I've just picked up the Hobby Boss YAK3 for a quick fun build but I don't use the gunze sangyo paints (horrible for brush painting I've found) so I need to know what paints I need. I am happy to use Vallejo, Xtracolour and Lifecolour acrylics (not enamels!). The colours in the instructions are H152 Pear Green, H51/11 Light Blue and H20 Light Blue. Also it does not give any interior colour or colours for the wheel wells/insides of the landing gear covers/landing gear struts. So does anyone know what they should be?

thanks
Mike

the interior is said to be green or dark green, so, the wells/insides of the landing gear covers quite possibly could be the same color as H51/11 Light Blue or H20 Light Blue/

Hi

thanks for that but can anyone answer my question about the exterior colours? Gunze Sangyo paint numbers mean nothing to me!

thanks
Mike

Interiors of Yaks were generally light gray from what I have heard. The soviets did use a greenish blue paint for primer though (seen in MiG cockpits). Wheel weels might be that dark green color though.

look at pics here: http://www.ipmsusa2.org/Walkarounds/CAF-Camarillo-Arprt-CA/Yak3/page.html

I think those colors are fairly accurate overall, exterior and interior.

the exterior colors, officially, are AMT-11 (medium gray - slightly bluish perhaps), AMT-12 (dark sea gray - slightly greenish in many renditions), and AMT-7 (medium blue).

As for which paints to use from which manufacturers...

I know Model Master paints make "russian underside blue", but this might be intended to represent the post-WWII underside blue (not sure). Polyscale Russian underside blue might be more accurate. Aeromaster makes russian light and dark gray, but the dark gray might not be green enough.

basically, you are sort of on your own to figure it out if you want it done right.

really the fact is that different plants used different schemes and different colours conserning exterior

It's all done and dusted now - only took an evening after the spray primer had dried. I looked at my paints and based on the info here and in the instructions these are the colours I used - Vallejo Military Green - wheel wells, Vallejo Green Grey - cockpit interior, Xtracolour RLM 76 - undersides, Citadel Ghoul Grey and Ash Waste Grey for the upper surface camou. Ghoul Grey is a medium green/grey and Ash waste is a pale green/grey - the result is similar to the instructions. I'm very pleased with the results for an evening's work - it reminds me of when I was a kid building tons of airfix kits very quickly - only this time I haven't made a mess!

thanks
Mike