The set contains eight 17ml bottles of acrylic paint. The bottles are the same kind as the dropper bottles used by Vallejo. Colours included are RLM 72, 73, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 and 83. According to the labels on the bottles these colours are made with a new formula and should be equally good for brush painting and airbrushing.
Accuracy
According to the label, the colours are done with scale effect taken into account but both 72 and 73 are looking extremely dark and a check against the colour swatches supplied with Ken Merricks “Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings” shows them to match quite well. I believe that these two colours really needs to be lightened a bit to look realistic on a model.
Colours 78 and 79 are looking rich and saturated. Compared to the aforementioned swatches the RLM 78 is slightly too purple and needs to be just a little bit greener while RLM 79 is a little too red.
RLM 80 is close to the swatch in Merricks book but a just a bit ligther. Colours 81 and 82 are really good matches.
Now for the most controversial shade included, the dark blue RLM 83. Recent research by Michael Ullmann has showed that RLM 83 was indeed a dark blue colour intended for unit level use on bombers flying maritime missions in the Mediterranean theatre of operations. The problem is that there’s no references showing how this colour actually looked. I think AK Interactive deserves a standing ovation for keeping up with the latest research but on the other hand it seems like a strange decision to include a colour for which no swatches exist. The only reference is in the name “Dunkelblau” i.e dark blue.
In my opinion it would have been better to keep the dark green colour previously known as RLM 83 in the set as this colour has not ceased to exist just because researchers got the name wrong. Another option could have been to include the light green colour seen on the under surfaces of some late war aircraft.
Spraying
I’ve used these colours thinned with Ultimate Thinner and Tamiya X-20A. The best result came with the Tamiya thinner but Ultimate Thinner worked good too. Working with these colours I’ve used an Evolution Two in One airbrush with a 0.20mm needle at about 25 PSI.
There can be a few issues with clogging if the needle isn't perfectly clean but overall I’d say spraying these colours was a pleasant experience. They go on with quite an even satin sheen that is looking really good.
If you only want to cover a surface quickly and don’t have to worry about over spray or free hand work the colours can be sprayed straight from the bottle. It’s very useful for quick work on cockpits and landing gears for example.
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SUMMARY
Highs: The dropper bottles are really useful as is the fact that these colours can be used straight from the bottle. The slight inaccuracies noted are small compared to many other brands and could be easily fixed with a drop or two of light grey or white. Lows: One drawback is that the most common under surface colours, RLM 65 and RLM 76 are both in the first set so unless you want to buy both sets, these two will have to be sourced from somewhere else. As I wrote in my review of the first set, I really hope thaVerdict: Highly recommended!
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