Don’t mix paints from different manufacturers, there is a risk that their chemistry is not compatible and you end up with useless bottles/tins
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The 1970’s, as I recall them was far more accepting of variety as it was the time of the Let It Be Generation. There was a magnitude less of information that was readily available on this topic. Modelers were far less likely to to get excited about color accuracy.
Probably Panzer Colors printed in 1976 was the modern start of wider interest in color accuracy for the typical German AFV modeler. Paint color choices were narrow that era unless you mixed your own. Field gray, dark gray or afirica brown being popular for German AFV’s.
My 1/25 Tamiya Tiger 1, from ~1977 or 1978 being fairly typical. Rattle can said German WW2 Africa or somelike that. That was about the limit of research available for many modelers at that time.
Obviously, it’s hilariously the wrong color. On the bright side, the model managed to survive for ~47 years on the shelf. It survives as a reminder model building can be fun even when details and color accuracy is wrong
Thanks to Panzer Colors by the late 1980’s, this custom mix of Floquil Railroad Road colors, with the Dunkelgelb being mostly Depot Buff IIRC was my idea of accuracy. Minicraft 1/25 Panther a copy of the Tamiya kit from ~1989.
As I recall it, Panzer Colors had a big impact, it also was full of mistakes.
FWIW - US WW2 veterans I talked too in the 1970’s that were willing to talk tended to describe German AFV’s as appearing black or dark in color at the Battle of the Bulge. Sometimes white washed sometimes not. Extreme dislike, disgust and contempt for the SS especially 1st SS & 12th SS for shooting medics and prisoners often came up when opinions on SS was asked. One mentioned, his platoon stopped taking SS prisoners after they machine gunned his units medics at BotB through end of the war.
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I realize repeating one’s self does not make for any greater degree of proof. (But I’m gonna do it anyway,)
Original German paint as seen upon removing the floorboards and armor on the Sd.Kfz. 251/9 during early restoration work at the Patton Museum; Ft. Knox, Kentucky.
Kind’a pinkish tan.
I did not say I liked this shade/color (too lite for my modeling tastes) Just herein showing you the real deal as I saw it with my own eyes. I have also posted other original samples elsewhere on this thread that appear much more warm yellow/tan.
My personal take: The German “Dark Yellow” is much lighter than any of us want to believe.
p.s. I seem to recall somewhere that I was told the darker, more yellow/tan color was used, early war, in North Africa.
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Someday, I am going to build a Pzkw. II or one of those 221 armored cars with a tin of Humbrol Afrika Korps Desert Yellow. Just for fun. I still have some. If it’s dried up, I will just mix that color up.
If the Experten have fainting spells, oh well!
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I have to believe that Humbrol Afrika Korps color was inspired by something.
And elsewhere here, there is the photo of the jerrycans with one being that color.
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Might the obvious answer be that there were occasional variations to the colors?
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Dear UH:
I think you were right somewhere in the diachronic spectrum insofar as my original post, on Dg has been “done to death” or some such thing, or was it someone else? Now that I have seem to have opened some kind of dialectic portal on the subject as we bare witness to skilled modelers entering into kerfuffles and recriminations about Dg, I dare say I that I now take it all back—all of it, as I care too much about my learned colleagues.
We must remember, I think, that we are scale modelists who engage in an unappreciated art form, but we are not proper historians or some sort of art scholars and clinicians who must be held to some epistemological orthodoxy in which there is one truth to which we must all bow and there is no room for interpretation or license.
This is partly why I now regret the post and probably should have asked you or MR or someone here or equal gravitas before I popped off. While I am not here to abjure the original enquiry, I am here to say that over officious and vexatious ripostes are not what I was seeking. Rather, I was simply expressing frustration as it seemed to me, as a modeler of 14 months experience, that I was receiving mixed messages from some revered scale modelers in that their videos and statements were mostly going jt the direction of a Sand or Desert Yellow hue (I’m eschewing talk of scales and other such things in the name of sanity man, dammit,) .
Was the latter the raison d’etre for Tamiya to issue a “Dark Yellow 2” D*****g paint mix? If so, I can more easily regard it as no desideratum, but, instead, something more like a bad sequel, like “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.” I’ll get on EBay and buy up all of the Dark Yellow original paint.
S/
Dan
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I think, can’t prove it, but I think some new information was brought to light.
It happens from time to time that new information turns up so the facts from
a previous discussion might possibly be outdated.
New members and/or new modelers do not always know what was said/written
some years back so even if the latest discussion did not bring up anything new
the it at least repeated the old information for the new audience.
We also managed to have some fun in between.
There will always and everywhere be some who take a subject far too seriously.
There is no point in reacting or getting hurt by “officious and vexatious ripostes”,
just filter out the useful bits, if there are any, and move on to the next post.
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Oh, UH, I wasn’t complaining of my own anxiety or hurt feelings, It was more of a lament as I beheld the spectacle of fellow travelers engaging in quasi ad hominem attacks (that’s probably a tad overcooked) on my post. I’m more bothered by that than anything anyone else might say to me. Thanks my friend
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Indeed Robin these types of discussions are always informative whenever they come up. These are more a friendly bar room discussion than a Phd. thesis. No malignancy or vitriol intended. A few may pick a hill to die on, but most contribute to good natured information.
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@Sladenyv Daniel, when it comes to plastic modeling always remember:
Sayre’s Law: “Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low.”
1/35 scale corollary
“Scale modeling is the most vicious and bitter form of modeling, because the stakes are so very small.”
Based on seeing two grown adult men in their ~40’s nearly get into a fist fight arguing over a fiddle bit at an IPMS show long ago.
Cheers 
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Mike Memmo (RIP) broke up a 15 minute shouting match at an AMPS annual meeting with, “Hey! This is all about little plastic tanks!”
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Aye, verily; as a curious coincidence I was just lamenting the same to Robin. But, nevertheless, your point and witticism is the best on the matter, sub judice, yet. Thus, there is no point in me attempting to argue the point any further. Brilliant!
Dan
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Oh no, not another “dunkel” color that people will argue about! 
Ken
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Drunkelgelb. 
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What about Olivegrun, and Rotbrun? Does no one care about the exact shades of those colors, or is that two more different cans of worms? 
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Michael Schenker???
I’m confused particularly about the red-brown color.
I’m guessing there was more than one.
https://www.schenker.beer/about
Joey Pepper-Mellusi
I had never heard about this beer before, not a beer enthusiast …
I picked the “best”, for a subjective criteria of best, image from a Google search for ‘Dunkelbier’ …
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