Mr. Color - RLM02 šedá

The German gray-green found inside almost every machine

The designation RLM 02 comes from the regulations of the German air ministry and belongs to a shade that could be described as a light gray with a clear olive cast. Among the German colors it is exceptional for how long it lasted. While the camouflage tones changed several times during the war, this one stayed in use from the mid-1930s until the capitulation.

The modeler needs it above all for the inside. RLM 02 covered cockpits, instrument panels, undercarriage bays, the insides of engine cowlings and the load-bearing structure of the airframe on practically every type, from Messerschmitt fighters through Heinkel and Junkers bombers to transport machines. Anyone building a model with an open canopy or lowered landing gear cannot do without this shade.

A second career awaited it outside. In the years before the war and during the campaign of 1940 it formed, together with dark green fields, the upper camouflage known as the splinter scheme, worn by early Bf 109s, twin-engined Bf 110s and Ju 87 dive bombers. Later it returned as mottling on the fuselage sides of fighters deployed over the Mediterranean.

A practical note on building: the interior is painted before the fuselage is glued together, so this is usually one of the first colors you open. It brushes on well because the areas are small, and the lacquer base makes sure that further coats and the cement will not dissolve the paint. Once dry, it pays to pick out the cockpit with a dark wash into the corners and to drybrush the edges, because through the glazing only the contrast is visible, not the shade itself.