I will left just last in row, industrial protection color, wrongly described as RLM 84
Yes, some "historians" have made great damage to the truth... RLM 84 didn't exist at all.
Some years ago, before I began my work on German camouflages for the French review "Aéro-Journal", I've contacted some "experts" in German colors about RLM 83 asking simply what tone it was : green or gray ? For some, I'm always awaiting the answer... One of them prided himself in having reconstituted this color. I asked him where he found the formulae which apparently has been lost... I'm always awaiting the answer !
Personnally, basing my idea on the restaured He 162 A of the "Musée de l'air" at Le Bourget, I think RLM 83 was a gray color but dark enough to very well see white markings on it as it's specified in the
Sammelmitteilung Nr. 2 on 15th August 1944 (RLM didn't named colors, they gave only in the texts the reference number, and it's why we find only the reference "RLM 83", without the description of the color. We know only it's a dark color...) Well ; on this He 162 (WNr 120015) there is a totally unknown medium gray color on the fuselage sides. That's not RLM 76 very well identified on the forward fuselage and vertical fin and rudder assemblies. Other colors found are RLM 81 on the engine cowlings, RLM 82 on the back of the fuselage and... RLM 70 and RLM 65 on the wooden wings.
We don't know if a hypothetical third Sammelmitteilung ever existed, by which color 83 had to be applied...
Have a good day,
Jicéhem
