Another color question. I’m painting fuselage #'s on a late-war Bf-109, all the decal sheets I’ve seen are a med/dark red. The “official” RLM23 as in Model Master enamel & Gunze acrylic are a pale pinkish hued red. Are we talking two differant colors of paint here, or am I looking to hard at old pictures ? ( the photos all show a DARK painted # on a dark green or grey cammo coat . ) Was there a red darker than RLM23 that was used for ID #'s? If so ; what would the closest model match be? Any great ideas welcomed.
if you could show the rest of us the pic we might be able to tell you the color.
I can tell you this: My chips don’t show any RLM color that’s even close to pinkish. RLM 23 is jut pretty much plain old red.
if I had my MM hand book i could tell you. but im on vacation if you could really call it that.
If you are looking at a black & white pic, there is something else to consider.
There was a film in wide use at the time, called Orthochromatic. It was not very sensitive to light in the red portion of the spectrum (things that are red require require a lot of light/time to register on the film), and could be developed in darkrooms using a red light. If there is anything else in the pic that you know to be red, check it for darkness. The original pic could have been shot with a red filter (possible, but not likely), or been improperly developed or printed. Using black & white photos as a reference for color are not reliable. There are too many variables to give you an absolute answer.
I would either use the recommended color, or paint it the shade that appeals to me.
Hope this helps.
I like ModelMaster paints, but I agree that their version of RLM23 is to light/pink hued for my eye. I use a brighter/darker red, Floquil “Soo Line Red” (a model railroading color ) which matches the colors seen on most Luftwaffe decal sheets.
Regards, Rick