This little paperback is intended to provide modelers with examples of the various colors that are normally used in plastic modeling. It is organized according to nationality and service, beginning with primary colors, fluorescent colors, and a list of Mr. Color shades. The nationality colors lists begin, naturally, with Japanese Army and Navy, followed by Luftwaffe, RAF, US, US Contemporary, Israel , Japanese SDF, Car Model Colors, WWII German AFV’s, NATO German AFV’s, Allied AFV’s, IJA AFV’s, JGSDF AFV’s, Ship Colors, and Rail Colors. Some colors have FS numbers, and the Luftwaffe RLM numbers are provided. Also included are several shades of silver, and at the extreme back, there are some colors listed that are probably commercially available model paints.

The colors are presented as color paint chips, although they are printed using the normal color printing process. Comparing the German colors with those shown in my Luftwaffe Painting Guide and Hitchcock’s “O-Nine Gallery”, their representations are close on most colors, but there are slight variations. As far as historical accuracy goes, most of us modelers realize that close is usually good enough, especially since we “dirty up” our models once they are painted, so that an exact color shade is meaningless anyway, although it is nice to start as close to the mark as possible.

There is a wealth of information contained in this publication if you read Japanese, but other than some labels identifying the color or category, almost nothing is in English. If this were published with an English translation, it would be extremely useful. It does provide an extensive set of color examples, but an English translation would make this a really handy guide for color reference.

Recommended if you can read Japanese. Thanks to Dragon USA and Model Art Publications for the review sample.