Confusion re: chest armour colours

[Short4ATrooper]

I’m in the process of painting the chest armour using humbrol enamels (please don’t comment telling me how much you hate humbrol enamels) and am unclear on some of the colours.

The areas on this colour chart that recommend green 78 (blue lines) …

Are listed as SP Lark Dark Grey on Raff’s stencils:

Is green 78 the correct match for SP Lark Dark Grey?

 

[BudaFett]

No. Lark Dark Grey would be Grey 79 here.

 

[lowberg]

Stencils are great for major landmark damage, but I would take the more subtle weathering on stencils with a grain of salt.

My advice would be when you get to the subtle weathering stage, switch over to referring to screen reference in the ESB gallery here.

You can see it's not super clear cut and well defined, there's a few darker spots within the right chest but it's nowhere as dramatic as the stencils make it seem. That grey misting creeps up around the outer edges of the chest and around the emblem, much more than the stencil implies.

If we bump up the contrast you can make out the darker areas better, but even with the contrast boosted you can see they are not as drastic as the stencils make it seem.

Also the humbrol paints while take longer to dry and are harder on the airbrush, are super durable and the tiny cans are fun

 

[Short4ATrooper]

No. Lark Dark Grey would be Grey 79 here.

But the colour map lists grey 79 as the colour for this layer as well:

 

[BudaFett]

I would mix Green 78 with Grey 70. I also don't use the stencils here 1:1.

 

[Short4ATrooper]

I would mix Green 78 with Grey 70. I also don't use the stencils here 1:1.

For sure, I just wondered if I was missing something but it seems everyone’s got their own interpretation.

I ended up going with 76 & 78 at 1:1 as was recommended in the original post of the colour map. I did a mist pass as a base coat, followed by a second coat and then for the third I added a drop (literally just a drop) of 33 black and went heavier with it in the areas where the darker areas of damage are. I’ll mask those off next before going in with 76 for the base green.

Laid down the yellow on the wearer’s LH side plate too

 

[Neo Fett]

For sure, I just wondered if I was missing something but it seems everyone’s got their own interpretation.

The templates are a bit old and could use a refresh. Most people use Lark Dark (or similar, like 79) for those darker scrapes. It's so hard to tell exactly what was done there is a lot of interpretation.

Also, looking at your plates it doesn't look like you got your paint thin enough (or it's wayyy to thin). Looks very chalky. The paint should be the consistency of milk and those little humbrol cans need to be mixed really good.

 

[Short4ATrooper]

The templates are a bit old and could use a refresh. Most people use Lark Dark (or similar, like 79) for those darker scrapes. It's so hard to tell exactly what was done there is a lot of interpretation.

Also, looking at your plates it doesn't look like you got your paint thin enough (or it's wayyy to thin). Looks very chalky. The paint should be the consistency of milk and those little humbrol cans need to be mixed really good.

This is before it was rubbed back with steel wool. The humbrol enamels always look like that before I rub them back. It was exactly the same on my helmet. I use 1ml single use medical syringes to mix and thin my paints, these were thinned at 2:1 thinner to paint as recommended by Humbrol.

Here’s a picture of the ab plate in silver, after being rubbed back with steel wool. This was painted with the same paint to thinner ratio

 

[Neo Fett]

This is before it was rubbed back with steel wool. The humbrol enamels always look like that before I rub them back. It was exactly the same on my helmet. I use 1ml single use medical syringes to mix and thin my paints, these were thinned at 2:1 thinner to paint as recommended by Humbrol.

Here’s a picture of the ab plate in silver, after being rubbed back with steel wool. This was painted with the same paint to thinner ratio

View attachment 250998

I used humbrol enamels exclusively for a number of years. I only found that chalky texture when they weren't thinned properly. Personally I found that 2:1 mostly useless. Some cans needed way more, some didn't need any thinner. When I got the ratio right everything went on super super smooth.

 

[Short4ATrooper]

Ok, thanks. I guess I’ll try thinning more next time…or less

 

[Short4ATrooper]

Just did some reading and apparently it’s a known quality issue with the older tins. Something to do with the binding agent. It can also occur with tins that haven’t been used for a while and I have some from my helmet paint job which was a few years ago. That being said, the yellow was all brand new tins.

I could also mix them for longer before getting them into the airbrush cup so that, coupled with a closer eye on thinner/consistency will hopefully yield better results going forward. Luckily, I do think buffing with steel wool does help so I’m not stripping what I’ve done so far as I don’t think it’s necessary. As I said, the ab plate was the same before buffing and I seriously don’t see an issue with how it looks now.

 

[Neo Fett]

Just did some reading and apparently it’s a known quality issue with the older tins. Something to do with the binding agent. It can also occur with tins that haven’t been used for a while and I have some from my helmet paint job which was a few years ago. That being said, the yellow was all brand new tins.

I could also mix them for longer before getting them into the airbrush cup so that, coupled with a closer eye on thinner/consistency will hopefully yield better results going forward. Luckily, I do think buffing with steel wool does help so I’m not stripping what I’ve done so far as I don’t think it’s necessary. As I said, the ab plate was the same before buffing and I seriously don’t see an issue with how it looks now.

Not sure how you are mixing, but getting one of these was a godsend for humbrol paints when I was using them. I'd mix it in the can really good with one of these before pouring out to thin and mix again. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BROV02