RAL colours for comms equipment

[ian alderman]

Hello all,

having trawled through a lot of sites showing German communication equipment it is apparent, even allowing for less authentic restorations, that they were manufactured in numerous colours.

My query is whether or not there were "official" RAL colours that they should have been finished in. I am specifically interested in the various receivers, transmitters, kasten, and umformer that comprised vehicle mounted equipment.

MTIA

Ian

[Val]

Problem is that any paint tone changes in time. So if you take an official RAL scheme the radio was painted in the factory and compare it with the same radio 70+ years later those tones just don't match - the paint on the radio has meanwhile introduced to the heat, sun, oil, moisture, dirt, has gone through chemical changes etc.

Another problem is that German military radios were overpainted several times. In 1937 and 1938 all the radios were overpainted using the brown/green/yellow camouflage scheme (buntfarbig Anstrich), but in 1940 all the radios were painted back into the dark gray. This overpainting also affects the tone of the color.

[Funksammler]

We had a discussion before here: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...nce+tan&page=2

So basically green, grey and tan... The same goes roughly for vehicle Umformers etc. although many "Panzerkasten" got overpainted in the interior colour of the tank (like "Elfenbein" or ordnance tan).

Can't help you with RAL numbers, they are largely irrelevant now anyway as most RAL numbers have changed since the 1940's.

regards,

Funksammler

[ian alderman]

Many thanks guys;

that gives me quite a bit of leeway, instead of having to try and copy an exact colour.

Regards,

Ian

[Funksammler]

Also... colours applied by different manufacturers can differ significantly, even different batches from the same manufacturer can give variations. Often the differences are not noticable until you take a flash photograph...

regards,

Funksammler