Best German Red Brown?

[Whitewolf]

A quick question for all those German AFV builders. I am curious, in your experience/opinion which is the best/most accurate Red Brown paint out there? Of the two i currently have, the Tamiya offering is very Brown, and the Migammo version has a clear degree of Red in it? the vehicle I'm painting is  a King Tiger of Pzbt 505 in Poland late in the war. Many thanks!

[Black Knight]

I like the Humbrol 160

Used on this;

[Orso]

Tamiya has two different Red Brown's.  The XF-64 Red Brown and a recently released a XF-90 Red Brown 2.

How are the new German paints vs. original?

[Stef N.]

4 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I like the Humbrol 160

Used on this;

It's a question you'll get many different answers but I used recently Tamiya NATO Brown, which looks very near this Humbrol Brown.

 

XF-79 Linoleum Deck Brown has been recommended too. I would have used this if I had remembered to buy some.

 

Page 4 of this thread shows it off.

 

 

[Whitewolf]

I think a lot depends on the camo scheme, in the case of Dark Yellow with Red Brown, the Red Brown is far more prominent than in smaller quantities on othe schemes. I think the Migammo version is pretty good

[KRK4m]

Being faithful to Humbrol for over 50 years I must say, that IMHO H160 is too dark - it contrasts too much with the yellow background.

I personally use H186 - here you have it on the Hetzer in a typical tricolor

and on the Panther (only on the barrel and the number fields on the tower).

Cheers

Michael

Edited September 3, 2022 by KRK4m

[Kingsman]

The paint paste could be thinned with water, petrol or kerosene to make liquid paint and it was up to individual crews to apply it for most of the war.  The colour and especially the density varied according to the thinning medium and ratio, and whether the paint was spayed or brushed on.  So there is no "best" colour and probably no truly "accurate" colour either.  Consistency only arrived with the factory-applied camouflage mandated later in the war. MNH-built Panthers' striped camo, for example.  But there the red brown was applied directly over red primer, not dunkelgelb, which would have influenced the visible shade.

 

Doubtless others will disagree.  German colours will be argued-over until Hell freezes over.  And then we'll start again.......

 

The one thing I would say is that the colour was red-brown, not brown.  Differences in thinning would not make it brown.  So whatever you choose needs to have a reddish hue.  It is alleged that very late in the war the colour changed to something more like the early war Schokobraun, a darker and less red brown.  But the evidence for this seems thin.

[StuartH]

I've used Lifecolor UA 205  RAL 8017 German Panzer Rotbraun and it looks ok  to me.