Hi, and happy new year!

I've been thinking about ordering a bunch of lifecolor acrylics at the same time for a few projects, one of them being a P-39Q from Eduard

Larger pic here.

The instructions are good, with paint numbers given from five manufacturers, but no FS codes (which would be of more help with ordering lifecolor paints than using paint charts with matches to other pain manufacturers' ranges).
I'm going to build the plane in the box art, "devastating devil", and now I'm in need of advice. What paints are used in that camo scheme?

I found several build articles, but the colors seem to vary.
This one looks pretty close to the box art:
http://gustav.x-y.net/htmbox(3)/p-39q(1).html
While this is more like pink...
http://www.inpayne.com/models/p39qpink.html

I've checked the color charts at IPMS stocholm's site, Here, and these colors look like they could be right:
ANA 616 Sand (pretty obvious, the only sand color there)

But of the lower surface color I'm not that sure. The instructions say only light blue, and all paints given are mixed from several shades, and Gunze's match (H338), doesnt seem to have matches in any paint ranges commonly found in Finland. And those few online articles feature different shades for the bottom.
I can't figure out if it's light grey (like on the first article link), or more like a light blue.
That IPMS Stockholm paint chart mentions some colors that could be it.
ANA 609 Azure Blue (used in the african campaign, like the sand, but looks way too dark to me)
43 Neutral Gray (looks like the colors used on the plane from the first linked article, but the chart says this was used in lower surfaces in olive drab schemes)
and finally
M-495 Light Gray (most likely not the one, as the chart says this was used on USN aircraft until 1942, and the marking guide in the kit says the plane's from 1943)

What would be the right paints for this one?

Hi Eetu,

On this particulat P39 {intended for Nth African service}, but found it's way to the PTO region, the cammo is all US Manufactured paints of ANA 616 Sand over ANA 609 Azure Blue.
The Dupont Manufactured ANA 609 Azure Blue is not available in any form of pre mixed tinlets, it can be mixed in this format {taken from the Humbrol Colour System booklet}, cross referenced with Vallejo paints:

39 drops White {Vallejo #951}
12 drops Matt Blue {Vallejo #925}
01 drop Scarlet {Vallejo #817}

The ANA 616 Sand is available in Model Master Acrylics.

Hope this helps.

Okay...
Is the "normal" azure blue this, FS.35231? (lifecolor makes this one as well as that ANA 616 sand)

How did that Dupont-made Azure blue differ from this shade then, is the box art an representation accurate at all? Or this one here? That looks pretty much like the box art to me.
Is there a FS number for this Dupont Azure blue?

Eetu,

I wouldn't get TOO hung up on the color. If it looks close to you (unless you are color blind) you're using the same color matching technique that was in use during WWII. Even in the 1980’s, I had different offices of the same paint vendor, using the same ‘formula’ create paints that were visibly different from each other. Wartime conditions probably didn't make it any easier.

The FS (Federal Standard) system replaced the ANA (Army Navy) system. It did not necessarily re-code all of the ANA and other standard samples into it’s system.

Hi Eetu,

In my hot lil' hands I hold the Smithsonian National Air And Space Museum researcher Dana Bell's book Air Force Colors, Vol. 3 Pacific and the Home Front.

He writes that P-39s and P-40s based on treeless Canton Island were camouflaged to blend with the island coral sand. He wrote the sand and blue camouflage colors are unknown, and could have been US Engineer Corps colors instead of ANA.

He also wrote that ANA 26 Sand's best match as F.S. 595a 30279, noting that ANA 26 is, "...slightly darker and pinker."

I think I got he colors about right. The instructions offer humbrol 121 for the sand, which matches to Vallejo's 819 iraqi sand well enough. And the light blue, the only paint which isn't mixed from several shades in the instructions is gunze's 338. IMPS Stockholm's helpdesk charts say it's FS:36495, which looks good, and it's available from lifecolor too.
I'm off to buy some paints.
Thanks for the help.

FS30279 is Gulf War Desert Pink - Xtracolor X32.

FS36495 is Light Grey Humbrol H147. For blue colours the second digit is a '5'.

ANA 609 Azure Blue is FS35231.