Misterkit Paint Color Chips

mgtaylor · 16 December 2005, 12:19 AM

Dear Barker
Great question, TO quickly answer Yes there is specificly GC17 PFALZ SILBERGRAU and AH08 PLATINUM GREY.

As many of you are aware the "aluminmum" color was not a bright silvery aluminum you might simulate by using the standard color silver and aluminum hobby paints we've all used for years to recreate these early period machines. Those bright Silver colors lend themselves more to later period biplanes during the late twentires and thirties.

The dull effect was a result of adding actual aluminimum powder to the dopes and paints used to cover them. These didn't result in a bright silvery effect rather it had a tendency cause an opaque darkening of the base paint. The french in particular experimented a lot with this techinque and hence the great range of yellows during the yellow period mid 1916 to early 1918. From Biscuit to mid brown to mid to quite dark greys, ie the FR09 FRENCH LIGHT GREYGREEN you see in the Color Profile for the French Hobbycraft 1/32 Spads.

Again the MK Colors like any of the major hobby paint manufactuers are researched colors to create the best representation they can of the original colors.

mgtaylor · 16 December 2005, 12:32 AM

Seriously I can't thank all of you enough fo rthe recent rush in Holiday Orders. Your orders are what drives being able to keep this great product so easily available here in the Continental US as it has been overseas for so long.
Ive found the PayPal Services while causing an additonal nominal fee have been working out quite well in expediting the processing and shipping of your orders. SO well in fact that a couple of the popular basic camo colors have run into short supply. Ive had a stock order placed and been assured they were shipped from Italy day before yesterday. I expect to be able to fill any back orders within less than a couple of weeks or so. In the meantime most everything is in Stock.

16 December 2005, 07:01 AM

I love these Misterkit paints too and I use an old fashioned brush! They are probably designed for airbrushing, what isn't these days but two or three coats put on with the strokes at 90 degrees to the last gives a good fabric effect to boot!

Barker · 16 December 2005, 07:29 AM

What he said.
They take some getting used to, the thin consistency is different, at first, but patience brings a fine coat, easily controlable through any number of effects.

Thanks for the discussion of alu-dope.
Am going to have to try that also.

Copperhead · 16 December 2005, 06:39 PM

hey mg, thanks for the info on the aluminum dope. Guess I screwed up Luffberry's -17. I used Testor MM. Better luck on the next one. But those French and German colors I got from you a few Months back have deffinately made my SPADS amd (at least so far) the top wing of Goerings Dv, look great. Better than the old WWII standbys that 'work in a pinch'. JW

PS, I'll be ordering again in about 2 Months

mgtaylor · 16 December 2005, 07:32 PM

Listen, you guys are the greatest ! The positve comments are grreat ! After all this is all I took this on for. Iam just hobbist myself and LOVE WWI ACFT. IN fact I think I may well have to face some sort of therpy in the future to come to grips with my obsessive admiration for the Sopwith Camel.

I needed these paints for the incrediable growing stock pile of large scale unbuilt WWI Kits. After discovering them and seeing how badly they had fallen to the way side thru neglect and the forces of the free market. I couldn't take it any more and figured to give it a shot to Make sure they were here in the US market for I knew I couldn't be the only one to be buying and building these kits and would wish they had some paints too?

THis all is strickly out of my pocket and as near non-profit and non-profit could be without the tax designation. Think of it more as personal CO-OP where you can order the things you really ant to have but nobody will carry.

Anyways thanks again for all the orders for these paints sake I certainly hope this pace continues wel thru the new year. Iam standing by and ready to fill your orders and keep freash stocks of it comeing thru customs.

Mike

s1b · 20 December 2005, 11:55 AM

Mgtaylor,
I received mine today .Wanted to say thanks for the fast pace that I received my paints.
Sean

GregorySharp · 24 December 2005, 09:11 AM

I got my order lastnight! Thanks and Merry Christmas

melsharkskin · 25 December 2005, 06:43 PM

Yes, I hold in my fat little hand a nice bottle of MisterKit GC-17 Pfalz Silbergrau, obtained from the man himself, whom I can personally attest is a standup guy who is more interested in converting modelers to good ideas than in getting rich off us.

melsharkskin · 25 December 2005, 06:52 PM

As for the question of the silver-gray/silbergrau, let me throw in my blather, because the thought of "why" crossed my mind briefly, but more importantly than why, was, "how good is it"? So here, as I hold in my fat little hand a nice bottle of MisterKit GC-17 Pfalz Silbergrau -- obtained from the man himself, whom I can personally attest is a standup guy who is more interested in converting modelers to good ideas than in getting rich off us -- are my findings and opinions on it.

As for the question of why buy a specific silver-gray rather than using a home-mix, well, why indeed? To me it answers itself, but by all means use what you like. But if you want to get glib about it, why not ask, "Why don't we mix green and brown and make our own OD instead of buying it from a single bottle?"
Well, in this case (we're talking about MisterKit's silver-gray pigments, both French and German) it's easier than mixing, and less likely to result in some lumpy disaster, though personal paint mixtures are to some modelers like secret recipes are to grandmothers, and nothing will get them to use anything else. More power to them. I wish I had more of my own personal mixtures to fall back on.
But my answer as to why use these particular colors by this manufacturer is simply my opinion. It's also based on my having tested FR-01 French Alluminium (sic) on an Eduard LE Nieuport 17 and GC-17 Pfalz Silbergrau on an Eduard LE Pfalz IIIa (which reminds me, I need to build the things, having used these fine kits for testing my new MisterKit shades on when I first got the bottles). And having used them, I can also attest they are not the same paint with different product numbers and names.

So, the bottom line for me is, I don't like mixing paint. I really don't like mixing metallic paints. And, though I wasn't there when the original stuff was applied to the linen or plywood, these paints just look like what they are intended to portray, at least as described in the endless discourses on WW I colors.