Luftwaffe shades of red?

[von hahn]

Hi all.

I have a question I hope somebody can shed some light on. I am busy with two JG300 aircraft-a FW190 and a BF109G-10, both of which have the "brick red" reich defence band around the fuselage. All the research I have tells me that this band was "RLM 23", which is an orangey-red colour. But all the decals-like the aircraft numbers (I'm doing red 2 and red 19) are a much deeper, brighter red. Were there two shades or red the Luftwaffe used? One for the reich defence band and a different one for the numbers?



Please help!

Thanks! vh

[Wurger]

Where did you get the orange-red tonality of the RLM23 colour from? In fact the RLM23 or FS31302 as you wish , was of the brick-red tonality.More red than brick-red I think.However , because of the background colour it was usually applied on the RLM23 could get other tonalities, sometimes it got the darker tonality or not.ALso the time and the weather conditions changed its tonality into dark brick-red or almost brown in my opinion.Here you are two samples of the RLM23 paint that can be used.

[Wayne Little]

So...doing "Rita" and "Edelgard"..!

Agree with Wojtek...one Colour! but variation due to differing factors...

[von hahn]

Thanks Guys! Those tones of red are much closer to the decals than "RLM 23 rot" I have from Testors/Model Master. The MM RLM 23 is almost a tangerine orange colour!? I think I shall use Humbrol Insignia Red-it seems very close to the decal number colours.

Yes, I'm doing "Rita" and "Edelgard"- this brings me to another question...as I was looking at photos of Red 19 on "www.jg300.de", I noticed that it initially (before Oct '44) had NO Reichs Defence band. This is backed up by the instructions of one version of the Hasegawa instructions...does anybody know at what date JG 300 started using this marking? Is it possible that both 2./ JG300 and 5./JG300 operated at some stage before Oct '44 with no reichs defence bands? I'm thinking of portraying "Rita" Red 2 and "Edelgard" Red19 in the Pre-Oct'44 colours without their red defence bands. Would that be accurate?

Thanks!