would affect the chroma of the overlying Gloss Sea Blue. Made no difference as far as i can tell. I do a lot of weathering with Gloss Engine grey after decaling, and that did add a nice slight grayish cast to the gloss sea blue, but the end result was still a bit dark for my tastes.

Just FYI. A few things that work, and few things that we know do not.

FLY NAVY!!

david

I use mixes and layers of different colours to achieve that undertone of blue