Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Sea Harrier FRS1
Sea Harrier FRS1 Colour Schemes
Prior to the Falklands, RN Fleet Air Arm Sea Harriers carried a two-tone scheme of Humbrol 123 (Extra Dark Sea Grey) over Humbrol 130 (Satin White). During the campaign, these aircraft had the white portions overpainted to make an overall Humbrol 123 (Extra Dark Sea Grey) scheme. In operations, this scheme was deemed too dark at high level and replacement aircraft were given an Medium Sea Grey paint job. After the Falklands campaign, all Sea Harriers were repainted in an even lighter scheme of overall Humbrol 164 (Dark Sea Gray).
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Pre-Falklands two-tone scheme
Official Scheme: Extra Dark Sea Grey topsides over white lower surfaces.
Suggested paints: Humbrol 123 (Extra Dark Sea Grey) over Humbrol 130 (Satin White).
This scheme was glossy before the mid-1970s, and matt later. While in some photographs this scheme appears a blue colour, it is Extra Dark Sea Grey. The white underside colour was painted out on 800Sqn aircraft on the trip to the Falklands, leaving these aircraft overall Extra Dark Sea Grey.
Falklands scheme (early)
Official Scheme: Overall Extra Dark Sea Grey.
Suggested paints: Humbrol 123 (Extra Dark Sea Grey)
Operationally this overall scheme was deemed too dark and replacement aircraft were painted with a lighter scheme of overall Medium Sea Grey. All aircraft were gradually repainted in the lighter scheme during and after the campaign.
Falklands scheme (late)
Official Scheme: Overall Medium Sea Grey.
Suggested paints: Humbrol 165 (Medium Sea Grey).
Replacement aircraft for the Falklands campaign were painted overall Medium Sea Grey - although in practice the colours ranged from a very light grey colour, through to a purple hue. Note the subdued colour of the RAF roundels.
Post-Falklands scheme
Official Scheme: Overall Dark Sea Grey.
Suggested paints: Humbrol 164 (Dark Sea Grey).
After the conflict, the Fleet Air Arm adopted an overall low visibility scheme of Dark Sea Grey for its Harriers.
WARNING: On-screen colour swatches may differ significantly from the actual hue of the paint. Use the Humbrol colour numbers for reference and make sure to test the paint on scrap plastic before using on the main kit.
SCALE EFFECT: Scale effect is the changes to percieved colours based on how far the viewer is away from the object. In scale models, this means that smaller scale models appear darker when painted in the authentic colour of the real world object. To make the model "look" like the real object, you need to paint it in a lighter shade of the colour. 1/32nd scale models should be 5-15% lighter, 1/48 should be 10-25% lighter and 1/72nd scale models should be 15-30% lighter.
Unfortunately for most colours it isn't as simple as adding white. Primary colours like red become pink when white is added. You need to add lighter tones of the base color to get a lightened version of the primary colour.
For example this Cybermodeller article lists several colours to match Extra Dark Sea Grey at different scale levels, citing Humbrol 125 (Matt US Dark Grey) as a 1/72 scale match taking scale effect into consideration.