RLM again, sorry

[Guest]

I understand what RLM means but is there a standard colour or manufacturer that is considered to be the bench mark?

ie is Humbrol 65 to be considered the best match for the underside or is there anoth paint thats a better or more authentic match? Or is Tamiya xf 23 better? Or Revell 36155 better?

Thanks and sorry for the mini rant.

[BarryW]

I am back to my Vallejo subject!!!!

With these if you take a look at the Vallejo colour charts, the RLM numbers are specified so you can see exactly what is meant to be what.

There is a wide interpretation of the exact shades across manufacturers. Paint fades and weathers and the colour chips they use to base their interpretations will look different. There is simply no perfect answer. Given the weathering effects it is best not to get too hung up over exact colour matches, just use the paints that you get on well with.

Vallejo do some excellent leaflets full of a wealth of information on Luftwaffe RLM colours, RAF and USAAF colours etc. For some reason they are not downloadable on their website. I suggest emailing them and asking if they can send you the leaflets. They are very good at responding.

Contact and location

I have a scan of their brilliant RAF leaflet that I can email to you if you pm me your email address. The RLM one is just as good and would answer all your RLM questions.

[Ian M]

As Barry writes. Vallejo use the RLM codes on their matched paints.

White Ensign do a good range of Enamels that are a good match. Xtracrylix do a series of RLM colours in acrylic paints.

I can say with reasonable certainty that if you pick a colour, RLM 90 and buy one of each of the three above named, they will all be different! Pick the one that you feel happiest with. Both colour and use wise.

If you think the colour is to light, then use that on a 1/72 or 1/48 scale and the darker one on larger scales. They will look about the same.

The other thing you can be sure of is this, If you get to hung up on getting the "right" colour you'll end up off your trolly!!

Ian M

[stona]

Don't beat yourself up about this too much.

Whilst the colours produced by the various German paint manufacturers were quite consistent for most of the war (hardly surprising since they were all working to formulae developed by one company, Warnecke and Bohm) things went a bit pear shaped towards the end.

In any case paint varies according to how it is initially applied,then it weathers depending on the environment and finally,for model makers,there is the effect that scale has on our perception of various colours.

many hobby paint manufacturers make paints well matched to original German chips. Xtracrylix (acrylics) and White Ensign Colourcoats (enamel) are my favourites,but I use them as a starting point.

I honestly believe it is pointless trying to exactly match 1940s paints on small plastic models. Try to find something in the right area that looks right on the model. It is art not science,trying to give the impression of how the full scale subject might have looked.

If you present a model with nice blue underside along the lines of any of the popular hobby equivalents and someone says that it doesn't look like RLM 65 then they are talking out of a place where the sun doesn't shine

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Thanks everyone again. You're all right I'm being too pedantic. It's revell and mix this paint with that paint nonsense. It makes you wonder if you are doing it correctly. I'll just get them built and painted.

[stona]

There's nothing wrong with being pedantic. Study of the original colours can give a good feel for how they can be represented on a model. Knowing what the original colours were is useful. It's just that I don't think we should be beating ourselves up exactly matching these colours on our models. I don't think it looks correct and,yes,I have tried it

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

maybe it helps:

not my "research" although. found it from internet. if there is any interest:I also have RLM charts with federal standard, R/G/B and C/M/Y/K codes.