Hobby color - RLM83 tmavě zelená

A Late-War Aviation Green with an Uncertain Past

The designation in the name comes from the German color chart kept during the war by the Reich Air Ministry. Number eighty-three belongs to the last generation of shades introduced in 1944 and is also the most debated case in the entire chart: surviving records disagree, and some researchers argue that a dark blue was originally listed under this number. Modeling paint manufacturers today mostly supply it as a rich green.

Where the Shade Applies

Reach for it on aircraft from the last year of the war: fighters with late-war upper-surface camouflage, aircraft assembled from parts of mixed origin, and equipment repainted under field conditions with whatever was on hand. Irregular mottles sprayed freehand come out best at low pressure with heavily thinned paint, with the nozzle held close to the surface.

Where the Green Is Useful

• Mottled camouflage on spines and vertical tail surfaces
• Repainted parts on aircraft from the mid-1940s
• A companion shade alongside the lighter green of the same generation
• Green for ground equipment and shipping containers

Anyone building from a period photograph has to keep in mind that a black-and-white photo cannot distinguish the shade, and a given gray tone on the negative can correspond to several different colors. The decision therefore rests with the builder, and the result should be defended more by period production logic than by a claim to the one correct answer.