I found this on the IPMS web site.

The plastic modellers have invested a lot of time trying to get their models to look historically correct so I'm happy to take their lead on getting the right look for my historical miniatures even if they cannot spell colours.

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Real colors and scale effect
Federal Standard codes given in the charts refer most often to the shade of the original color. Original color shades used on a small scale model will make it appear to dark, and have too much contrast. This phenomenon is commonly known as scale effect on color.

To avoid this, the shades should be lightened by mixing in a certain amount of white. Ian Huntley, a well-recognised authority within aero colors, arrived at the following guidelines (published in Scale Aircraft Modelling vol 5 nr 10):

Scale Add % of white
1/32 .............. 7%
1/48 ..............10%
1/72 ..............15%
1/144 ............23%


The web address is
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/s...scaleeffect.htm

Thanks Ty. I'm in the process of working out my ultra-realistic paint scheme for my valhallans and was wondering how to counter scale effect effectively.

Thanks mate - that sort of thing is actually really important to armour modellers.

I don't suppose you've found a colour to match the original German panzer yellow yet?

Mate are you related to the Matisse Management, they have asked me for the colour stds as well for their next 48 colours.

Here is one web site I have found.

http://www.miniatures.de/html/int/colour-r...ral-farben.html

Here is another one.

http://www.mcdowall.dsl.pipex.com/paint.htm

I hope it helps

Sorry, it's actually a late-war Panzer-modellers' in-joke. (how's that for obscure humour?)

You see, despite being one of the most common colours for Wehrmacht and SS armour, it seems that no paint chips of dunkelgelb (dark yellow) have survived. Armour modellers, being the anal bunch that we are, have squabbled and fought over what shade is truly accurate ever since...

[quote=Lachy]Sorry, it's actually a late-war Panzer-modellers' in-joke. (how's that for obscure humour?)

You see, despite being one of the most common colours for Wehrmacht and SS armour, it seems that no paint chips of dunkelgelb (dark yellow) have survived. Armour modellers, being the anal bunch that we are, have squabbled and fought over what shade is truly accurate ever since...[/quote]

I laughed out loud when I read your comment.

It isn't so much the paint chip but more that the paint was issued as a paste and the troops could dilute it for use with whatever was handy, petrol, water, etc. This means that no two panzers ever seemed to be the same shade of yellow...

and yes military modellers are anal about this sort of stuff. 'Hang on! that's the wrong shade of pink on the piping on that model's shoulder straps!'


R

[quote]the paint was issued as a paste and the troops could dilute it for use with whatever was handy, petrol, water, etc.[/quote]

Same as with dunkelgrun and rotbraun - although the problems here are more along the lines of how to replicate the method of applying the paint, which varied from sprayguns to rags soaked in paint to simply using a broom.

http://www.brushthralls.com/WinterCamo/

Don't know how historically correct it is, but it looks cool, and he mentions that he is trying to replicate that look.

Actually I upset some plastic kit modellers early this year when they were talking about paint specifications for tanks. I said...

"Hey Mac, the shermans are a shade too light, I'll put them hold until the Quality inspectors decide whether to respray them.... Mean while back at the front..."

At Stalingrad the T34 were arriving unpainted, the survival rate was so low and the Russians so desparate that an unpainted tank was still at tank and that is what mattered.

In regards to Germany, supplies became so short, and infrequent they made do with what ever was at hand.

Thanks for the wake up call, looking at all these standards was starting to make me think like a plastic kit modeller.

(Only joking, cousin, only joking!)

Is that "colour scale effect" been taken into consideration with companies such as GW, Dirivin, Matisse, Tamiya etc etc seeing as their paints will all be used on small scale models?

It's more for trying to replicate precise historical colours - a pot of paint that's exactly the same colour as russian uniform green (made-up colour... I know nothing about historical colour schemes ) will look strange when it's applied to a small figure.

GW don't have any historical colours in their range, as they've been designed just to give a good range of colours for designing your own colour schemes - most people will just paint whatever looks right to them.

I think that some of the others (Tamiya etc) probably opt for "original" tints to their historical colours, as the paints are designed for use on anything from a 72mm figure to a 1/144 scale warship.

From what I can see some colours are matched to
US Federal standard 595, others to
RAL (German vehicles)
RLM (German aircraft WWII)
BS (British)

etc

The colour matching is to the paint chip on the standard and does not take into account the scale effect.

Please also bear in mind historical records are not always plentiful and matchings may not be completely accurate. Also in times of war, close enough for paint is often good enough.

Finally once a vehicle has been in battle and out in the elements, the colours will fade and weather.

However the paint will be matched to the standard.

I understand that olive drab was wrong on the FS595A and was later corrected for the FS595B. I didn't mean a lot to me when I read it, but on the forum I was reading it on, it seemed to matter alot.

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For me the nature of different pigments is more important because then I will know what will have better coverage and what will do better with a white undercoat. 3 years ago this would not have interested me at all, but now it helps me decide my undercoat.

regards