Touching paint finishes on freewing and flightline Rc planes

[Fragnee]

Why doesn’t Motionrc/freewing/flightline models include small touch up paints in the box or offer to sell them as a spare item. I have over 20 aircraft and really struggle to match colours used at the factory, or could the RAL number be stated in the manuals. I’m sure thousands of us struggle with the same issue ? And would even pay a little extra to have these.

[Alpha]

Fragnee Hi Fragnee, welcome to Hobby Squawk! Yours is a good question that we get asked from time to time. The mains reason why we, and for that matter likely every other major model airplane manufacturer I can think of, does not sell touch up paint for model airplanes are generally as follows:

1) The paint applied at the factory is sprayed with an industrial paint gun. The paint's viscosity is not conducive to modelers painting by brush, and its density prevents it from being shot through typical modeler-sized airbrushes with smaller nozzle apertures and significantly lower output PSI. Thinning the paint is also not ideal, since it is specifically formulated for application by said industrial paint guns. In addition, some of the paints we use are specifically made for application on specially prepped foam and don't make good touch up paint over pre-painted surfaces. Instead, they tend to "glop" on the surface like white glue.

2) Color matching a "modeler-friendly" batch of paint that matches our industrial paint isn't as simple as it sounds. It would also require custom formulation and custom batches, both of which add cost. Beyond the color itself, sheen is another aspect of the paint, which is different when dealing with pigments of different sizes, that we'd need to meticulously match if we were to bill a paint as truly "100% touch up" ready. In short, special formulations would require commissioning an expert team that specializes in transposing the properties of our industrial paint to a modeler-applicable paint.

3) There are dozens of paint colors, all of which would require the steps above.

4) Shipping liquid paint requires different precautions and certifications that what our current factory partners such as Freewing have. Obtaining certifications to bottle and ship paint also adds cost and liability in case of breakage.

5) Paint has a shelf life that is highly dependent on environmental conditions. This makes long term storage of inventory potentially problematic. On the one hand, we'd need to produce large quantities to break even, but on the other hand, paint not used within a certain period will essentially be wasted.

By contrast to these five costly steps above, modern convenient computer-driven color matching at a hardware store can result in close matches in minutes for a few dollars for interested modelers. In general, this approach tends to be a significantly more convenient and less expensive option for all parties involved.


I cannot speak for other manufacturers, but one of the things we've tried to do is to mix and use colors as close as possible to readily available hobby-grade paint sets, such as those from Tamiya and Ammo-by-Mig. As those use cases become more prevalent, we'll call them out publicly, typically here on Hobby Squawk or on our other media sources. One example that comes to mind is our Freewing 80mm Avanti, which uses Tamiya Yellow, or our Freewing 90mm F-4, which uses Ammo-by-Mig's SEA Camo Paint Set for its Medium Green, Light Green, and Tan colors. Those commercially available paints (we sell Tamiya) are fairly close to the model's As Delivered colors.

[Mizer67]

Alpha Kudos for thinking of the touch up painting in such detail.

I would really appreciate you guys calling out the Tamiya (etc.) paint codes more often if/when you can. That would save a lot of trial and error.

[Fragnee]

Thanks Alpha for such a comprehensive and speedy reply, I can see that there is a lot more to consider, and it is not as simple as just popping some paint in a tin, it would be great if the manual suggested touch up matches from model paint manufacturers ie Tamiya or RAL numbers following the plastic kit example, it’s just that we all love the Motion RC/Freewing products and we all want to keep them looking good, each model is an investment and as such all us plane lovers want to show them off in tip top condition thanks for all the hard work but paint/colour guidance in the manuals would be a step up from the competitors.