Dunkelgelb, are you there?...

In my never ending quest to find a proper German dunkelgelb, base yellow camouflage for German WWII vehicule, I have purchased the "desaturation" set from Lifecolor and the German camouflage set from AK47.

"price not being an issue" at this stage of addiction and dependency, I don't really remember how much I paid for them, but it wasn't all that painful.

• The upper colors are the shades that come with the Lifecolor set
• Middle is Valejo's "recommended" middlestone by some
• Lower are two colors from the AK 47 sets

In terms of paint coverage, Vallejo has the most pigments, then comes Lifecolor, but you will still have to apply a couple of layers. AK 47 is specifically designed for airbrush application. Lifecolor paint is rather thin, I have tried yet, but I suspect there would not be too many issues to apply it with an airbrush.


Opinion:
To be honest, I have never liked Vallejo's middlestone. I find it far too dark, especially at this scale.

In regard of Lifecolour, I find the paints slightly to grayish. I would have preferred something a bit more warm, cardboard brown like.

AK colors come in two types, A and B. There are not to be used as base and shade but are simply different renditions of dunkelgelb as it may have varied during the war. One is simply darker than the other. In spite of being a tad too cold, I prefer AK's interpretation of dunkelgelb.

A combination that I would like to try is

• shade: Vallejo's middlestone
• mid tone: LC mid tone
• highlight: AK 47 or LC highlight

I would like to add here, that actually what works well for the AK 47 colors is that weathering is supposed to be added on top of it and a three tone camouflage filter -which is something very close to orange in hue- does add a lot of warmth to otherwise toned down colors.

Dunkelgelb is elusive, but the bases + AK 47 highlights + 3 tones filter should get us there.

thanks for reading