109 K-4 RLM 84?

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by net_sailor

Not chromates were reduced but pigment:
http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/latewarrlm76mu_1.htm

Chromate is a pigment as well. I was correct, they reduced other pigments (Piubium White? Titanic White? Prussian Blue?), so increased proportion of chromates. By the way chromates appear in two versions, green like 02 or Aircraft Grey Green or yellow, like Zinc Chromate. I do not remember exact formulas, but they are available in any chemistry book.

[Flitzer]

You'll have a lot of opinions on this before the thread is completed, here's my two cents.

It is not a color. It's not factory applied, it was done in the field to tone down the sides of the aircraft when parked. The RLM 76 was toned down with a much thinned RLM 02. Depending on how thinned it is and how it was sprayed you'll see different effects. To me the tip off is traces of overspray if one look close.

[Modeldad]

Except for the fact that the color was applied to the large portions of the lower fuselage and underside at a production facility. I have seen parts in both the so called 84 and the buff that appeared also. Neither was a field application.


The He 219 at the NASM, was said not to be painted in the filed.

[Pilot]

Field application??? Industrial standard for manufacturing demad parts to be pour into the paint. Call it how ever you want but this grey green color is basic protection of the metal. Or primer for the final camouflage coat. Never mind- it is obvious on many images.

[harrison987]

RLM84 did not exist..technically.

"RLM84" was not on the master RLM list, so 20 years ago this "new found colour" was given the RLM84 designation. It is not an offical designation.

I suspect it was a new paint the Luftwaffe was experimenting with late in the war...or possibly the original paint supplier changed something in thier pigmentation.

There is much documentation of paint types being sprayed too thin, mixed too thin, too dark, too light, etc., and many intances of paint not being sprayed at all.

Usually this was done as the paint was not readily available from the manufacture so late in the war, and quality was not nearly as good either.

Paint manufactures were in the same situation as the aircraft factories, so I suspect they made what they could.

If i was an "official" new colour it would have been on the master RLM list, no? The German's were sticklers for documentation...

[Graham Boak]

Whatever it was, it seems most unlikely to have been a new primer, as it was used on top of other paints - see the He 219 above. Given the state of German industry and the expected life of the aircraft, it would have made more sense to have abandoned the use of primer, as seen on US and Japanese production.

The lack of documentation may well be simply that - much was destroyed at the end of the war.