With the arrival this week of the new Vallejo surface primers, I decided to get some answers to all the questions I get about what colours of Vallejo paint to use for World War 2 vehicles used in Flames of War and Warlord Games Bolt Action (also known as World War 2 Warhammer 40,000.) My very first blog starts with German vehicles. The primers, by the way, can be used with a paint brush but are also ready to go straight into an airbrush without thinning. More on airbrushes later.
Colours can be defined by their RAL number, but just to confuse us, RAL numbers used during World War 2 were changed in the 50's and again in the 60's! I'm in the process of reseaching all the colours used but will post as I go.
I'll start with early war (1940) which was RAL 7021. The Vallejo equivalent is VAL 862 Black Grey. The classic German armour colours used by most of you Flames of War players are a factory base coat of either VAL 978 Vallejo Model Colour Dark Yellow or Vallejo Model Colour VAL 912 Tan Yellow with camo colours, known as disruptive patterns, of Vallejo Model Colour VAL890 Reflective Green and Vallejo Model Colour VAL 826 German Camo Mid Brown.
From late 1944 the colours changed to a basecoat of Dark Red primer, Vallejo Model Colour equivalent VAL 926 Red, with camo colours of Vallejo Model Colour VAL 890 Reflective Green and Vallejo Model Colour VAL 978 Dark Yellow and Vallejo Model Colour VAL 912 Tan Yellow.
I guess all this should be qualified by saying that the internet is full of arguments about exact colour matches and a few days of combat or bad, or even sunny, weather would have changed the colour shades. The people that manned these tanks for real would probably laugh at the many articles like this penned about the details of the colours of their tanks. I bet that if pushed they'd have used pretty much any useful colour they could lay their hands on!!
None of which helps in mapping these colours across to the new Vallejo surface primers which seem too new to have had any discussion, but tomorrow I'll be in the shop comparing these visually to the Vallejo Model Colours mentioned above to come up with the answers.
Colours can be defined by their RAL number, but just to confuse us, RAL numbers used during World War 2 were changed in the 50's and again in the 60's! I'm in the process of reseaching all the colours used but will post as I go.
I'll start with early war (1940) which was RAL 7021. The Vallejo equivalent is VAL 862 Black Grey. The classic German armour colours used by most of you Flames of War players are a factory base coat of either VAL 978 Vallejo Model Colour Dark Yellow or Vallejo Model Colour VAL 912 Tan Yellow with camo colours, known as disruptive patterns, of Vallejo Model Colour VAL890 Reflective Green and Vallejo Model Colour VAL 826 German Camo Mid Brown.
From late 1944 the colours changed to a basecoat of Dark Red primer, Vallejo Model Colour equivalent VAL 926 Red, with camo colours of Vallejo Model Colour VAL 890 Reflective Green and Vallejo Model Colour VAL 978 Dark Yellow and Vallejo Model Colour VAL 912 Tan Yellow.
I guess all this should be qualified by saying that the internet is full of arguments about exact colour matches and a few days of combat or bad, or even sunny, weather would have changed the colour shades. The people that manned these tanks for real would probably laugh at the many articles like this penned about the details of the colours of their tanks. I bet that if pushed they'd have used pretty much any useful colour they could lay their hands on!!
None of which helps in mapping these colours across to the new Vallejo surface primers which seem too new to have had any discussion, but tomorrow I'll be in the shop comparing these visually to the Vallejo Model Colours mentioned above to come up with the answers.
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