[I/JG27_Waggel]

INTRODUCTION

Colors of the Luftwaffe . . . . . or with long words: Surface protection procedure and coating materials of the Luftwaffe :lol:

I always try to make a skin in historical colors. Searching for the right colors is not very easy. You must consider that a color never can be given back like it really exists.You can make a foto of a historical plane, but the color changes because of:

- Incident light radiation
- Different photo material
- you all have different grafic cards and screens.

RLM70 & RLM71

The color difference between RLM70 and RLM71 is very small. In old black/white photos you get the impression, the machines were painted in only one color. This effect is caused by the poor photo technice in that time. With the beginning of the war most planes, bombers, fighters and destroyers were paintet in RLM 70 and RLM71.

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We can see the the skinned wing of a Bf-109-E. RLM70 is the darker color. It also was used to paint the spinner and propeller blades. In a lot of skins these parts are painted black (Too much Rolling Stones? ;-) ). That is wrong.

RLM71 & RLM02
Coming soon ...

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Between the end of 1940 and early 1941 two new colors were brought into the Luftwaffe. RLM74 dark green and RLM 75 purple grey. These colors were a result of the Battle of france. RLM 70 and RLM 71 was good for big bombers but too dark for the fighter planes of the luftwaffe. RLM 74 and RLM75 became the main colors for fighter planes until the and of 1944. On the foto you can see the FW-190A-8 in the museum in Laatzen. There are two other colors shown: RLM 4 yellow and RLM76 sky blue.

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Here we can see the foto of an Bf-109 "Emil" which belongs to JG77. This plane served on the balkan in 1941. The coating materials on the wing are bleeched by the sun so the contrast between RLM74 and RLM75 ist not so big anymore. This plane original served in JG54. But JG54 gave its "Emils" to JG77 when they got the new Bf-109F-2.

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In this two skinparts you can see wing and frame of a FW-190A-4. On the wing you can see the contrast between RLM74 and RLM75. On the frame you can see the purple grey effect of RLM74 very good.


RLM81 & RLM82 in 1944-45

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This photo shows an original sheet metal of the ME 262 of the German museum with colorcards RLM 81 and RLM82. Already in the middle of the war the scarcity of raw materials in Germany became apparent. Chrome was in short supply. However the chemical industry needed Chromiumoxid and chrome-oxide-green for the production of the coating materials of the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe planed to reduce consumption of chrome by developing new coating materials. Among them RLM81 and RLM 82.

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I took the me 262 as reference. Altogether I had to lighten the colors a little bit.



to be continued ...