"1940 Italian Air force colors in the desert" Topic

I have 3D printed in resin a model of a C.200 Saetta and plan on using craft paints on the models. Are there any TMPers who can recommend colors to use? I plan on getting decals from I94 enterprises. The airplanes are 1/144 scale and anyone who knows of any additional sources for decals links would be much appreciated. There are loads of color pictures on the internet but the actual color photos I have found of actual planes have left a lot to be desired.

Let me advocate for a notion that gets a good deal less consideration than we gamers should extend to it.

Who cares?

Really, who cares? If you are making a good faith effort to try to get close to pretty much any color you see suggested on a drawing or depicted in a contemporary picture, you're fine.

Remember, the paints actually used were formulated from a color spec, by one of probably several paint factories, during wartime, with materials shortages, then shipped to factories to be probably thinned, then applied to aircraft, or shipped to forward airfields to be applied.

Once applied, the paint jobs are subjected to the elements. In the desert. This includes bleaching sunlight, grit that batters the aircraft like sand blasting, and dust that gets onto and into everything and can never be completely eradicated.

Do a paint job that approximates the available info, but which, most importantly, appeals to your personal aesthetic. If the paint job pleases you, smile and move on to paint something else.

Don't sweat the little stuff. In the end you'll find,…
It's all little stuff.

This is what I bought and built:

Sweet 1/144 Macchi C.200 Tropical #14106
link

There is a photo of the decal sheet showing the two camo schemes.

Base with a desert yellow then use a green or brown fine tip pen for the camo. Fast and easy!

IPMS Stockholm color reference charts here: link

If you click on the Federal Standard (FS) number it will display a color sample.

Pens sound great in theory, but one Vietnam era Mig I painted had its green paint fade rather quickly from UV light (normal sunlight), so try to make sure you can find a UV stable one, or store the minis in the dark, if using a pen for camo schemes.

I wish you could get those Sweet Model decals without the rest of the kit. That is exactly the sort of decal set I am looking for. So far it looks like I 94 enterprises is my best bet. If someone knows another source for WW2 Italian decals please chime in. Thank you for the comments so far.

I did some Italians recently and found this site pretty good:

link

I've used Lifecolor paints for my 1/300 Italian aircraft.
link

The only other 1/144 decals I know of are for a Fiat G.50
link

Also of use is this page with details of the colours used.
link

I've generally taken advantage of the modeling industry's obsessively color-matched paints to paint my US, UK, German and Japanese warplanes, but the Italians are not as well supported.

After some study I decided my Italian planes should have either a more-yellowish tan base or a darker tan base; then I settled on paints that are available in matching spray can and bottle formats (because I don't use an airbrush).

For the yellowish tan I decided to use Army Painter Desert Yellow.

Unfortunately, the Testors "Dark Tan" I settled on for the (obviously) dark tan is now discontinued, so once that's gone my future Italian planes will be a different color. Considering the difficulties Italy had creating and distributing specified cammo colors, I don't think this will be all that big a deal. It will just be a PITA to find matching spray/bottle paints again. <grump>

For the green and brown used to create the cammo pattern over the tan, I think any olive green and red brown will do (especially in 1/200 scale). I have plenty of each around in my paint collection already.

- Ix

I remember reading somewhere that the Italian paint was of notoriously poor quality, and tended to chip. Depending on how anal you want to be about it, adding bear metal patches (where the paint was applied over metal) would be realistic. The chipping problem does not, of course, apply where the paint was applied over fabric (i.e. C.R. 42)