Alternitive to Polly Scale Concrete

Wardog2a

New Hunter
I have been having an issue tracking down polly scale concrete for my bucket. I even lucked out at my local hobby shop and was able to pick up some PPR brunswick green, PPR Maroon and reefer yellow. I had to special order the caboose (and I think its custom due to the fact that the image was just the color sample and not the bottle). I know my options for concrete are to use the humrol combo or have the color made up but I was wondering if anyone has found a suitible equivilent. On hand I have a ton of vellijo colors for painting minuatures including a wide range of tans (desert grey, khaki, field drab, tan earth). The closest match visually (as far as i can tell comparing the color to images) is vellijo khaki grey but it seems a little dark. The color sample below is faily close to how the paint looks dried.
VAL-70_880__47142_1338421661_400_400.jpg
Thanks!
 
The color is somewhere in that range, but too dark. I did a test with my ESB stencil and if I increase the brightness with 40%, your color looks better:

Image3.jpg

So in theory, if you add 40% white to your paint, you might achieve that color.
 
Perfect! I wanted to confirm that I was on the right track. I've got plenty of paint so I will experiment with ratios until it's right. Thanks!
 
Bit the bullet and bought some model masters concrete to give it a go...will let you know how it works out I have Polyscale on hand to compare ;)
 
Thanks Fett for Real, I would prefer to go with an enamel over the vellijo acrilic anyway. I couldn't find the MM concrete at my local hobby shop (It's a small model train/RC shop so I try to support them when I can). Their color range only went to 4700 and I noticed that the floquil/pollyscale conversion colors all fall under the 4800 range. I am still finishing the bucket, sanding and applying glaze to get all the pitting out (nothing major I just want it "perfect") If MM concrete turns out to be a worthy alternitive i'll see if I can special order it through them or pick some up online.
 
Real quick question on the kill stripes. The mindmeister map suggests "UP armor yellow" and rogue studeos suggest "reefer yellow". Through pure luck I was able to find reefer yellow in the hobby shops discontinued bin. Which is more acturate?
 
Honestly theyre VERY close to the same color...I dont use either but a model master color that is similar...pretty much the Union Pacific Yellow...IMHO reefer is brighter. And as for enamel...I like acrylics since Im in Utah they dry SOOOOOO fast that I can paint more efficiently and get 3 layers down and dry before 1 layer of enamel would be.
 
You make a good point Fett 4 Real... I'm in Florida so humidity is a constant factor... Most of my experience is with acrylics and 15mm miniatures. The nice thing about the base structure being sheet metal is I can easily strip it down to the metal and start over again. If it turns out to be a sticky mess with enamels i'll sand er down and only use the enamels for the unique colors (caboose and such). I was worried that acrylics might affect the quality over such a large canvas but I am also new to the airbrush.

Thanks for the assist, i've been reading up on your work as well as SuperJedi and RafalFett as far as i'm concerned any advice vets like you can give is as good as gold. This is a pretty great community i've tackled a few prop builds and have never seen anything close to the amount of resources TDH has available. My current project wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for all your guys hard work and research.

I'm a technical writer and subject matter expert for military ground tactical vehicle maintenance and operation in my other life so if any if you guys are interested in creating a step by step helmet instruction for the site let me know.
 
Well enamels arent bad...I use them also as the humbrols are enamels, but I really like cleaning up acrylics better...I dont have to use a solvent and that is better in my book.

The concrete from testors will be here monday (says tracking) we'll see how it stacks up. Ive made a tamiya copy of the Earth color used for the ear this week(by accident) when I was at the hobby town USA i didnt take concrete with me and kinda eyeballed some colors to use and ended up being to light a color...but saturday Im going back with concrete in hand to see about matching it to a tamiya color...the tamiya colors are acrylic also and Cheaper then the testors by about a buck...2.49 for 2oz containers...I use their colors alot too. Go through the airbrush really well dont clog it up like the polyscales do...(which you can strain them and they wont clog it up found that out on a railroad forum when i was googling the problem)

And where are you in FL...FL is my second home, from NJ and a FL resident as of about 11 years ago now lol...part of the FL Garrison, but stationed out in Utah.
 
I am in Jacksonville, moved here after the Army about 5 years ago. I'm not affiliated with the 501st but I am a fan. I admire the work they do with the community and they always make a killer showing at Star Wars weekends.

What size strainer should be used for the pollyscale? I just found a 50 year old bottle of Floquil silver in my father in laws old paints. it's still in good shape, no drying or clumping and blends well but I figured ill try the straining trick just to be safe.

Now that the acrylic floodgates have been swung wide open i've been digging through my paints trying to match up as many colors as possible. I dug up some reaper aged bone
09059.jpg
When dried it looks very close to the sample provided by RafalFett
Image3.jpg

if it turns out too light i might mix in some of the khaki grey to darken it up a tad. I also dug up some vallejo orange ochre

Dunkel-gelb-977-01.jpg

which the ultimate model paint conversion chart The Ultimate Model Paint Conversion Chart tells me is a match for humbrol 93.

The masking I ordered should arrive tomorrow and than i'll be ready to take a crack at the backplates. How do you use RafalFett's templates? Are they meant as a reference to eyeball it or is there a method i'm not thinking of to transfer the pattern to the bucket?
 
I take them into Inkscape and resize them to fit the helmet....print them out after many attempt of resizing then trace with tracing paper and apply the trace with a carbon paper...its alot of work but its the best way to get the stencil in the right spot.

The bone color may be close...but looks light on the screen at least looks closer to earth (ear color)
 
. . . I'm a technical writer and subject matter expert for military ground tactical vehicle maintenance and operation. . .

Cool! Since I retired from the USAF a little over 3 years ago, I've been working as a tech writer for Navy equipment. It's interesting work.

Ever since I read that the Floquil/Polly Scale line was being discontinued, I've been looking for replacement colors, too.
Such a shame that our "Fett colors" won't be available any more.

I tested some Tamiya acrylics a few months back. For the back panel color I tried XF-57 Buff and XF-55 Deck Tan.
Neither one of these two is a direct replacement for the Concrete, but they're sort of close. I think the Buff is a little
too dark and has a more yellow tone, and the Deck Tan is a bit too pale.
I never really tried blending them or finding a good mix ratio with white (or a very pale gray) but if you're going to try
some custom mixes, these might give you a good jumping off point.

As far as the killstripe color goes, I think the Reefer has a brighter quality than the UP Armor. I prefer the UP Armor
when I do my helmet paint ups. But again, just like everyone who uses Flo/Polly, I'll eventually have to come up
with replacements for my entire color palette. *Sigh*
 
I thought the buff was to light....its very close to the earth color Lee recommends for the ear though....I have swatches I'll show next week...When testors mm concrete gets here...

Sent from my SCH-I545
 
This is a terrific thread! I've been debating on paying for someone to paint my next helmet or doing it myself...I have really liked using Vallejo for my gundams, and I would be stoked if we could find colors in their line to match
 
Thanks for the carbon paper tip Fett4Real, it works great. I sized the stencils and ran a couple using the tracing paper/carbon paper method. I felt like i was looking quality by transfering from printout to tracing paper to carbon so i decided to skip the tracing paper and adhere the stencil printout directly to the carbon paper. Its working out nicely so far.
 
Thanks superjedi, I think im going to try to track down some UParmor just so I have it available to match. I have a ton of different acrylic yellows and my father in law has even more old railroad paints and I might be able to stumble across something. Thanks for your service BTW, mad respect for anyone who puts their own needs aside for 20+ years to serve our country. I just knocked out my six years in the army took my honorable discharge and split heh.
 
This thread is more than 6 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top