Late War RLM usage of 81/82, etc.

[Wackyracer]

 

Mr Paint 181

[John1]

I’m kind of thinking that all those variations of 76 weren’t intentional, just a byproduct of the German industrial / distribution system breaking down, coupled with disbursed, “cottage” industries building sub-components  and rebuilding damaged aircraft.   Really don’t think that with all the problems the Germans were facing by late ‘44 that they had a meeting and decided that instead of just using 76, let’s instead introduce 3 distinct, new colors.  

 

Or maybe they did decide to replace 76 with the most common hue of “84” and the less common variations were simply due to lack of necessary pigments to follow the new spec to the letter and quality control being thrown out in those last few months?   This again applies mostly for refurbished aircraft which seem to have most of the off-spec colors.  

 

Compare those aircraft to new production aircraft, even those manufactured at war’s end.  For the most part, those aircraft (primarily the jets) seem to still have factory spec paint jobs using standard 76 and the other late war colors. 

[Padraic Conway]

6 hours ago, John1 said:

I’m kind of thinking that all those variations of 76 weren’t intentional, just a byproduct of the German industrial / distribution system breaking down, coupled with disbursed, “cottage” industries building sub-components  and rebuilding damaged aircraft.   Really don’t think that with all the problems the Germans were facing by late ‘44 that they had a meeting and decided that instead of just using 76, let’s instead introduce 3 distinct, new colors.  

 

Or maybe they did decide to replace 76 with the most common hue of “84” and the less common variations were simply due to lack of necessary pigments to follow the new spec to the letter and quality control being thrown out in those last few months?   This again applies mostly for refurbished aircraft which seem to have most of the off-spec colors.  

 

Compare those aircraft to new production aircraft, even those manufactured at war’s end.  For the most part, those aircraft (primarily the jets) seem to still have factory spec paint jobs using standard 76 and the other late war colors. 

 

All possible John, but the photographic evidence (plus the considerable number of painted parts still extant) leads us strongly towards 3 or more distinct undersurface colours in use during 1944/45. Jerry has done a lot of work in this field, as have others (JaPo, Merrick, Ullman, Wadman, Brown for example), and the current consensus is that:

• these differing colours did exist (blue, green and brown/cream variants)
• paint and binder mixes/use of cobalt/differing chemistry can account for some variations within 76  but not easily account for the larger variations
• the differing colours are pretty consistent across differing surviving aircraft parts

Personally, I suspect that Matt's idea of linking colours/hues to differing aircraft types and their places of manufacturer may have a great deal to offer us. JaPo have done exhaustive work in this field, pinning down camo patterns to type and manufacturer. Your comments about Me262s using 'factory spec' 76 appear to supported by colour pictures. The He162 however is another matter, and lets not forget the He219 at the NASM with green squiggles over black/grey. If that airframe had been simply pictured in black and white at wars end, then we all would have simply seen 76 over 66 and thought no more about it. How many more He219s carried that scheme? Using Matt's premise, perhaps all of the production batches with black/grey undersides?

 

All fascinating stuff (at least to me)

 

Padraic

[dodgem37]

'heavy metal pigments '

Oxidation?

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[mattlow]

21 hours ago, John1 said:

Really don’t think that with all the problems the Germans were facing by late ‘44 that they had a meeting and decided that instead of just using 76, let’s instead introduce 3 distinct, new colors.

 

Looking on the 'funny' side of that premise, there were elements of the Nazi command, RLM and aircraft industry sitting down and submitting/evaluating designs for complex fighters and bombers powered by engines that didn't exist... so while I agree that there would be elements of adapting to the strictures of the strategic situation, there was also a lot of 'in denial planning' going on.... the 'new' hues could easily have been under consideration and production. Seems a bit crazy, but I think that's a good word to describe Nazi occupied Europe at that time... Also, to be appearing on aircraft in late '44, they'd have been in development for a while before that....

 

I'd be interested in seeing an RLM colours timeline. Do late war colours appear earlier in experimental test applications? I'm not sure where the various colours used on the Soviet front fit into this and of course Merrick proposed that RLM 81 qnd 82 were in fact re-introduced pre-war/export colours (was it RLM 61 and 62???). If paint was properly developed, would there have been time to identify the new strategic (defensive) situation the Luftwaffe found itself in and develop new colours as a response to that?  If not RLM 81 and 82 may have been 'knocking around' for another use... maybe the predominantly low level fighting going on over the Eastern Front where camouflage against vegetation was more useful - this could then have been rapidly re-purposed to on the ground camo.

 

I need to re-read Ullman, Merrick, Crandall and JaPo...

 

Matt

[John1]

16 hours ago, Padraic Conway said:

 

All possible John, but the photographic evidence (plus the considerable number of painted parts still extant) leads us strongly towards 3 or more distinct undersurface colours in use during 1944/45. Jerry has done a lot of work in this field, as have others (JaPo, Merrick, Ullman, Wadman, Brown for example), and the current consensus is that:

• these differing colours did exist (blue, green and brown/cream variants)
• paint and binder mixes/use of cobalt/differing chemistry can account for some variations within 76  but not easily account for the larger variations
• the differing colours are pretty consistent across differing surviving aircraft parts

Personally, I suspect that Matt's idea of linking colours/hues to differing aircraft types and their places of manufacturer may have a great deal to offer us. JaPo have done exhaustive work in this field, pinning down camo patterns to type and manufacturer. Your comments about Me262s using 'factory spec' 76 appear to supported by colour pictures. The He162 however is another matter, and lets not forget the He219 at the NASM with green squiggles over black/grey. If that airframe had been simply pictured in black and white at wars end, then we all would have simply seen 76 over 66 and thought no more about it. How many more He219s carried that scheme? Using Matt's premise, perhaps all of the production batches with black/grey undersides?

 

All fascinating stuff (at least to me)

 

Padraic

I’m curious about your comment on He162’s.    I always thought they were pretty uniformly finished using standard 76 and 81/82 topsides.  What am I missing here?

[Radub]

8 hours ago, John1 said:

I’m curious about your comment on He162’s.    I always thought they were pretty uniformly finished using standard 76 and 81/82 topsides.  What am I missing here?

 

When Memorial Flight restored their He 162, they discovered that the wing topside was originally painted RLM 70 overall. http://memorial.flight.free.fr/He162uk.html 

That is not proof that all He 162 were painted like that, but it shows that Schwartzgruen continued to be used as camouflage colour alongside 81/82. The same can be said about the Ar 234 and Do 335: despite a pervasive belief that they were painted 81/82, the majority were painted 70/71. 

Radu 

[Padraic Conway]

8 hours ago, John1 said:

I’m curious about your comment on He162’s.    I always thought they were pretty uniformly finished using standard 76 and 81/82 topsides.  What am I missing here?

 

Yes John, like you I had always thought this. Or that they were a mix of 70/71 and 81/82 with either 65 or 76 undersurfaces. However, other evidence is coming to light to challenge or supplant this idea.

 

See here: http://memorial.flight.free.fr/press/fc/fc2.jpg  which is a Flugzeug Classic article from 2005 covering the restoration of the French He162 W Nr 120015.

 

The article says this: Der komplette Rumpf der WNr 120015 war in RLM77 (grauweiss) gestrichen, die einzige Ausnahme war die Abdeckung des Munitionsbehalters unmittlebar hinter dem Kabvinendach, die einen Tarnanstrich in einem noch nicht definierten Grunton aufwies. Der sonst fur Nachttjager reservierte Farbton RLM77 schient standardmassig bei der He162 der Baureihe 120000 gewesen zu sein, die uber keine BMW 718-Starthilfsraketen, jedoch uber den grosseren 695 Liter fassenden Kraftstoffbehalter verfugte.  (apologies to German speakers  as my British keyboard doesn't easily allow me to use the ß symbol)

 

Which translates as: The complete fuselage of the W Nr 120015 was painted in RLM77 (gray-white), the only exception was the cover of the ammunition container directly behind the cabine roof, which had a camouflage paint in a not yet defined Grunton. The color RLM77, which was reserved for Nightjager, is standard on the He162 of the 120000 series, which did not have any BMW 718 booster rockets, but had the larger 695 liter fuel tank.

 

In my view Flugzeug articles have credibility as a source, and the article in question also explicitly refers to some of Ken Merrick's earlier work, so I am inclined to accept their ideas, especially as these originate from a primary source (an airframe restoration).

 

I've also read about the late war 'RLM84' shade appearing on these aircraft, but I'll have to dig through my references to find the source for that idea.

 

The point I'm wanting to make here is that well established ideas (in this case He162s being 76/81/82) hold sway for long periods, but that other evidence has surfaced to challenge this.

 

Padraic

 

 

 

[Padraic Conway]

3 minutes ago, Radub said:

 

When Memorial Flight restored their He 162, they discovered that the wing topside was originally painted RLM 70 overall. http://memorial.flight.free.fr/He162uk.html 

That is not proof that all He 162 were painted like that, but it shows that Schwartzgruen continued to be used as camouflage colour alongside 81/82. The same can be said about the Ar 234 and Do 335: despite a pervasive belief that they were painted 81/82, the majority were painted 70/71. 

Radu 

 

I see that Radu and I have been looking at the same site!   

 

Padraic

[RBrown]

13 minutes ago, Padraic Conway said:

 

Yes John, like you I had always thought this. Or that they were a mix of 70/71 and 81/82 with either 65 or 76 undersurfaces. However, other evidence is coming to light to challenge or supplant this idea.

 

See here: http://memorial.flight.free.fr/press/fc/fc2.jpg  which is a Flugzeug Classic article from 2005 covering the restoration of the French He162 W Nr 120015.

 

The article says this: Der komplette Rumpf der WNr 120015 war in RLM77 (grauweiss) gestrichen, die einzige Ausnahme war die Abdeckung des Munitionsbehalters unmittlebar hinter dem Kabvinendach, die einen Tarnanstrich in einem noch nicht definierten Grunton aufwies. Der sonst fur Nachttjager reservierte Farbton RLM77 schient standardmassig bei der He162 der Baureihe 120000 gewesen zu sein, die uber keine BMW 718-Starthilfsraketen, jedoch uber den grosseren 695 Liter fassenden Kraftstoffbehalter verfugte.  (apologies to German speakers  as my British keyboard doesn't easily allow me to use the ß symbol)

 

Which translates as: The complete fuselage of the W Nr 120015 was painted in RLM77 (gray-white), the only exception was the cover of the ammunition container directly behind the cabine roof, which had a camouflage paint in a not yet defined Grunton. The color RLM77, which was reserved for Nightjager, is standard on the He162 of the 120000 series, which did not have any BMW 718 booster rockets, but had the larger 695 liter fuel tank.

 

In my view Flugzeug articles have credibility as a source, and the article in question also explicitly refers to some of Ken Merrick's earlier work, so I am inclined to accept their ideas, especially as these originate from a primary source (an airframe restoration).

 

I've also read about the late war 'RLM84' shade appearing on these aircraft, but I'll have to dig through my references to find the source for that idea.

 

The point I'm wanting to make here is that well established ideas (in this case He162s being 76/81/82) hold sway for long periods, but that other evidence has surfaced to challenge this.

 

Padraic

 

 

 

 

 Grunton is missing an umlaut.  Grünton translates to green tone.

[Padraic Conway]

7 minutes ago, RBrown said:

 

 Grunton is missing an umlaut.  Grünton translates to green tone.

 

Thanks for that clarification. The text wasn't cut and pasted from the article but hand-typed by me. And, once again, my keyboard lacked the required German punctuation/grammar characters.

[Padraic Conway]

10 hours ago, mattlow said:

 

I'd be interested in seeing an RLM colours timeline. Do late war colours appear earlier in experimental test applications? I'm not sure where the various colours used on the Soviet front fit into this and of course Merrick proposed that RLM 81 qnd 82 were in fact re-introduced pre-war/export colours (was it RLM 61 and 62???). If paint was properly developed, would there have been time to identify the new strategic (defensive) situation the Luftwaffe found itself in and develop new colours as a response to that?  If not RLM 81 and 82 may have been 'knocking around' for another use... maybe the predominantly low level fighting going on over the Eastern Front where camouflage against vegetation was more useful - this could then have been rapidly re-purposed to on the ground camo.

 

I need to re-read Ullman, Merrick, Crandall and JaPo...

 

Matt

 

Hi Matt. I've read that JG54 (dear to your heart from your avatar ) experimented with greens/browns on the Eastern Front and that these colours were the precursors to 81 and 82.

Padraic 

[John1]

i know very little about 70/71 but is there any chance that these colors could have actually been used on many late WW2 aircraft and simply assumed to have been 81/82 in all those grainy B&W pictures? 

 

What a frustrating (and yet extremely addictive) subject.   I love it!  

[Padraic Conway]

2 hours ago, John1 said:

i know very little about 70/71 but is there any chance that these colors could have actually been used on many late WW2 aircraft and simply assumed to have been 81/82 in all those grainy B&W pictures? 

 

What a frustrating (and yet extremely addictive) subject.   I love it!  

 

I'll let Radu answer that question; he recently provided a very convincing argument here that what you suggest is exactly what happened.

[Radub]

1 hour ago, Padraic Conway said:

 

I'll let Radu answer that question; he recently provided a very convincing argument here that what you suggest is exactly what happened.

 

I have no "hard proof" that 70/71 continued to be used after the order to discontinue them was issued. But it is hard to believe that remaining stocks of paint were simply discarded (or ignored) especially since there is so much talk of the precarious state of paint manufacture in Germany in 44/45. Considering that 80/71 were so ubiquitous, there must have been some in store. 

Radu