Hi comrades,
I‘m having Italeri‘s Opel Blitz on the bench which should represent a North African scheme. Italeri suggests RLM 79 Sand Yellow as basic colour with blotches of RLM 80 Olive Green.

As I‘m more related to aircraft I‘m wondering why aircraft colours should be used on an army truck and which colours should be correct. After same research I‘m going with Dark Yellow as basic colour but regarding the blotches I‘m in doubt (some kind of green, Panzer Grey ...?).



Hoping that there are any experts out there. Any hint would be highly appreciated.

Cheers
Matty

Hey Matty,

Here's an excellent feature from the Armorama "vaults." The article references Vallejo and Humbrol paints, but it also gives the original RAL color codes which can be cross referenced to just about every other brand of paints.

You'll note in the article that there were two different official "Afrika" schemes depending on dates. Also, not mentioned are the many, many Afrika Korps vehicles that were used in their original, as shipped from Germany, dusty / dirty Panzer gray. Finally, there were many Panzer gray vehicles that were covered in field expiendient "mud slurries" for cammo.

I think that Martin Wilson had one typo with the Vallejo color code for RAL 7027, Sand Grau. He states #997 and I think it should be #987. But the RAL number is correct in either event.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/157&page=2

In regards to why Italeri references RLM instead of RAL colors, I have no idea. Perhaps this is a hold over from the original Opal Blitz instructions which were researched and printed before much of the information on correct RAL colors which is now available. Or maybe, the particular vehicle in the color / decaling instructions was a LW truck, in which case it might have been painted with what ever was available on the flight line. But these are just guesses on my part.

HTH,
Mike

Hi Mike,
Thank you very much for your help!

Your detailed info led me into the right direction - opened the door to the universe of RAL colours (or opened pandora‘s box...).

I learned, that Italeri‘s illu is off and the blotches should be more green-grey in tone.

Cheers
Matty

Another useful site with a list of official German colors with hobby paint matches can be found at http://www.miniatures.de/colour-ral-farben.html

Hi Gerald,
Thanks for the informative link.

The info on the correct RAL codes led me to the following site, which is very useful as well: http://www.jpsmodell.de/main_e.htm

I played around with some paint matches to get an impression - of course on the basis of RGB colours only, taken from some manufacturers colour charts.



Cheers
Matty

I would like to give a small input about RAL8020, because after my investigations through most of all on-market modellers colour producers, only ModelMaster comes close to the real (in my opinion).
I have painted this truck in RAL8020, mixed from german paint company FRICKWORK, according a RAL colour cart from 1942.


I can imagine that this will starts endless discussions but to give you a small background:
In "real Life" I am selling 4x4 trucks. And within the last 20 years I was travelling through the sahara with such vehicles, painted mainly in RAL8000. So I have pictures in differents sahara background sceneries, like this, made 1993 in the Erg Chech (border area between Algeria and Mali), truck is in RAL8000



Now as this time is over, I am coming back to modelling after a 30 years gap.
Actually I am working to re-mix both RAL8020 and RAL8000 with Tamiya paints.
As Master, I am using 1:1 vehicles, painted in this colours.

Hi Erich,
What a cool truck - I‘ve never seen this type before. Is it based on a mass-produced chassis (UNIMOG, IVECO, ...)?

Thank you very much for sharing your picts, interesting experiences and personal background. Sounds like more than a walk on the wild side!

Regarding the RAL colours I came to the conclusion that any RGB colours picked from colour charts from the internet are simply misleading. Photos of real objects (like yours) are giving a much better impression.

Cheers
Matty

Its the new modell from this company: http://www.bremachtrex.com and in this case my personal company demo truck, prepared for military demos.
But I dont like to speak about my job, because I am here for my (de ?)stressing hobby.




In realitiy, I think its more worst than someone believes, because in my opinion the interpretation of 70 years old black/white photos, mainly send you in the wrong direction.
After analizying some of my (only) 20 years old desert pictures with "modellers eyes", I will come to the heretic statement that is nearly impossible to interpretate the real colour of a vehicle from a 70 years old b/w photo if you dont have a coloured one for "translation" or interpretation.
To give you some examples for this, in following some pictures made by myself while a off-road challenge in Hungaria in end of 1988 and some made end of April 1989 in Tunisia, always with the same U404 in RAL8000. All Photos have been made with a 21DIN/100ASA Fuji Film and a standard camera and was scanned some days ago, without any modification by photoshop or whatever.

This photos shows the truck on an sunny european day



This one the same truck in Tunisia, on a heavy cloudy day in April, in the dune area of Douz (south Tunisia)



or compare this



with this one:



Always the same truck, with the same colour

and if you make one photo simply b/w than you get this:



and If I would now tell you, that on basis of this photo, the truck has the colour of RAL7021 dark grey, you must believe it, because you want have a reference to say, I am wrong.

And the next fascinating thing is, that especially RAL 8000 is changing its shade lightly according the landscape background behind the vehicle and the brigthness and "fall in angle" of the sun (= morning, midday, late afternoon, winter/summer time) from a greenish mustard to a dark brown as you can see here:





That the real problem about photos made in the desert....
and dont forget: my ones are "only" 20 years old, made with photo material of the late 80 ties.....

Bye Erich