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German RAL 7028 armor color

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  • Member since
    February 2013
  • From: Wichita, Kansas, USA
German RAL 7028 armor color
Posted by Recon89 on Sunday, May 10, 2015 4:02 PM

I want to paint my Sd. Kfz.184 Elefant using the RAL 7028 color, but the Model Master Dunkelgelb enamel that I got seems too green for the colors that I have seen. It's not the dark yellow I had in mind. Is this really the correct color in Model Master? If not, what Model Master enamel colors could I use to achieve the 7028? (Mainly because I have mostly Model Master paints and that's what the local shop carries).

  • Member since
    April 2006
  • From: ON, Canada
Posted by jgeratic on Sunday, May 10, 2015 6:31 PM

In recent years, it has been suggested to use their Afrika Khakibraun RAL 7008 with some white added.  It's not perfect, but is much better than their own brand of Dunkelgelb.

regards,

Jack

  • Member since
    January 2007
Posted by the doog on Monday, May 11, 2015 6:54 AM

You'd be much better served using Tamiya Dark Yellow with about 30-40% White added. BTW, in German armor, there is no "correct color", anywhere. Al you can hope to do is get a ballpark idea and approximate what generally appears to be the "correct" color. The ideal in Dark Yellow is really a rather pale tan, Any Dunklegelb paint from any manufacturer has to be cut with white to get a "correct" ballpark shade, They're ALL too dark straight out of the can,

  • Member since
    February 2013
  • From: Wichita, Kansas, USA
Posted by Recon89 on Monday, May 11, 2015 7:40 AM

Thanks everyone. Doog you are right, with various paints being mixed and applied in the field there are many variations.

  • Member since
    April 2006
  • From: ON, Canada
Posted by jgeratic on Monday, May 11, 2015 9:50 AM

Recon89

... various paints being mixed and applied in the field there are many variations.

Well yes and no. Dunkelgelb was a factory applied colour made official in Feb. '43.  There might have been an official change to it's look when it was given the RAL number 7028, as prior to that the shade being used was the same as that applied to farm machinery. 

Main reason various shades can be found is due to the fact there was more than one paint manufacturer, and later in the war, pigments could and would become scarce. 

About ten years ago, Tomas Chory published a book Wehrmacht Heer Camouflage Colors 1939 - 1945, and among his colour chips he provides four examples for dark yellow plus Dunkelgelb nach Muster (the farm machinery paint).  I'd post a link, but even on the internet you can find a variety from just that one scanned page - so I don't know which of the googled images is the most accurate (in terms of his book). 

regards,

Jack

  • Member since
    January 2007
Posted by the doog on Monday, May 11, 2015 11:42 AM

jgeratic

Recon89

... various paints being mixed and applied in the field there are many variations.

Well yes and no. Dunkelgelb was a factory applied colour made official in Feb. '43.  There might have been an official change to it's look when it was given the RAL number 7028, as prior to that the shade being used was the same as that applied to farm machinery. 

Main reason various shades can be found is due to the fact there was more than one paint manufacturer, and later in the war, pigments could and would become scarce. 

About ten years ago, Tomas Chory published a book Wehrmacht Heer Camouflage Colors 1939 - 1945, and among his colour chips he provides four examples for dark yellow plus Dunkelgelb nach Muster (the farm machinery paint).  I'd post a link, but even on the internet you can find a variety from just that one scanned page - so I don't know which of the googled images is the most accurate (in terms of his book). 

regards,

Jack

Jack, you bring up relevant points for discussion.

First, is monitor calibration. Though I"m not sure how much stock I place in this variable, some say that different monitors are calibrated differently, so any one given image may look different than the same image viewed on another screen.

But there's also printer variance--has the printer of an image in a book gotten it correct? Photographic "evidence" can't be trusted from the era because of the tendency of colors to fade and decay. And  the other points you bring up are all well-considered Heck, just the fact that two different manufacturers TODAY can get different tones in the tint of any given color is proof of how far off any manufacturer can be, at any time..

Then there is "scale effect" which dictates that any color seen close up in a small swatch will undeniably look lighter on a large surface like a tank.

My opinion is that you can only go so far in saying that a certain paint manufacturer has the "correct" color. The best thing to learn to do is to learn how to mix paints and get the shade you want for THAT MODEL on that particular day. "Ballpark" tints are goog enough to say that the shade you depict is "in the balpark": fo any given day in that model's fictional "life".

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