I would like to take some time to review a handy little app to make life a little easier when you need to cross-reference paints and colors.
The iModelKit is an iPhone app that puts over 5ooo color templates organized within 41 sample charts. Six of these charts are standard color references (RLM, FS, ANA, RAL and BS 381c and 4800). The other charts reference specific paint manufactures including hobby, gaming, and artist paints as well as pigments.
Let’s scroll through the color chart section of the app to see what all is there.
Now what do you do with all these templates? Well..you find…or make the color you need. Let’s walk through an example.
Let’s say I need RLM 02. I just go to the RLM template and select RLM 02:
As You can see, the app shows me a color chip and recommends the appropriate bottle of paint for each manufacture. I will say this is where the apps biggest weakness lies. Looking at just the RLM 02 sample it’s clear the colors are all over the board. Some of this has to do with the chips from the manufactures reference. I can tell you the Gunze RLM 02 bottle in my hand looks nothing like the H70 chip provided here; it’s much closer to the color at the top.
Let’s say you want to use Tamiya paints. Tamiya doesn’t offer many specific standard matches (including RLM 02) so you will need to mix. So click on the “Paint Mixer” tab at the bottom of the page. You will get a screen like the one below. Here you will click into the square that I have pictured with RLM o2 in it already. This will bring you to the sample list and you can pick a standard color to match, or if say you need to match another manufactures color, you can pick one accordingly. You can match any of the over 5000 colors on the app using any combination of the others.
The next step is to match the sample color by “mixing” up to three paints. For the example I used Tamiya colors XF-22, XF-49, and XF-1). Note the match isn’t 100% identical, but I feel it’s well within the range of acceptability given the various factors that would effect real world color variation as well as any variations imparted by weathering.
The other neat feature of the app has nothing to do with paint, and that’s a scale conversion calculator. This one is pretty self explanatory.
The app allows you to pick what shape you want to convert:
For a quick example I used the rod setting. I kept the math simple to show a 1/32 conversion. As you can see if you need a scale 32 foot rod with a 16 foot diameter it would be a foot long with a half foot diameter. (duh). The app allows you to choose your unit of measure as well. So if you’re European, or more inclined to use a logical unit, millimeters and centimeters are a click away.
In conclusion, I think this is a dandy app to help make the builders life a little easier. I will add one disclaimer though. As expected, color samples are going to vary across electronic devices. Color match can be a big point of contention amongst modelers. Clearly, this app will not appeal to everyone. There are also never-ending debates about the accuracy of certain manufactures colors and how they compare to what the experts consider to be correct matches. Model Master’s RLM line comes to mind, but that discussion is beyond the scope of this review.
iModelKit app unfortunately is only available for iPhone at the time being. You can find it HERE
Special thanks to my wallet for providing the iPhone used to review this app and my neighbors for not password protecting their WiFi.
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