I’m finishing the camo on my Hobbyboss 1/48 Ta 152 C-0 “CM-XI” and noticed that the photos of the aircraft showed the underside finish of Licthblau RLM 76 to be lighter and looks more whitish grey than light blue. Does anyone have any comments on what this color is? Also the lower cowling shows scratching that reveals a primer color that looks like grey, any ideas what the base coat or primer color is? Any input would be greatly appreciated !
There is no way to tell the colors from that picture. There are too many factors that could be affecting the coloration. RLM 76 was a light blue-grey color.
There is no way you can honestly interpret the hue and shade based off tthat B&W photo in the link Rich. If you look at the answer that I posted on this same question that you asked on another forum area of this site, you will see more of an explanation.
To my knowledge there is really not much differance between RLM 65 and RLM 76 except that the Reichs Luftfahrt Ministerium 65 was the earlier vairent till the end of 1939 after that 76 was the designator 65 might be a tad bluer than 76 either way both will work
Yeah there is no way of deciphering the colours on that plane. Look at the sky in the background and think of what possible colours it could be and then consider the fuselage. I’d say stick to the RLM 76 for the lower fuselage surfaces. I’m not sure about Ta 152’s but I also believe FW 190 D-9’s were commonly bare metal on the underwing surfaces so there’s another option for you. Not sure but I think primers were generally red oxide.
Ok makes sense I’m going to try lightning it a shade or two , there’s evidedence of a lighter 76 at wars end less cobalt pigment so they say. what about the base coat it doesn’t look like red primer not enough contrast. Could it be the base aluminimum or RLM 63 or 75 grey? This was one of first production of the type maybe it got some specIal attention not afforded its d-9 cousins???
There is some evidence to suggest that a new set of colors was used at the very end of the war to replace the 74/75/76 day-fighter scheme…The “new” colors looked to be a dark green, a brown-violet and a lighter greenish-yellow underside (sometimes with grey patches)…this scheme is commonly seen on very late war 109K’s and 109G-10’s…maybe 190D-9’s as well…the underside color is the most baffling and it varies from a white to a lime-green…
Yes I built a “Bodenplatte” Me-109K a couple years ago. The Aeromaster sheet that I used for markings called that color RLM-84 and suggested RAF Sky as a suitable alternative.
One piece of referance material i have suggests that RLM 84 begain to be used in Feb 45 and that it was a Green/Blue mixed and applied by the ground crews. It gives 3 versions of it all useing RLM 65,76 and 78.
Well at the end of the road I decided to lighten the RLM 76 20% with flat white. It looks closer to the B&W photo of CM-XI but who knows… Next question, How do you upload a image into the conversation?
It’ll be interesting to see what you’ve come up with. By looking at the photos of this bird, I can’t see any variation of 76 anywhere. Only thing that stands out is the metal panels underneath the wing.
Also, the gray/green 76 variation you see late in the war never was official, and thus was never called any RLM number by the RLM or anyone.
I can tell there is a subtle variation you got going. I’ve used Gunze’s sky color in the past and find it looks good as well. That makes for a great contrast between the regular 76 though, and I’ll look at my refs and see if there is indeed a good contrast between two 76s. Usually, just the fuselages were painted in this greener shade, and the rudder and undersides were left the standard 76. I wonder if this was an attempt to green up even farther the luftwaffe’s fighters at the end of the war, with them being more concerned with concealment on the ground vs. actually flying and fighting.
