Opening that 'colours debate' can of worms again.

[Red Dog]

Each paint brand claims to have the correct colour but who is correct when they all appear to be quite different interpretations of the same colour.

Where do they get their samples from? How do they go about then making their versions?

 

I'm not one looking for the exact colour (cos quite frankly that's an impossibility with such things as in the real world there was different manufacturers of the same colours, different recipes due to changes forced because of raw material shortages, differences when mixed or thinned at bases or repair depots, differences in weathering, differences in interpretations because of the type of film used in cameras taking the pics of the subjects, the list goes on) I just want something in the ball park, and when its a two or three camo scheme, colours that look good together when on the model.

 

Below are few of the different interpretations of the same colours from different paint manufacturers

 

Even now shades will be different from their original because of the camera, computer and screen, but you get the gist of how different some colours are.

Apologies for some of the reflections of light especially in the Mr. Paint RLM 02

 

There are three shades of AK's Real Colors Air RLM 81, I have version 1 and 2 which are both in the one square diagonally split. Top Right is V.1 bottom Left is V.3

I use and am happy with Gunze's Mr Hobby Colors including their RLM 74 & 75, for my Luftwaffe aircraft (although I have made my own interpretation of RLM 81 using a 2:1  mix of Gunze H-421 and Tamiya XF-64 which I haven't included on the card but you can see it here below with Gunze's RLM82), but was interested to see what the other manufacturers  interpretations were like.

I suppose you could say I was interested in what I was missing out on.

 

Firstly my mix of RLM 81 with Gunze's RLM 82

 

And the comparison card

 

Comments, thoughts...

 

Cheers

Red Dog

 

[Graham Boak]

Pretty pointless without reference to what they - at least theoretically - should have been.  Anyone of those options could have been in the right ballpark, or miles off.  Indeed in the case of 76 more than one of them could well be a good match, on different aircraft at different times.

[JackG]

You can find differences in paint shades even by those that have studied and published Luftwaffe colour references.   So it stands to reason hobby paint manufactures will reflect this, and sometimes be even more off the the mark.

 https://www.cybermodeler.com/color/rlm_comp2.shtml

 

 

regards,

Jack

 

 

[NorthBayKid]

Colour is, even when using scientific methodology, still very subjective.  I almost never use a model paint directly from the bottle or the tin without modifying it to some degree or other.  I use scale colour effect, but I also tend to modify the actual colour just because you rarely see two airplanes that are the exact same colour.

[keefr22]

I agree with Graham about it being pretty pointless in as much as model paint manufacturers apparently can't get consistency even in the same colour. Case in point, for some reason I have three pots of xtracrylix RAF PRU Blue. They are all different in shade! And the tin of xtracolor enamel I bought just to compare doesn't really match any of them! 

 

But as you so rightly said in your initial post, real life colours are just like that! 

 

Keith