Modeling Hack: use War Thunder

In my return to model building, I've been having a good time, but I've also hit some frustrating road blocks, including:

• Items out of stock: I swear, why is everyone buying out the same paint color I need? It's been a bear trying to get interior green for various airplane cockpits. There must be a bajillion new modelers coming into the fold at the same time as me because I figure you experienced guys already have plenty of paint.
• Having to pay for tons of shipping: There aren't that many local hobby shops that sell kits anymore. Hobby Lobby is the closest I got, and while they're surprisingly good at some paints and supplies, the model selection is limited. So I have to buy from out of state or drive across the city.
• Research is trickier than it should be: this is the main driver of today's blog post. I am trying to understand what paints I need and it's turning out to be this weird confluence of historical research, uncertainty, and trying to find paint that's in-stock (see above). 

So about that third point on research. It started with the snap-together Spitfire Mk I kit I mentioned a couple posts back. I just want to know what color to paint the interior and exterior of the airplane, and you'd think that would be simple. But no, it's quite an ordeal. There are many differing opinions on it, and then I learned that in the field during WWII, some airfields were better equipped than others, so it was common for aircrews to just use what was on hand to approximate the colors designated by the air ministry. It turns out that the realistic paint scheme could be one of several, depending on the time of the war, the official specifications, and what teams in the field had to work with. It was really frustrating to spend hours reading messages in forums and books and still not be sure what to do. 

Then I remembered that the guys that built the online game War Thunder were super rivet-counter types and had done a good job recreating aircraft in that game. I popped into the game to try out some aircraft, and there are some excellent examples of paint schemes in there, and they do have examples of many aircraft from all different services. You can see exterior camouflage and then jump into the cockpit on a test flight and see the interior colors and also the details. They even added weathering. 

It's not an exhaustive set of schemes, but I think I do trust the Gaijin guys to have done a lot of research and the colors there are probably pretty accurate and won't embarrass you if you use them as guides. And there is it, in the screenshots below, the interior green used by the Brits.

Eventually, you can find out enough to get started without War Thunder's help. But using WT can save some time if you want a quick reference, in color, right on your PC. And it's free to use.