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: