The Commander Series Forum

After looking at the film I linked to in the links section I'm not so sure of a color to use as German dark yellow. In the film it looks much lighter then what I normally use. In the linked picture I have base coated 3 vehicles. The left one is Vallejo middlestone, the middle one is Vallejo iraqui sand and the right one is Vallejo buff. I've always used middlestone but it looks too dark and green compared to the vehicles in the film. What do you all think and what do you use?
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff479/machi...

I went for a far yellower Desert Yellow from the Coat D'Arms range which is then given a light grey drybrush (to bring out the detail) and varnished with a matt varnish (which darkens the yellow). It certainly looks good on my 6mm tanks. This website that looks at the paints used on various nations tanks might be of use http://www.miniatures.de/colour-ral-farben.html.

Cheers

Richard

I think that part of the problem is that the Vallejo (and Tamiya) colours are intended for use on 1/35th scale models so the colour density is 'right' for 1/35th, too light for bigger scales and too dark for smaller ones. Also you appear to use a black undercoat which will give a darker tone to a model. Real AFVs would have had their 'dark yellow' painted over red oxide primer which is much lighter in tone than black.

Perhaps try washes over light grey or white undercoat - with washes start thin/pale and then you can just add another layer if the colur is too light until it looks right to you.

The film demonstrates the variety of shades of dunkelgelb that could be seen. Also what has to be considered is the lighting conditions at the time, it looks quite dusty in the film, the quality of the film and how it had been affected or degraded over the last 60+ years. What all these means is any one of your 3 options could be accurate and really the choice is what you feel happiest with. Of the 3 the centre one is closest to my choice which is Butter Pecan craft paint over a grey undercoat. I then paint the camo if required, black wash then a final highlight with a lighter sand paint.

The Dunkelgelb paint was supplied to units and could be thinned with water, petrol etc for painting onto the relevant AFV.

Now to bore you all completely 'yellow' paints are broadly quite transparent and often require a specific undercoat to achieve the correct colour. ( I work as a modelmaker and use professional spray paints all the time and yellow is one of the worst colours to work with!). It also fades horribly in sunlight which is one reason you do not see many yellow cars on the road.

So with the above in mind the colours applied directly to 'Panzer Grey', Red oxide or dark green will look very different given exactly the same mix of paint.

Now add in different densities of mix, whether applied by brush, rag or spray gun, as well as fading by sun and the elements and you have an almost endless mix of possible 'shades' of the colour.

And that is just for a full size vehicle. Now you have to scale down the colour, which would be different for a 6mm one compared to a 20mm one. The smaller the model the less saturated the colour should be. As an example look at a car from say 10 feet away, and then compare the look at 100 feet and you will really notice the difference.

If you haven't lost the will to live by now, I hope the above makes sense!

excellent points SteveJ

i found this page which has a free scale color calculator
http://www.paintassistant.com/scalelighting.htm...

Thanks for the input everyone. I've decided to go with the buff color with a brown wash to tone it down a bit.

SteveJ has said it all, you can never get two people, or two "authorities" to agree on the exact shade, so go with what looks right to you.

2 of the armored cars with buff as dunkelgelb.
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff479/machi...
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff479/machi...

Looks pretty good!

Looks good to me, too. Very tasty

Just in case you want to visit RAL:
https://www.ral-farben.de/uebersicht-ral-classi...

Dunkelgelb - RAL 7028 was deleted years ago.
Olivgrün RAL 6003 and Rotbraun RAL 8017 are still valid offical color codes.

Also the DAK colours Gruenbraun RAL 8000 and Khakigrau RAL 7008.

You may order an official set of German standard paint chips if you want it