Looking for a M3 Lee or F18 Reference Book

Ryan K · Tue 01/08/19 04:35 PM

I would go with grey primer. While it is not always necessary, I think it will help on many fronts. You can add black to ridge areas and panel lines. Spray OD. I would add buff or deck tan to OD instead of white highlight areas.

I like to use hull red as a base coat, hairspray, OD to do chipping. Then filters and washes.

I would try on scrap plastic or model to test which method you like best.

Charles T · Tue 01/08/19 03:02 PM

I have a bottle of xf-62 and look forward to trying a pin wash with oils. Would you guys recommend laying the OD down on the green plastic, black, grey, or a white base coat? That might effect the shade the most. I have read that to achieve the stand-off scale you want to lighten the actual colors with a drop or so of white. I may go with a grey or white base coat and hope for the best supply chain out of my OD.

Ryan K · Fri 01/04/19 04:06 AM

The problem with XF-62 is that Tamiya keeps messing with the formula, if you google XF-62 olive drab change, it's happened around 2009,2016,2018 at least by posts. Not sure if it is a real changes or people have different supply chains so your getting new and old formulas intermixed. The second issue is how much stuff will you be putting on top of the base color (washes, filters etc). Depending on the products, they will mostly darken the base color so one has to go lighter. Then there is the school of color modulation that can mix that all up.

DavidS · Thu 01/03/19 10:15 PM

I was reading one of your post and you where talking about olive drab. The best match is Tamiya XF-62. I use this alot.

I haven't tried it, but Vallejo Air 043 is supposed to be a close match.

Model Master is lighter that the wartime color.

My sources indicate that OD became darker during the war. The more you read the more complicated it gets because modern colors are confused with the WWII period colors.

Charles T · Tue 01/01/19 09:39 PM

Awesome, I appreciate that, David. It isn't a rush so the next meeting would be great. Thank you!

DavidS · Tue 01/01/19 05:02 PM

I have a couple of pretty good books with black and white M3 photos. British, Russian and American service. I also have color illustrations. You can meet me around Fuquay, or I will bring them to the meeting.

David S

Charles T · Sat 12/29/18 09:24 PM

I'm glad you mentioned that. I have a bottle of model masters OD that looks brown, so I bought a Tamiya OD that looks green. The finished models I've seen look dark green but box art looks brownish. Academy gave me two options for decals; one is Tunisia 1942 and the other is Tunisia 1943. I will try to research how long they were in service at that point and what fighting in Tunisia would have been like. Thank you for the other links and I appreciate any other insight you might have on hand.

Ryan K · Sat 12/29/18 06:42 AM

For the Lee. It's basic Olive Drab, course you start down the road of the more green or brown OD. IIRC the US and USSR was just OD. The Brits/Aussies had some color camo. Do you want a Africa, Italy, Burma or Russian Lee? I will try to remember to bring Tankart Vol 2, while it doesn't have anything on the Lee, it has lots of OD weathering tips.

Ryan K · Fri 12/28/18 11:16 PM

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/walkaround/wk.php?wid=23

http://www.ejectionsite.com/sju17seat.htm

To weather, it depends on life cycle. Pre deployment mostly clean but not factory fresh. Post deployment pretty dirty. I will try to find a few pics.

Charles T · Fri 12/28/18 07:04 PM

Well, I am doing the VFA-102 F/A-18F Super Hornet. I would like to find some good color photos of the wheel bays, ejection seat, inside exhaust nozzles, and typical weathering through serviceability. So specific variants might not be that important.

For the M3 I would be happy with any historical information about how it looked when it fought. The color photos I have found online are of museum pieces that have been repainted a different color for some hair-brained reason.

Ryan K · Fri 12/28/18 05:04 PM

Which F-18 model and years are you looking for details on?

Charles T · Fri 12/28/18 02:41 PM

I was wondering if anyone in the club might have a reference book on the M3 Lee medium tank or the F-18 that I could barrow for a month or so between meetings. I say a month, but to be honest about how much build time I have been getting recently, it might be longer. Digging up internet research just isn't as efficient and often times websites with "walkarounds" are of pristine and altered museum examples.

Thanks in advance,
Chase