Fluorescent/Dayglo Colours

[Hunter Gatherer]

There was a comment by 'The Rat' on 'Wooksta's' TSR2 testbed about painting Fluorescent/Dayglo orange.

I use it now and again as I build a modern German aircraft and as y'all know dayglo orange (Leuchtorange) figuresquite highly on their paint pallatte.

This is a stupidly long process, but a well painted dayglo does turn heads, whether your building WhIf or a 'straight'. Anyhoos here's how I paint it:

1  Spray model with a fairly solid white undercoat: I use Halfords Acryllic car primer or Tamiya Acryllic aerosol straight from the rattle-can on 1:48 models. Humbrol enamel or Tamiya acryllic through my trusty Aztec on 1:72 stuff. Give the acyllics at least twelve hours to dry - the enamels will need a minimum of thirty-six hours.

2  Thoroughly - and I DO mean thouroughly mix your favourite dayglo colour, I use Xtracolours RAL Leuchtorange, sorry I cannot recall the number. Then thin it with the best thinners you can buy - this is no time for being cheap.

3  Spray two or three (or more) thin coats of dayglo as required, build up the colour slowly and at low pressure, gradually build-up the depth of colour. DON'T repeat DON'T try do this in one pass, the nature of the paint is such that it will 'pool'

4  Leave it for at least forty-eight hours to harden - don't be tempted to go anywhere near it - trust me on this !

5  Seel the colour in with a coat of your favourite gloss varnish sprayed at medium pressure. Wait a till it dries and repeat !

6  Wait.... and wait.... and wait some more. When the gloss varnish has become 'bulletproof' mask the edges of the dayglo areas with a 'low-tack' masking tape and fill-in the remain with maskol and paint/finish your model in the usual way.

7  Be VERY slow and carefull when removing the masking - don't be tempted to rip it away.

8  Stand back and admire !

Good luck

Ian

[The Rat]

Filed for future reference, thank you!

[Radish]

I'll bare that in mind for my flourescent pink F-16  

[Leigh]

Not a hijack but is USAF international Orange the same colour as Day-glo Orange?

[Mike Wren]

Not a hijack but is USAF international Orange the same colour as Day-glo Orange?

I was under the impression (could be completely wrong though) that 'International Orange' was actually just bog standard USAF 'red', & not in any way day-glo or orange

[Leigh]

Well the Testors enamel Int. Orange i used on my skyraider is very orange. Dunno if you'd call it day-glo tho.

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Guys

US Navy has a colour that could be described as 'day-glo' - Can't recall the FS number but it was called 'Fluorescent Red Orange' used for a while in the early sixties on Arctic/Antarctic based aircraft and as an overall colour on Rescue helos based stateside (UH-1's, H-34's etc). It was also used for the bands over the wings and on the fins of Drone Director aircraft from F6F's and B-26's all the way to F-8's and DC-130's.

NOT to be confused with International Orange, used on training/second line aircraft.

HTH

Ian