I just sprayed Tamiya Dark Yellow (1:1 mixed with Tamiya thinner) on a 1/35 Hetzer as per the instruction manual. To me, it looks lighter and more yellowish than the Dunkelgelb color that I've seen in color photos.

If you use Tamiya acrylics, do you use Dark Yellow or your own mix for late WWII German AFVs?

Not to hijack your post but I just don't understand the issue with German Dark Yellow. I tried Vallejo's German Dark Yellow and it came out way too green. I was thinking about repainting it in Tamiya Dark Yellow but I think I will wait for the comments on this post since now you seem to have issues.

Cheers

Chrisk;

Huh. I always add a little deck tan or very light gray or buff to my Tamiya dark yellow so as to get it a bit lighter!

There are mighty few good and well-balanced color pics from WWII showing the dunkelgelb in place - more chances, I think, of seeing what the color looked like by finding pics on various sites of relict equipment and such. There has been considerable discussion of these WWII RAL "standard" colors on this and other modeling sites over years - and folks have "stood" on "paint chips", "Here's the official RAL standard", "color photos", "my personal relics on my shelf", "in defense of various model-paint brands and makers"; all sometimes with what seems to me didactic fervency and conviction. Our collective interest in historical accuracy is admirable, but seems fraught with contention and assertion without much compelling support (IMHO), and gets further complicated by issues around possible "scale effects". The one thing seems totally certain, to me, is that there was actually a fair range of shades and tints of "dunkelgelb" - manufacturers apparently differed, and the recipe may have varied over time-of-use, and different manufacturer's paints doubtless aged and behaved differently when on the vehicle.

So... Me? I lighten the stuff! Others may go for Tamiya straight from the bottle, added colors, or other brands. To large extent, I have to suggest going with what pleases YOU.

Cheers!

Bob

Not really,I actually lighten my XF-60 in order for it not to get to dark from filtering and weathering

Chris

If anything, I think Tamiya Dark Yellow is too dark. I normally thin mine with lacquer thinner, and use straight thinned DY for the first coat. This is followed by a 50:50 mix of DY and buff as the second coat, covering slightly less area in each coat, then straight buff for highlights and in the middle of each panel for the third coat. Each coat is light.

I would not recommend trusting the colours shown in colour pics of vehicles from WW2, as there are too many factors which can affect the accurate rendition of colours. Even two absolutely identical vehicles, seen under different light sources, will appear as different colours.

Have fun.

Regards

Rob

I've found a reason why it looked very light. I recently bought a compact fluorescent lamp for my painting desk. It indeed makes XF-60 look very light! It also makes Tamiya Nato Green look very light.

Under normal lighting conditions, XF-60 actually looks very dark. I'll spray a light coat of tan or buff.

Perhaps, I should go back to an incandescent lamp for painting.

I use XF 59 desert yellow and XF 60 in about equal amounts and then lighten it up with deck tan quite a bit ..

Rick

Yeah, artificial lighting can do stuff like that to our eyes. I've made it a habit to look at things in natural sunlight if I'm uncertain of how the color came out. Tamiya's Dunklegelb is a pretty good color to start with and looks pretty spot on when weathered or misted with Buff.

On the contrary, for 1/35 I think its far too dark.

I lighten mine with about 40% deck tan for a more in scale appearance. Used straight from the jar especially with tri-colour schemes, it just looks 'wrong'.

Gary

Don't go back to incandescent bulbs, just look around for "daylight balanced" CFLs. They're pretty easy to find if you know to look for them.

An inexpensive swing arm desk lamp with a daylight balanced CFL bulb works as well as a very expensive OTT light. The CFL's will save you a lot on your electricity bill and are much cooler to boot.

In regards to the issue with the Tamiya Dart Yellow, I agree with most of the other posters - it actually needs to be lightened up to allow for follow on weathering and to counter the effects of scale lighting. Personally, I'm using a mix with Tamiya Deck Tan to lighten up the Dark Yellow, but there are other good options, as mentioned already.

HTH,

What about Mr Hobby H 403 ?