I’ve had several requests for details on the paint colours used on my Golden Hawk paint scheme.
The gold on the original Golden Hawks wasn’t paint - it was Sheffield Luxor Pale Gold powder from the Sheffield Bronze company mixed in clear lacquer - One pound three ounces of powder per Imperial Gallon of lacquer. The gold powder was dissolved in cellulose nitrate thinner before mixing with the lacquer. Three coats were used. The white on the original Golden Hawks was Dupont Dulux White - DU246-1497. The red was Dupont Dulux Red - DU93-2622R. The blue for some lettering was Dupont Dulux Blue - DU93-24160. All the original paint info is from RCAF drawing 5212 “AEROBATIC MARKING SABRE (F-86) ACFT” revision C6, dated March 1961.
All paints used on my aircraft are from the Dupont AF400 aviation Imron family. The gold is Antique Gold Metallic - P1165 - it was chosen after looking at dozens of colour pictures of the Golden Hawks. The apparent colour of the original aircraft varied quite a bit depending on the lighting, and perhaps on the accuracy of the colour reproduction. Antique Gold seemed to be the best overall match. The white is Matterhorn White - AF402. The red is Flag Red - P1202. The white and red were chosen because they were extremely close matches to the Dupont paint colours on the original RCAF paint scheme drawings.
I hope to have the aircraft on display at the Vintage Wings airshow on 4 July. The plan is that after their Golden Hawk Sabre finishes its flying display, they will park it next to my aircraft. It will be interesting to see how the colours compare when the two aircraft are side by side.