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Designed
for the ship modeler as well as for the naval historian or maritime
artist, this first Kriegsmarine paint chip set has been carefully matched
to RAL color cards or mixed according to documentary sources.
A caveat about this first Kriegsmarine color set. We have
had to rely on the limited original sources available. We used
research materials generated by Flak Pletscher, the autors Jung/Abendroth/Kelling
and their book Anstriche und Tarmanstriche der deutschen Kriegsmarine,
second edition, and archival chips and material sent to the RAL Institute
by Wilhemshaven. The colors in the ATDK book are based on an
examination of color cards returned to the Bundesarchive by the Russians
in the 1990s. We have used cross-references of the World War 2
colors to the RAL colors. All colors were matched to eliminate
metamerism and will therefore match the original in any light.
The Norwegian colors are based on the Dechend memorandum from
1942. Captain Dechend specified the use of ultramarine, darkened
with burnt umber, and cut with vermilion to create blue-gray colors of a
dark, medium, and light tone. He gave reflectance numbers, but not
ratios of the pigments. Because there are no known examples of these
colors, nor any RAL equivalents, we have mixed representational colors
using his formulary. Without ratios for pigmentation, the best we
can do is to approximate these shades. In practice there were
variations; occasionally a touch of green was added. We felt it necessary
to include these approximations as color guides for the period and
theater. Until 1944, Schnellbootweiss was often used on the bow and
stern panels.
Finally, German paints emphasized durability and chemical resistance
over color fidelity. The modeler thus has some poetic license when
matching colors for his or her models.
This set contains 20 chips on two sheets and covers the following
colors:
Prewar / Early War Colors:
Hellgrau 50 used on superstructure and upperworks;
Dunkelgrau 51, used on hull
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Baltic Scheme Colors:
Hellgrau: used on superstructure and upperworks;
Mittelgrau: used on hull;
Dunkelgrau: used on bow and stern panels;
Identification stripes were black and white.
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Underwater Hull and Boot-topping
colors:
Dunkelblaugrau: underwater dark blue gray, also used as an
alternative boot topping;
Schiffsbodenfarbe III Rot 5: underwater red;
Schiffsbodenfarbe: an alterate underwater red;
Schiffsbodenfarbe III Grau 1: boot-topping
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Norwegian Colors:
Dunkelgrau (Blaugrau, Dunkel): dark blue-gray, 5% reflectance;
Mittelblaugrau (Blaugrau, Mittel): medium blue-gray, 20%
reflectance;
Hellblaugrau (Blaugrau, Hell): light blue-gray, similar in tone to
Royal Navy AP507C, which is a 45% reflectance.
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Other Colors:
Aluminumbronze 16: a metallic paint used on funnel caps;
Dunkelgrau 2;
Deckfarbe Gelb 13: yellow turret tops;
Deckfarbe Rot 7: red turret tops;
Schnellbootweiss: used on S-boats and in camouflage patterns on
other vessels;
Rostschutzfarbe Graugrun 12: used on torpedo boats during the 1930s;
Dunkelblau 9.
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