Acrysion - RLM65 světle modrá

RLM 65 and the undersides of German aircraft

On German machines a pale blue covered the whole underside and on types from the late 1930s it ran high up the sides of the fuselage. It was worn by the Bf 109 E fighters over the Channel, by the He 111 and Do 17 bombers and by the Ju 87 dive bombers in the Polish and French campaigns. In the Mediterranean it then held on long after the later, somewhat lighter tone had taken hold over Germany.

On a model it is most often used with dark upper surfaces, whether that means the pair of green tones of the early schemes or desert sand with green patches. It also suits the wing leading edge areas on machines that had the blue drawn over the whole front edge.

How to work with the shade

The boundary between the blue underside and the upper surfaces was mostly sprayed on period machines, but in some units it was sharp and run along a hard line. Before spraying it therefore pays to find a photograph of the particular machine, because that detail is exactly what decides how a model reads.

The paint is thinned with water and needs stirring from the bottom before work. A light blue tends to cover poorly, so it is recommended to go in thin steps and rather to accept that there will be more coats. Under the stencils it is worth smoothing the surface with a gloss interlayer, otherwise the edge of the decal draws into the flat surface and its outline shows when seen against the light.

A pale blue is useful beyond aircraft models too. It serves as a base under white areas that are meant to stay cool and it suits reflections in canopy glazing, where it is applied very heavily thinned and only as a hint. Restraint is what decides here: an overdone reflection hides the cockpit interior, on which the most work was done.