I’m doing one of Revell’s 1/48 JU-87D Stukas. The instructions call for a “light blue” on the bottom. In my paint drawer I have Model Master #65 “hellblau” and 76 “lichtblau”. Which one would be appropriate for this aircraft?
BTW - I’ve kinda figured out that “lichtblau” is probably German for light blue. What is “hellblau”?
THanks!
John
I would go with rlm 65 light blue on your D model rlm 76 was usely used on nightfighters.
[dto:] on the RLM 65. I think 76 may have also been used on late war day figthers, but never on JU 87’s as far as i know.
Hellblau also translates to light blue. But RLM 76 has a touch of gray to it while RLM 65 does not. RLM 65 was more common on bombers and attack aircraft after 1940. From 1941 on, RLM 76 was the main underside color on fighters.
Yepper… Standing alone and transliterating (vs translating), “Hell” translates to “bright” and Licht" means “light”, but when used with a color, they mean the same thing…
Thanks for the German lessons and suggestions!
Thanks for that refresher Hans. My German is very rusty these days from lack of use. I could not recall the difference between the two, only that when used with a color the literal translation was “light”.
Nicht ein Problem, Herr Stik… Meine Frau ist ein deutscher Amerikaner der ersten Generation.[;)]
Whoohoo! Everyone, let’s got to Hans’ house for strudel!
Not bad. I spent three years in Germany and barely learned to ask where the men’s room was. 
Ya, know what ya mean… During my time in Germany, I knew just enough German to order a beer… or get my face slapped… 'Course, my wife says my Texas accent hurts her ears when I speak German and asks me not do it, lol…
Now that my wife has been “Learnin’ me German”, for about 10 years, it’s about useless outside the hobby, since most of the tennants in my building speak Spanish… NONE of 'em “Habla Alemán”…
My Tex-Mex is way better than hers though…
Wouldn’t advise it… The only thing worse than a wife who can cook and won’t, is a wife that can’t cook and DOES…
No Bratwurst and Bier…?[bgr][B]
yeah I took German all four years of high school plus a year in Jr High with the intent being there for my Army career after high school. Of course I get sent to Ft Polk instead by the US Army. We did deploy for a REFORGER but I was never stationed in Germany. It did benefit me when I got attached to the Bundeswehr for a week as part of an exchange program during that REFORGER. Good times. But of course now when I have to speak Spanish on the streets to any of my customers who “no habla” with all those German words floating in the back of my brain find there way into my Spanglish on occasion and really murder that language…[:(DD]
I spent 5 years at Ramstein AB which is in the KMC, Kaiserslautern Military Community, which had at the time, the largest concentration of Americans (100,000) outside of the US. One didn’t have to speak German even though we tried to fit in. I had a year of Jr HS and three years of HS German with 2 semesters of college German, but I had forgotten most of it since I din’t use it. What was fun though, was traveling to Moron AB, Spain for almost 3 months for Desert Shield support. I had to remember what little Spanish I knew from a semester in Jr HS to get from the airport in Sevilla (Seville) to Moron on a local bus.
Having access to a unique find in the Archives of Blohm and Voss in Hamburg, Germany while researching colours and camoflage schemes for the S-100 fast attack class I unearthed a remarkable find and that is complete notated colour chips for the Kreigsmarine, Luftwaffe and Whermacht/SS for the entire of WWII.
I was able to make comprehensive notes and colour match exact shades from the paint chips which have not seen the light of day for about 70 years and so have not faded in any way.
The JU87D came into service in 1941 and so the uppersurface splinter pattern should be RLM70 & RLM71 for non fighter aircraft. Fighter aircraft should be 74 & 75 upper surfaces for this period.
The underside for the JU87 in this year should be RLM 65.v2. The paint chips I saw had 2 variants of RLM 65 notated RLM65.v1 1940 and RLM65.v2 1941. Fighter aircraft of 1941 had an underside of RLM76.
Now these colours I have matched exactly to the Vallejo Model Colour range, and are as follows:
RLM 70 VMC 987
RLM 71 VMC 893
RLM 65.v2 VMC 972
Cockpit, prior to November 1941 should be RLM02 (VMC 886) apart from radios and instrument panels which should be RLM66 (VMC 866)
Does this help?
Snapdragon - yes, that helps very much! That’s cool that you got to research that info firsthand.
As far as speaking Deutsch - I also had two yrs of German in high school - but that was about 35 yrs ago, so needless to say, I didn’t remember much. Not to mention the fact that at that time I was working on my private pilot’s license, so most of the time in German class I had my FAA regs book behind my textbook and was studying that. Frau Bailey - if you’re still around and reading this - please don’t take it personally![:D]
Glad to be of help. Please post some pics for us so we can see the colours.
My find certainly caused some excitement in the B&V office as they are considering having the huge model they have of the Bismarck repainted, so the original colour shades and numbers etc are of use!
Sitting Down next to the Vallejo model stand in a LHS in Hamburg with a few of the guys and girls from the B&V office, a frew bottles of the local beer, notepads and a large stack of paint chips caused a right stir and within about an hour the shop was filled with interested modellers lending a hand matching paint colours and making their own notes (the modellers grapevine in Hamburg is a very quick one!)
The LHS owner had a field day with sales and a 2 years on I am STILL collating my notes into a more useful format!
If you look at the revell model thread you’ll see my revell 1/32 Arado seaplane in the shade matched colours of the period.
James
Your Arado is a beautiful build there SnapDragon[Y] That is a great tale of modelers and otheres working together for the common benefit.