"Vallejo WWII naval and aircraft color equivalency tables" Topic

I have been painting 1:1800 scale ships and 1:900 scale aircraft for the A & A "War at Sea" game for about 8 years. Over that time I have developed Vallejo paint equivalents to the major WWII navies and air forces camouflage colors. (Vallejo was the most common recommendation I received when I started painting these miniatures. I used enamels as a scale modeller and metal miniature painter back in my youth.) This is a document I have been continuously expanding and tweaking for about 7 years so you may have seen earlier versions on the web. I have recently completed the colors for the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army Air Forces and the early war colors for the US Army Air Corps. I have provided the link to my box.com document below. I only have the late war US Air Corps and the Italian air force colors remaining to be done. I also occasionally "tweak" my mixes to get the a little closer or simpler, or to adjust for new information, so you will find some mixes have changed from earlier versions. On that note, if you have any suggestions or information please feel free to let me know. The document contains a list of references I have collected and used to research and make these mixes.

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Thank you.

I have seen earlier versions of this.

Very handy! Thanks!

I have updated my Vallejo WWII naval and air force paint equivalency tables once again. I have finally added the Italian Air Force colors. "Officially" this finally completes this project that I started about 9 years ago. Unofficially, I am always making little tweaks when I get new information. Plus I need to reorganize the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps air color section. It is a bit of a mess because I started with the USN/Marine Corps air colors (naturally) and then added Army Air Corps colors much later. The two services settled on a common set of colors in 1943 and that is not clear from the way I did the tables. Plus there are some Air Corps late war colors missing because of way I did it. Anyway, still a project for another day!

Updates in the January 2017 document:

1. I have finally added the Italian Air Force colors – Go Regia Aeronautica!
2. Added color mix for Royal Navy color B55
3. Revised some of the USN 1944/45 neutral gray mixes
4. Added Netherlands East Indies green camouflage colors (educated guesses)
5. Added Tashkent's "powder blue" color in Soviet navy section (another educated guess)

Here is the updated link to the file:

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Note: You can tell what version of the tables you have by looking at the footnote at the bottom of the page that lists the references. I have put my initials "MSD" and the date the document created there. I have always done that. This latest is January 26, 2017.

Happy painting!

Great work! Many thanks!

I have significantly updated my Vallejo WWII color charts again. In particular, I have added all of the WWII US Army Air Force and Navy/Marine colors and I have about doubled the number of Luftwaffe colors and updated the rest based on newly acquired references with paint chip samples. I have also added some of the newly revised Royal Navy colors that have been proposed by the excellent research done by the Royal Sovereign hobby guys. However, these are "best estimate" color matches based on their published internet documentation. I am in the United States so I cannot get the actual new Colourcoat paint samples that I would obviously like to use. I have also updated a scattering of other colors in the document.

The new link to the document is:

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Please let me know if you see any typos or errors. And I would always be interested in alternate color mix suggestions.

Here is a "change log" if you are interested.

Additions and changes to Vallejo WWII mixes – July 4, 2019

Royal Navy

Additions and changes to Vallejo WWII mixes – July 4, 2019

Royal Navy

Added
507A/G10 alternate
Emergency mix medium grey
507C/G45 alternate
Dark Deck Grey
B5/B15 alternate
G5

Changed
Cemtex (late war)
G45 (1942)
B55 (1942)
G45 Neutral Tone (1943?)
B55 (1943)

United States Navy

Changed
Cavite Blue
5-S Sea Blue B

Italian Regia Marina

Changed
Verde Chiaro

Soviet Navy

Added
Medium Blue Grey (Northern Fleet)

Changed
Dark Grey
Tashkent Blue

Colors for wood decking

Added
Weather beaten deck tan

Royal Air Force

Changed
RAF Sky Type S
Middlestone

United States Air Force and Navy/Marines

Newly expanded and updated

Germany Luftwaffe

Newly expanded and updated

Japan

Changed

Light Ash Grey – "J3 towards Ameriro" for early war Zeke
Blue Black (cowling)

Romanian Air Force

Added

IAR 80 colors

Reference list expanded with new acquisitions. All references are in the personal collection of the author.

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I guess I should add that I continue to update this list because I mostly paint WWII miniatures. I use the Vallejo Model Color paints because they are optimally formulated for brush painting, are easily thinned for airbrush, and there is a wide range of colors to work with. I have no connection to Vallejo either monetarily or personally.

Disclaimer: I am not a paint "historian" or researcher. I just attempt to match the colors that other researchers and references have provided. With all the variation out there I often just have to make my "best call" on a paint color. Your mileage may vary.

I would always be interested in hearing about alternative mixes.

I have made a few updates to the tables. The Royal Netherlands Navy colors are now matched to the book "Dutch Warships of World War II" by van Willingenburg. I have updated the newer Royal Navy colors based on the research by Brown et al and Duff. Also a few other color tweaks and additions.

The file name is the same (2019) so the links to the Box.com document don't break. But you can find the version date of June 11, 2021 on page 24.

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Hey, Weeds, thanks for keeping this going all these years! Making plans to do a "recognition set" of TBD's in 1/200 (Wings of War/Glory), one section leader's plane from each ship. (VT-2 Section 1, VT-3 Section 2, VT-4 Section 3 and so on.)

Here's a link for Vallejo's official reco'es:
PDF link