RFC Acrylic paint recommendations

[Procopius]

I'm gearing up to hopefully build an S.E. 5a or two and maybe a DH2 if I feel brave in the coming months (right now I have a boring old RAAF Hornet to finish). What acrylic paints should I be looking at for them? I use an aging Badger 175 airbrush bought secondhand, the orthopedic shoe of the airbrush world, I imagine, and so it's not amazingly precise, but it gets the job done.

Also, how should I simulate rib tape(? correct term?) in 1/72? I was thinking maybe a white undercoat, then masking off the taped areas, and then unmasking them and adding a further light coat over them, or maybe (gulp) waiting and trying to weather.

[Des]

I paint primarily in Humbrol enamels but I am using quite a few acrylic paints lately. I use Gunze acrylics and find them to be excellent paints for spraying, I add a tad of lacquer thinners to the paint and set my compressor at 23 - 26psi, the paint sprays very smooth and even.

Take a look at this brilliant 1:72 scale build by Brad Cancian, one of the forum members, you will pick up a lot of very useful tips, he is a master at working in 1:72.

http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=1744.0

Des.

[Ernie]

Procopius, I use Tamiya acrylic (their RAF dark green is pretty good for RFC aeroplanes).  Lately
though, I have been using Misterkit, who have a line of acrylic paints for WWI planes.  They thin
with water, or I have used Tamiya x20a thinner with no ill effects.  Here's a link if you want to
take a look.   Good luck with your projects.

http://www.misterkit.com/catalog/index.php

Cheers,
Ernie

[IanB]

For lower rib tapes on my 1:72 models I spray the entire wing CDL, then add the tapes using thin strips of plain white decal sheet, then overspray again with CDL.

Ian

[Procopius]

CDL is something-doped-linen, right? I confess to being pretty ignorant even of the appropriate colors for the RFC/RAF in 1914-1918.

[Zabu]

Hi Procopius.

Yes you got that right CDL goes for Clear Doped Linen.

Being the fabric with no paint at all in it's natural finish but doped with varnish as a protective coat for the fabric and structural part of the aircraft.

There's another color from ww1 wich goes as PC10 (for your SE5 as an exemple). Many has been written and debated about it... i like to call it Problematic Color... could also be Perpetually Controversial color but i guess it goes as Pigmented Cellulose(?). It's a sort of Greenish Brown or Khaki Green.

There's also PC12 being sometghing like a Khaki Brown.

Cheers

[Des]

PC10 (protective coating) and PC12 are both very controversial subjects, there has been debates running for many many years over these two colours. Some people are adamant about their interpretation of the colours while others will refute their claims. A lot of the model paint manufacturers produce paints which they market as PC10 and PC12, also CDL (clear doped linen) but a comparison of all the paints will show a huge difference. The overall consensus is that near enough is good enough, if it looks good in your eyes that is all that matters, artistic license rules.

Des.