Mr. Color - RLM79 písková

Sand over North Africa

The desert campaign forced the Luftwaffe to introduce a tropical finish, and the shade RLM 79, in German Sandgelb, became its foundation. It covered the upper surfaces of tropical Messerschmitt Bf 109s of the F and G series, of Ju 87 dive bombers and of Ju 52 transports over Libya and Tunisia. Irregular patches of the olive RLM 80 were often sprayed over it, while the underside stayed light blue. Sun and sand bleached the paint quickly, so period photographs show machines from a saturated ocher to a washed-out cream.

Technical data

The bottle contains 10 ml of paint with a lacquer binder and a semi-gloss finish. Only the product from the same line serves for thinning; thicker paint takes more thinner, usually up to twice its own volume. Neither water nor thinner for water-based acrylics can be used, as the pigment would curdle.

How to get a faded look

With this paint in particular it does not pay to leave one flat tone. The base is sprayed evenly, then a drop of white is added to the rest of the paint and the centers of the panels and the areas above the wings are oversprayed. The result looks more natural than any later accenting of edges. The paint has to be mixed before work begins and during it as well, as the dense pigment sinks to the bottom.

Combinations for a tropical finish

• With the olive component of the same line in irregular patches on the spine
• With a light blue underside color, as the boundary on these machines tends to be sprayed freehand
• With the white bands on the fuselage and the wingtips that tropical machines carried

A tropical finish was often applied in the field, over the original European camouflage. A darker tone showing through under the sand color is therefore not a mistake but a documented detail.