provisional table of colors

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
I've made a direct comparison between Akan chips kindly supplied by Troy and my own Humbrol.
All the colors were scanned in one time, but some correction with Photoshop was necessary all the same to make colors more uniform (they change very much between semigloss and matt due to mixing) and to reflect what I see with my eyes.





AMT-4 is close in darkness to 116, but the hue is more similar to 117; a mix of them should be perfect, but I'm prone to use 117, that is lighter, as my favourite match.
114 is a fair match too, but it's out of catalogue.

116 is fairly similar to AII green too, that is a bit more green. A mix of 116 and 75 should be good.
AII blue is very close to 65, just a bit darker.

AMT-7 is close to 89, but a bit more greyish.

A-14 is close to 5 and 27, but a bight more light and neutral. Other matches could be found.

AMT-11 of Akan surprised me for its darkness. 144 is a bit lighter and more bluish, and I think to use this paint as a match, even if probably there are closer ones still to check.

Massimo

[learstang]

Nice job Massimo!  Very useful.

Regards,

Jason

[marluc]

Very well done Massimo,it?s a very useful comparison table.Couldn?t you find one match to AMT-12? Perhaps it could be achieved by mixing paints only.Greetings.

Martin

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Jason and Martin,
thank you for your kind words.
About AMT-12, I think that 67, tank grey, could be a fair match. But I haven't any can now, I'll have to buy. I suppose that it could be a bit lighter than the chip of Akan, but for a dark color a bit of sun is sufficient to make a change.

Massimo

[marluc]

Hello Massimo:

I was surprised by the fact that all the colours in the samples are darker than expected.Greetings.

Martin

[learstang]

Hello Massimo:

I was surprised by the fact that all the colours in the samples are darker than expected.Greetings.

Martin

I know what you mean, Martin.  Those AKAN colours all look very dark to me.  Too dark, to be honest.

Regards,

Learstang

[KL]

I was surprised by the fact that all the colours in the samples are darker than expected.Greetings.

I know what you mean, Martin.  Those AKAN colours all look very dark to me.  Too dark, to be honest.

Also recently from Greg C. on Searching for VVS Photos tread:

Having played-around a bit with the AKAN paints I have, to my eye, they cannot be made to represent the contrast I routinely see in pictures like this one.  Furthermore, I don't think lightening due to sun exposure or weathering sufficiently explains this lack of contrast....

Too dark compared to what? Lack of contrast compared to what?
Real planes more than 60 years ago? Or black and white photos of those planes?
Or museum exhibits?

In my opinion Akan paints are the most authentic paints available.  Akanihin relayed on Vahlamov & Orlov's research, had accsess to archival sources and wrecks/relics.  Most important, he is not keeping his sources secret.

For modellers who think Akan paints are to dark, consider following:

• make them lighter for scale effect
  
• make them lighter for weathering/ageing/bleaching (paint degradation due to sunlight etc.)

Happy modelling,  
KL

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
I've added a photo of a fragment of early Pe-2 showing color A-18f and underlying ALG-1 with greenish hue to this page: http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/colors/1940-1941/1940-41.html

Image of Tapani Tuomanen.
Regards
Massimo