When did Tamiya TS-22 change colour (re: verde germoglio)

[Matt Bacon]

Hi, all... I was just looking at Jason's lovely Daytona, and his plan for a Verde Germoglio Dino, and that got me thinking about green paint... in particular Tamiya's TS-22 Light green, which I used on my Miura. I hadn't really thought about it, but now I do, it's not quite the colour I expected. This is the www.modelsforsale.com colour swatch for TS22 (the same at anticsonline, for example)

Which I think is a pretty good match for verde germoglio, and is the colour I was expecting to paint the Miura...

This:

is the etamiya sample, and is the colour that I bought and used on the Miura.

They are clearly not the same!

Anyone know when Tamiya changed, and if they reissued the original TS-22 colour under a different number?

bestest,

M.

[Scale-Master]

I think it is more of a case of the swatches not matching online than the paint in the can changing. The printed and online swatches are never going to match the actual paint, especially with metallics and micas.

[scalenut]

I agree with scale-master

if you do a google image search for " tamiya ts22 light green" you will see 5-6 variations on the first page

Edited February 3, 2012 by scalenut

[Matt Bacon]

...sorry, guys, but I don't think it's as simple as that...

If you do the Google Image search, but then look at the results, the "five or six" variations are often NOT TS-22. (eg one of the results is an NZ shop showing TS-52)

There are clearly two different "hexagon with a tail" swatches, used by multiple different stores - the two I pasted are examples. These are provided by Tamiya, for stores to retail their paint. It's not a subjective matter of colour matching with a web palette - these stores have been provided with swatches by Tamiya as a marketing tool for their own product.

So either the paint has actually changed colour, or Tamiya decided that the first swatch was an inaccurate representation of the colour that TS-22 has always been, and replaced it with a new one...

bestest,

M.

[Scale-Master]

I have a several Tamiya catalogs from over the years, many of them have the swatch page, and I have a few "hobby shop" swatch pages too. Different printers make for variances between them for the same colors. They are really just meant to be used as a general guide, not as color chips. I'm not sure it isn't more of a case of different printers producing the catalog, that Tamiya changing the look of the swatch, unless it was to make the difference more visible between the TS-22 and TS-52.

TS-52 is Candy Lime Green, a different color, but unprintable as a swatch that matches the paint.

And it works great over the TS-22 for a killer bright pearl green.

[sjordan2]

Why not just buy it and try it? As I'm sure you're aware, various undercoats could influence the outcome.

[Scale-Master]

My experience with that particular color is that it is pretty stable and dense, undercoat color has little to no effect, white, gray, silver, still looks the same when the color is built up. (But I would not try to apply it over black...) On the other hand much like Skip points out, the Italian Red in that line (TS-8) is highly susceptible to being tinted by the undercoat.

[sjordan2]

It seems to me that no matter how much research you have from online sources, magazines, books, etc., you can never be sure about replicating the actual color of a car without having the 1:1 car in front of you. Internet colors and printed hard-copy colors can be very misleading. For example, there are a zillion different variations of "Bugatti blue," and I'll be darned if it can tell which shade to use on a specific example of my 1935 original Bugatti T59. Another complicating factor is one that I learned from military/battleship builders, which is that reduced scale changes your perception of the color on the model; for example, a model battleship should really have a lighter color paint from the actual original - based on a thread responding to a person who got a perfect match of paint from the battleship - because it appears differently at 1:72 scale.

[Matt Bacon]

The thing is, I've already done what I planned to with that colour:

but the colour I was originally aiming at was this:

...and I found various online references claiming TS-22 as a good match for Lamborghini Verde Miura.

It looks to me as though once upon a time it WAS a good match, but not so much nowadays... What I'm wondering is whether the paint changed colour, or whether the original recommendation was based on swatches which didn't reflect the paint colour accurately...

bestest,

M.

Edited February 3, 2012 by Matt Bacon

[Scale-Master]

Two photos from different cameras and lighting. That really doesn’t prove much as far as the shade of green. The model and the car could be painted from the same exact can, or be even more different than the photos show.

I'd test spray some of the color, see if it looks good enough and tweak it or use it as is. There will be a certain amount of subjectivity in any event. Just make it how you think it should look.

[scalenut]

it could be the lens, light , anything

[jaymcminn]

Matt, I was actually going to try blending the TS-22 with the TS-16 yellow if necessary and shooting it through the airbrush. I should be able to get pretty close. The color on your Lambo may not be true Verde Germoglio, but it's a fantastic color for that car nonetheless!