discussion A useful link for luftwaffe paint codes

[Guest]

Hi, found this earlier, and may be helpful anyone wanting luftwaffe paint codes http://www.rlm.at/download/rlmpdf_e.pdf

Cheers, Andrew

 

[stona]

Okaaaay,we're making models not saving babies and his chart is fine as far as it goes. I always seperate the paint I put on my model from research into the original colours. On a model if it looks good to you then it is good. There is now a lot of information about the finishes applied to Luftwaffe aircraft,some of which has surfaced quite recently.

I would take exception to some comments in his preamble. The official colours did not vary because they were made by various manufacturers (they were all made to formulae supplied by Warnecke and Boehm,the original developers of the "Ikarol" range of aircraft laquers largely adopted by the RLM as early as 1938) nor did they contain "low grade" pigments,to mention but two. Their composition was substantially different but not worse than the paints used on our own aircraft.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Guest]

Thanks Andrew for the references.

Steve I do not understand what you have written. That is the first paragraph the second paragraph being rather academic in terms of model making.

Are you saying there is something wrong with the colours the writer of the article has stated. Or are you saying that it is up to the model maker to adjust the colour to suit the scale of the model. As for instance junking a load of red to black to make it more realistic.

Laurie

 

[stona]

Thanks Andrew for the references.Steve I do not understand what you have written. That is the first paragraph the second paragraph being rather academic in terms of model making.

Are you saying there is something wrong with the colours the writer of the article has stated. Or are you saying that it is up to the model maker to adjust the colour to suit the scale of the model. As for instance junking a load of red to black to make it more realistic.

Laurie

Hi Laurie,

what I was trying to say rather ineptly is that we know a lot more about Luftwaffe camouflage colours and paints than we did twenty five or so years ago when I first became interested in the subject. A lot of hard work was done by a mere handful of individuals sorting through archives and interviewing the ever dwindling number of men who were involved in the manufacture and application of these products.

When I spoke of seperating the "academic" research into paints from model making I meant to say that whilst the research should inform the model making,at least for those more interested in accuracy,there is no point in slavishly trying to reproduce colours from the 1930/40s on scale models. I wouldn't paint the cockpit of a Ta152 in RLM02,I would paint it RLM66 without quibbling about the exact hue of the dark grey/blue colour that I,or anybody else, uses to represent that.

There is nothing "wrong" with the colours that the writer has stated,including those I am unfamiliar with. They all represent RLM colours of the period. How well they do that on a model is rather subjective. If it looks right on the model then that's fine.

I usually use a manufacturers supposedly accurate version of a colour as a starting point but I invariably adjust it,unscientifically,to suit the model. I have a lot of models in standard RLM colours and they all look to have pretty much the same colours on them but not exactly. I definitely think it is up to the model maker to adjust the colours to make his model look more "realistic". This is really an artisitic rather than scientific undertaking which is why someone will always disagree with you

It's also why fads or fashions come and go,pre-shading is still going strong (though not by me) because enough people,including competition judges,deem it to be good, but for how much longer !!

Cheers

Steve

 

[Guest]

Thanks Steve for your time. Very comprehensive indeed.

Some more of your time please.

Interested to see your comments about pre shading. It has not grabbed me when I have seen it. It seems to me that this is committing yourself without any recourse. Although I have tried, on one small model so far weathering with out the use of pre-shading, I take it you still weather your models. Why do you have the aversion to pre-shading ?

Laurie

 

[stona]

Not really pre-shading per se. It just gets overdone. Aircraft very rarely look like patch work quilts! I find post shading much more controllable and adjustable.

Pre shading done well is fine but it often is not.

Steve