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Odd Tamiya paint callouts


Disco58

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XF-3 is one paint color and XF-5 is another color of their paint. It is telling you to mix the two colors with a ratio of 2 parts (XF-3) to 1 part (XF-5) to make the proper interior color.

 

XF-3 is flat yellow and XF-5 is flat green. Or you can just go out and buy a bottle of that zinc chromate green color most folks use for the interior.

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Rob, Mark, thanks guys, I appreciate the replies. It was a bit late when I posted that, and I had a sneaking suspicion it was a mixing ratio. The information isn't even for me, it's for a guy out in UT who is new to modeling, and I'm doing some long distance tutoring. He had scanned and emailed me just the one page about interior painting, so Mark, you could very well be right, the information might be there but he just missed it. If it's explained somewhere, OK, but I wonder if XF-3:XF-5=2:1 or something along those lines might have been more obvious. I have an AMT/ERTL kit that had mixed colors, and I can't remember how they did it, but it was blatantly obvious what they were getting at -- no head scratching required. Yea, he's definitely going to have to just get some Zinc Chromate. He's having serious newbie frustration issues already from basic assembly, and three other kits have been started and set aside. I don't think he's ready for worrying about color mixing. He had mentioned the high number of different colors on the pilot (9 I think for various things), and he said, "That's not gonna happen". But, but.....<sigh>

Edited by Disco58
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Addendum -- After I posted I went back to look at the scan he sent me. It has the preface with all the warnings, tools needed, etc, etc, and the paint legend. Interesting note: XF-3 (flat yellow) is listed, XF-5 (flat green) is not even listed, nor are there any instructions relative to mixing ratios, so.... It does list XF-4 however, which it says is "flat yellow/green. Last time I looked, Zinc Chromate was kinda, well, flat yellow/green. As an aside to all this, I'm going to sneak one foot kinda up on the soapbox and ask, "If the 'F' in Tamiya colors denotes 'flat', wouldn't XF-4 logically just be the flat version of X-4"? Unfortunately, it snot. -- while X-4 is blue, it's flat counterpart is XF-8, while plain old X-8 is back to yellow. Is it really just me, or...? There's a little 'smiley' from another forum I use occasionally, of a little guy banging his head against the wall in frustration. I need that one right here.

Edited by Disco58
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No one has ever said Model Manufacturers use intelligence when making and issuing instructions in their kits. Just look at any recent Dragon kit and you'll know what I am talking about.

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Gloss paint ranges probably came first. When the modeling world convinced them that they needed a flat range, they probably added the "F" to their X paint range. Since not every gloss color needs to be made in flat and vice versa, there are going to be mismatches in numbering.

 

Remember, they do a full range of RC cars and static race cars that probably precede their military miniatures line.

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