Brembo Brake Red

Number Five Brembo Brake Red, the red of brake calipers

A shade named after the Italian maker of braking systems. A red caliper has become a mark of recognition of sports cars and on a model it is one of the few details that is visible through the spokes of a wheel even once a build is finished.

The subject of the shade

Brembo came about in 1961 near Bergamo and since the 1970s it has supplied brakes to circuit and production cars alike. A caliper painted a saturated red with white lettering appears on Ferrari, Porsche and Alfa Romeo cars and on factory road motorcycles, and it has become so legible a mark that makers of cars give it directly in the list of equipment. On a model this red is meant to work as a detail of its own: it is not to merge with the body or to disappear into the shadow behind the wheels, because it is exactly the contrast between the dark disc, the metal rim and the colored caliper that makes a wheel alive. The same logic holds with motorcycles too, where the braking system is exposed from every side and nothing at all can be hidden.

Where you will use the shade

• Brake calipers in 1:24, 1:20 and 1:12
• Calipers from resin and etched detail sets
• Red elements of motorcycle braking systems
• Accents behind the spokes of wheels, where color is meant to be seen instead of gray

Who the color is for

For modelers of cars and motorcycles who are finishing the details of wheels and a chassis and want a color matching the subject. It finds its use mainly in the large scales, where the braking system is genuinely visible. The white lettering on a caliper is completed with a decal in the large scales, so the red beneath it has to stay smooth.