This is my first post on this site, which I stumbled across during a search. It seemed to have a knowledgable group of people among the membership. Here's my delimma:
I have a magazine build project coming up, and it involves an expensive 1/32 resin kit of an He 51. It is a beautiful kit of a (IMO) beautiful aircraft, and I want it to be done correctly. My problem is with the color, of course. I have chosen a scheme that involves an overall light gray color, with the pre-war red band with swastika on the vertical stab and rudder. From the windscreen forward the a/c is Bavarian blue, which is fairly close to our True Blue of the period (which became FS15102 I believe).
It's the gray I have trouble with. The painting guide recommends RLM 63 for both the interior and exterior gray. I have tried to get a handle on this color and it's akin, as the saying goes, to nailing Jell-O to a wall. Some sources say RLM 63 was probably very near RLM 02, the early interior color we all know. Other sources make it a darker gray-green. And the renderings I've seen of non-camouflaged He 51s appear to be a sort of light neutral gray, neither blue nor green in cast.
Can anyone give me some advice both on the cockpit color and the exterior gray? I believe that exterior is closer to our modern Light Ghost Gray, but I could be way off. And I'm guessing that this a/c, circa 1938, is RLM 02 inside.
Thanks for your consideration and for allowing me onto your forum.
TOM