Hi All
'Cans of worms' indeed Lance. I imagine that the Great War aviation modelers of the 22nd century will still be debating PC12. Given the uncertainty and range of possibilities perhaps we have to just go with what we feel to be right.
Like Albatros1234, I don't like the Misterkit PC12 take on things but I can't say it is definitely wrong. More that it's a colour which does not sit with my perception of PC12 and, probably more important, doesn't fit in well when alongside other RFC/RAF models already in my collection. Perhaps that's the key; when I'm finishing, I tend not to weather aeroplanes or tone down colour for scale effect. In preferring stronger colours, I recognise that can only be a personal choice. So, does my SE5a look as though Mannock might have just landed it after another successful mission? No. But I feel comfortable with it as a representation of the great man's aircraft in the cabinet alongside the Brisfit and the Niueport 17.
I think that Lance might point in one interesting direction when he notes having once read that if you take a good PC10 and add some chocolate brown you'll reach a PC12 - or at least one take on this. This mirrors my own approach, but I've yet to really feel things are right. I took a sheet of white plastic card and painted on (by hand) squares of colour that seemed not too far off PC10 and then washed over each square in a different brown (from reddish tinges to some altogether more earthy. In trying to replicate this on a model, I found that I had inadequate control over the washes and even light spraying left me with mixed feelings. That said I think it maybe a way ahead towards finding something with which I'm happy. Would I recommend it to others? Not without the greatest testing first and even then with great care.
There was one interesting side-product to the experimentation when using the washes chord-wise on wings. There was some pooling of colour which left certain areas more chocolate/red brown than others. It made me wonder whether in reality on the same flying surface PC12 is consistent in colour.
Best wishes
Nigel