Review AK Interactive Book : Real Colors of WW2 - Michigan Toy Soldier Blog

[CondeJulian]

Hello,

Fresh from the oven my latest review of the most amazing book ever published about AFV colors. This new release from AK Interactive is the most comprehensive and detailed document ever made for us, modellers and war era lovers. Take a look at the full review at Michigan Toy Soldier Store Blog and prepare to be amazed !! There's nothing like this book out there...

Check out the full review on the link below :

REAL COLORS OF WW2 FULL REVIEW

The book is a limited edition, hand signed and checked each copy for color accuracy before leaving the factory. The book is printed with a 4% error tolerance from the real color.

Some more photos :

Hope you like it, I am in love with this book...

Best
Julian

www.michtoy.com

 

[Redcap]

Excellent review and this looks to be a very interesting and doubtless popular book especially amongst the AFV chaps. At least this should allow you to get 'there or thereabouts' replicating WW2 colours. Given however that you cannot get 2 computer controlled tins of the same colour big brand name paints at the local DIY in 2018 that match if taken from different batches, then I think any expectation that each and every single vehicle was the exact shade of a particular RLM or BS colour being (then) manually mixed paint pigments is unrealistic. I mean, would a factory knocking out, say, 'Panzer Grey' in a factory at one end of Europe and another at the opposite end of the continent (and often run by slave labour) be 'exact' matches and that process occurring almost 80 years ago and with scant wartime resources, quality control and logistics etc?

Chromatic shift on old photos and paint fading on 75 years old paint chip samples will create a wide variance of colour and hue. These comments are not a criticism of the book in any way but I think the whole subject needs to be considered in some context rather than interpreted as an 'exact science'.

Gary

 

[Tony Barton]

I have the book ,and it's good. The information is interesting,there are masses of original colour photos , and in all it's pretty good summary of all the recent research. The acknowledgements of some of the pioneering work of Zaloga and Starmer are very small, very meagre and in small print right at the back : a bit shabby, given that without their work the book could not have been written.
Overall the colour chips on the page are fairly good; beware the paints themselves! I have brought some of the British colours, and some are good, but one or two are just weird., like the SCC2 Khaki Brown : far too orange.

But if you are new to armour modelling, this is a good start on explaining the camo systems of the various countries.

 

[Babelfish]

+1 to what Gary said.

And make no mistake: The willy-waving by the (self-appointed) "experts" on the AFV forums and the endless debates and squabbles over what is and what isn't "historically accurate" will continue regardless.

Nice-looking book though.

- Steve

 

[alanmac]

+1 to what Gary said.

And make no mistake: The willy-waving by the (self-appointed) "experts" on the AFV forums and the endless debates and squabbles over what is and what isn't "historically accurate" will continue regardless.

Nice-looking book though.

- Steve

I don't know about the "willy-waving" you refer to but this rather telling discussion on Missing Lynx with posts by one of the books contributors must be regarded as relevant. I was going to purchase the book, hesitated due to it's price, and now have decided not to.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/433829/thread/1511295457/last-1514020481/AK+real+Briish+colors

 

[Nap]

Hi Julian

Thanks for the review very nicely done and with constructive comments from others as well .

Steve ..."Willy waving " ...I dread to think ..lol

Nap

 

[Babelfish]

@ Alan - I didn't have Mike Starmer in mind, as he is a widely recognised authority in the field and one of only a tiny handful of people whose opinion on wartime paints can be regarded as being in any way "expert" and therefore worth taking any notice of.

That's a useful link you've shared. Attention should definitely be drawn to these things.

- Steve

 

[MrBMB]

So many books all great to read.
I also agree on people talking about exact colours on models. If you have to real car and one sits in the sun and one in a garage, colours change fast. Once the go through mud, creeks, rivers/dust and all that, everything changes. In modelling unless your only going to add that one straight colour I think its kind on pointless due to when you add thinners, washes, pin washes, dust from pastels and the rest that 'real" colour is looonnng gone.

 

[colonnello kurz]

I have it too, it's a good book for sure but it's not perfect and it seems to me that this is not a review but an advertisement

 

[CondeJulian]

I have it too, it's a good book for sure but it's not perfect and it seems to me that this is not a review but an advertisement

Kurz, by any means this is advertisement. As I explain on the review, I did not now how detailed and precise were the German instructions for painting a vehicle, and I had never seen so much information in one book about it, at least when we compare it with Panzer Colors and such.
For me, this was a amazing read and very mind blowing experience, seeing some photos for the first time, and so much data on war paint I was not aware before.

I don't get any money writing these reviews, and when something sucks, I say it out loud, but his book does not, for me.

So, please keep in mind that this is my opinion on the book, not sponsored by AK in any way. I was glad to have it and gave my honest words on it, I don't know if it's perfect or not because I had never been aware of 80% of what I read, so when a good brand team up with 4 great guys who knows more on the subject then all of us combined, I think they did a good job to impress me.

Best,
Julian

 

[tigerdio]

Sir, I have these colors, they are great and for miniature scales and not for actual 1/1 vehicles. They are reproduced from original British, Russian, German, USA paint chip samples. If they are wrong, it means the paint chips from the original vehicles in museums and in actually W.W.II archives are also wrong.

They are also the only Acrylic colors on the market that allow you to mix them with other Acrylics such as Tamiya, Gunze, etc due to an added additive that allows them to do so. They can even be sprayed with the Tamiya thinner and other lacquer thinners.

I have the book ,and it's good. The information is interesting,there are masses of original colour photos , and in all it's pretty good summary of all the recent research. The acknowledgements of some of the pioneering work of Zaloga and Starmer are very small, very meagre and in small print right at the back : a bit shabby, given that without their work the book could not have been written.
Overall the colour chips on the page are fairly good; beware the paints themselves! I have brought some of the British colours, and some are good, but one or two are just weird., like the SCC2 Khaki Brown : far too orange.

But if you are new to armour modelling, this is a good start on explaining the camo systems of the various countries.