Henschel 126 5F+AK North African scheme query

[JägerMarty]

Hi all,
I'm building the nice Italeri kit of the Hs126 and plan on giving it the north African scheme of 5F+AK of 2(H)/14
This aircraft is on the cover of the book, Recon for Rommel.
https://www.dersockelshop.de/media/image/recon.jpg

The aircraft looks like it's just received it's desert mottle scheme over a standard European scheme. I assume this was a heavy mottle on the upper wings as the aircraft was disassembled at time of painting.
I'm just wondering what sort of "Tan" colour people think it received? It looks too light for RLM79 to my eye?
I've heard of German aircraft receiving Italian colours, if so, which ones would they have been?

any thoughts welcome
cheers

[Graham Boak]

The idea of Italian colours was mooted by Ken Merrick some years ago, and seized on with some enthusiasm as an obvious explanation. Unfortunately, it wasn't true. There were two initial versions of 78 and 79, lighter than the definitive versions, and samples of these are given in his later (fairly recent) work for Classic publications. It may well be that these were inspired by Italian paints, but were not just copies.

One problem is that the yellow (Giallo Mimetico) seen on Italian aircraft came in 4 different variations. No-one saw this, or at least chose to address the problem of just which one was used?

[JägerMarty]

Thanks Graham, will have a closer look at Merricks book