New to scale modeling and picked up the old Tamiya Panzer II Ausf. F/G kit over the weekend. I was planning on painting this in the Afrika Corps. scheme (no camo) but seem to be a tad confused. According to my research Dunkelgelb would be an appropriate color for this and using Vallejo's reference guide they list 71.025 as the color choice. This seems to be really dark compared to any reference pics I can find online. Watched a YouTube video of someone painting the same model and used Tamiya XF-59 which cross references to Vallejo MC 70.913 which seems to be more accurate. I guess I am just wondering why it seems when you look up paint colors from most of the manufactures they tend to be way darker than reference pictures. Is this due to just fading of paint from the elements or are these color reference sheets just off a bit and you just have to go with what looks right?

There are specific colors for DAK, no Dunkelgelb
1941/42:
2/3 RAL 8000 and 1/3 RAL7008 (Vallejo 71272 and 71116 respectively)
1942/43:
2/3 RAL 8020 and 1/3 RAL7027 (Vallejo 71117 and 71118)

There are also new Tamiya colors for RAL8000 and 8020: XF-92 and XF-93.

Regards!

Thank you very much for the reply.