The Little World

Also known as – do you need to be correct or right? – because they can be two different things. And never more so than with paint colours.

I will be writing for several readerships here – some will be from Australasia – some from North America – some from The United Kingdom. The advice will be different for each one. Let me deal with the New World first.

Being right is a good thing. The best way to do it is to find the FS number and stick with that. Somewhere in the files of the federal government or the Smithsonian Institution there is a sample of what was intended to be the definitive FS colour sample. It will be the exact shade, hue and intensity that the designer specified. It may never have actually made it onto an airplane wing, but it was a starting point. If you paint your latest kit in that shade you are fulfilling the dearest wish of a long-dead ghost. All the other ghosts who rode in the planes that were painted this shade can laugh at you, but the one at the heavenly drawing board loves you.

Note: once you start to weather the paint job to curry favour with all the other ghosts you’ll be hated by the designer. Choose wisely.

Now we deal with the UK modelling authorities. Remember that there are a number of nations around the world that have an Independence Day. Many of them are to commemorate being independent from England. There is a reason for this…You may be the reason.

Now in Australia, colours are pure and unsullied – for about eight seconds in the sun. Then they go to hell. The Duco and enamels of earlier years that coated automobiles were pretty staid colours – beiges, blues, browns, etc. And they became dust, sand, and grey/purple. Reds became chalky pink in short order.

Airplanes and boats went just the same way. So any pure colour will be imaginary. You might as well buy a big pot of grey and one of pink and just get it over with…