Good primary reference sources are very hard to come by, and it is only in recent years that colour pictures from WWII have come to light. These are very much dependent on the various printing processes involved and, of course, how the original print has been produced. Notorious colour shifts can be apparent. The vast majority of pictures still remain in black and white.

However, there exists for all the paint used at the time paint charts which were produced by the manufacturer as a reference guide to military paint stores and their quartermasters when issuing stocks. These charts took the form of a list of 'paint chips', sample squares which were large enough to verify the colour and shade of the paint stocked. These charts are modelers 'Gold Dust' as they represent the colour as it was produced ie: neat, with no weathering. These 'chips' give one a very good guide as to the shade and hue of the original colour. Of course, today on a PC the colour displayed depends on how it was scanned, resolutions on one's monitor and a number of other variables. But, the chips will still give quite an accurate guide for the modeler.

It is with great pleasure, therefore, that we present this gallery contributed by our correspondent, Tim Kalina, who has generously provided these colour charts. These date from 1932, 1935, two from 1940 and one from 1946 and span the all-important pre-war and war years. As well as scanning the complete charts, I have enlarged each of the lists of 'chips' and placed these into their own pages. This is so that anyone with a decent graphics program can sample the colours for placing into their own colour palette, without the surrounding paperwork.

These charts have scanned particularly well and are a reasonably good guide but should be used in conjunction with other resources. Many thanks, Tim.

Click on the title to go to the chart: