We've all heard it. 

"That is the incorrect shade of Dunklegelb! Late War was more yellow!!" 

You know, that modeller who insists their colour knowledge is much better than the person who actually built the model. That modeller who will stomp his feet in a huff at a model show because they are right and you are wrong. 

Guess what? Everyone is wrong. 

There is no such thing as an accurate colour. 

"Bullshit!" I can hear you all screaming at your screens right now, but no, it's not bullshit and I'll tell you why.

Colour is viewed differently from person to person. Environmental factors such as lighting can wildly change the way colour is interpreted. Try lighting your model with a warm spectrum globe and then with a cool spectrum globe. Different light wave lengths will change the paint colour. 

Then on top of this, everyone's eyes are different. Most will see very similar colours, maybe up or down a shade compared to someone else's but some will be wildly different. Colour blindness is a good example of this and can be mild to extreme.

And then there's interpretation. Interpretation of what the colour is. Have you ever heard someone call an Aqua shade a green when you thought of it as a blue? Or an orange toned yellow that looks like a pale orange yet someone else thinks of it as a yellow? It's all down to interpretation and what the viewer believes to be correct.

So then how do we get that "historically" correct colour for that German Panther for example?

Well, you don't.

You will never get a historically correct colour but you will get what you interpret as a close representation of the colour in question. 

Photo references all suffer the same fate as outlined above - they are all interpreted differently - and as for the modern formulas for current standards, yes they are made to spec but once they go into use, they look completely different again.

So by the time the first colours go down, then you weather, filter etc, the final colour of the model will be completely different to what you started with anyway. So many variations will change how the final colour is interpreted, so I am always at a loss when I hear those eye rolling words "that's not the correct colour, it should be <insert shade here>" not because those words are partially wrong, but more the point that it just doesn't matter because no one is right and it's all subjective to the viewers interpretation of said colours.

Quite a number of our paint colours are correct to spec. They are mixed to the formulas given as a part of government standards but yet, when applying on plastic to create a realistic model, they are still only a representation as they are not a 100% accurate colour due to factors as outlined above. 

When it all boils down to it, the only thing about your model that matters is that you had fun. YOU enjoyed building it, YOU enjoyed painting it, YOU like how it looks completed. 

Stop building to impress others and start creating to enjoy yourself.

It's your model, go nuts. 

- Scott.