IJN acrylics

[mister me]

Hi all !

looks like Testors / ModelMaster again produces naval paints since last year.
however, those paints are enamels for japanese arsenal colors. hoping they will also produce them in acrylics soon : USNavy colors are already acrylics.

what colors/references do you use in acrylics for IJN colors ? please dont talk me about WEM/Colourcoat paints, as these AREN'T acrylics.

[Timmy C]

Have you checked out Tamiya's IJN shipyard greys (e.g. XF75 Kure Arsenal)?

[mister me]

no

but i am old school also : painting with handbrush and only using a simple aero for final varnishing, so tamiya paints are not really adapted for me. but are they really accurate ? and also are really WEM paints/chips the best matches ?

i have the gunze/mrColor lacquers 3 pot package (maizuru/kure/sasebo) but I don't want to use them : i thought they were acrylics when i bought them, but AREN'T. they are really stinky and toxic i think. and need their own thinner which is stinky and toxic too... and dry sooo fast that brush is rapidly dry too. have to add retarder. but compared to other sources, they look less blueish. are those gunze paints accurate ? shall i use them as reliable paint chips at least ? dunno...
lifecolor would be very good, because paintbrushing with them is really easy i think. and paint can be thinned with demin water when it begins to be a bit too thick.

[Timmy C]

Ah ok, like me then - I also handbrush and use PollyScale paints, though will have to eventually switch to Lifecolor probably.

It's unfortunate that Gunze's Aqueous Hobby Colors line is so difficult to get, if available at all anymore - they were, as the names suggested, water-based and didn't stink at all, and brushpainted well.

[mister me]

Here in France, gunze aqueous range is really easy to find.
but i am not so sure they are to be thinned with water. my own experience tends me to think alcohol is better. and using a brush, they remain a bit hard to apply, but are REALLY A LOT easier than Tamiya ones.
one of my big regrets is that the range is too often glossy, and adding flat base is not enough. they dry very slowly if glossy, and if handbrushed, coats look a bit too thick. i threw away practically all my enamels and switched to gunze aqueous, but paints did not match the paint chips i did myself using WEM paints without mixing. so a bit hard to hand brush, have to mix too often, that is not for me. last but not least, my matt true acrylic artistic varnish did not adhere good on gunze glossy paints. once dry, it peeled off or "retracted" on itself, doing a lot of small crackles, even with adding some ox-gall. had lot of work ruined with this method.
for the moment i use lifecolor and i have no problems, even with glossy paints.

however :

here are my last thoughts concerning colors. i would go for this using lifecolor :

UA022 for sasebo grey
UA108 for Kure grey
UA605 for yokosuka grey
UA094 for maizuru
UA082 for linoleum

also, lifecolor USN paints don't exactly match WEM paints, but i am not sure which are the most "true" color range of both. lifecolor or WEM ? I always heard that WEM are exactly the same tint as snyder/short chips. but that doesn't prove many things : WEM paints are indeed the ones that have been used to physically PAINT those snyder/short chips... happy that they match...

lifecolor being an italian company, i would say/hope that their italian navy range is correct.

and concerning their german range, i am not sure. their dunkelgrau52 is darker than their dunkelgrau53. seems strange. and also i am doubtful concerning their "schiffsboden farbe grau" which is different from their dunkelgrau53, but was normally same tint in reality...