Pale yellow-green WWII Luftwaffe coler?

First of all, welcome to the forum.
The color is a much-debated late war paint, perhaps made by mixing available paint stocks. There is a blue-green, sometimes referred to as "RLM 84." This shade is available from Color of Eagles. I have a Bf 109K-4 that has the fuselage sides painted with this color. I'll edit this post to include a pic.

The fuselage sides are painted Color of Eagles acrylic "RLM 84."


The other debated color is more of a "buff" shade. I know of no manufacturer that produces a "match" for this.

These colors may have been mixed from RLM 76, 65, 70, & 02. RLM records show no standards, nor even list an RLM "84."

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the info, very nice model! The photos of the aircraft in Germany included at least one Bf 109 K in 75/83/76, another Bf 109 had camo in colors like your 109 K-4 model! Matrixone

I think that the color you describe as "light greenish/yellow" is one of the late war sky colors as described by Kenneth A. Merrick & Thomas H. Hitchcock on page 41of their "Official Monogram Painting Guide To German Aircraft 1935-1945". There is a greenish-blueish-yellowish color chip, among others, that they call Green-Blue (Grunblau). There is no RLM number assigned to this shade and here is what they say about it:

"During the last months of the war, the Luftwaffe began to employ a new series of sky colors.....The aircraft from which these samples were obtained were varied, but all were operational during the last months of the war. Some sources dismiss these colors as oxidized or chemically altered Light Blue 65 or 76. Thorough analysis of our genuine samples conclusively rules this explanation invalid. Could these colors have been local mixes....? The possibility exists, but the frequency with which the colors have been recorded would rule against this explanation. Therefore, pending official confirmation, we are left with the conclusion that these so-called sky colors were quite intentionally employed by the industry and were quite distinct from previous under-surface colors."

I don't think that you will find a model paint in Green-Blue. My Mark 1 Eyeball tells me that it is close to FS 34583 with Green-Blue being slightly paler. Another possibility would be the IJAAF Pale Gray-Green used on the undersides of many Japanese Army aircraft. Tamiya makes this color as J.A. Grey XF-14. Again, Green-Blue is paler.

I hope this is of some help and doesn't just confuse the issue.

Pete

matrixone - I can't help you with the color you are looking for, as I am just learning about Luftwaffe paint colors myself, but I would really like to have a good reference book for them. Could you tell us the names of the books you mentioned?

Pete - For the same reason, do you know where or how I can obtain a copy of the Monogram Painting Guide?

thanks

stinger

stinger - Unless you can find a used copy somewhere, I doubt that you will be able to obtain the Luftwaffe Painting Guide. It is long out of print. I bought mine during an advance sale, directly from Monogram Publications, in 1981 for about $30 and had to wait almost a year to receive my copy. I also bought their U.S. Air Force, all four U.S. Navy, and Japanese Interior painting guides. They are all hard cover with lots of large lacquer color chips (except Japanese interiors - printed color chips). Although expensive, I consider each to be worth their weight in gold. If you are serious about modeling in accurate color, here is the Monogram Publications web site:

http://www.monogramaviation.com/index.html

Pete

Pete - Thanks for the info, and yes, I am serious about color accuracy. I just painted a Dornier Do17Z in RLM 70 and 71 with 'toned down' paints from AirCraft Colors (old AeroGloss from what I understand). I was disappointed in the final look. I'm working on a BV 141 right now and will use a different brand of paint this time, but I haven't settled yet on just which brand. Any advice on brands of paint that are most accurate? This question goes out to all of you.

Thanks again - stinger

stinger - I've used both Testors and PolyScale for Luftwaffe colors. I think that the PolyScale is more accurate but usually have to adjust the color slightly by adding whatever is needed to achieve an accurate match to the color chips. Since I build 1/72 aircraft, I then add about 7-10% white for "scale effect". For white, if the area to be painted is large enough (nose, rudder, wing tips), I add a little gray to tone down the stark contrast.

Because the original paints were made by various manufacturers in different batches and suffered from weathering and fading; there were always slight differences in these shades. Using your Mark 1 Eyeball to achieve a close match is good enough.

Pete