It's a color, not necessarily a cerakote. Some of it is color injected polymer or anodized too .

 

It’s not just a Cerakote color. RAL is color management system that originated in a Germany in the 20’s. The first digit is a system code number (1: yellow, 2: orange, 3: red, 4: violet, 5: blue, 6: green, 7: grey, 8: brown and 9: white and black shades. The following three digits are assigned to differentiate colors inside of the master colors numbered 1-9. RAL8000 was first used by the Afrika Korps during World War 2, and later by the Bundeswehr. Simply put, it’s the equivalent of Magpul Flat Dark Earth or Knights Armament’s Taupe.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAL_colour_standard

 

It was a color shade, basically discovered in a diaper in the early 20th century..😉

 

RAL8000 is a specific shade of cerakote, as seen on the European MR556

European MR556s MR223s are not cerakoted.

And colors of their anodizing and polymer differ quite often. They thus call it "RAL8000-like"(ish).

This is why ol' Henry Ford had it right with the color of his cars...

 

This is why ol' Henry Ford had it right with the color of his cars...

RAL8000 is the new black! 😂

 

I don’t think there is any true ral8000 anodizing. Which is to mean exact color match. The cerakote ral8000 and injection molded parts are a yellow kind of color. Tanodizing as some call it is a clear process that reacts with metal, many other companies do it and they don’t call it ral8000. So I think everyone calls tanodized parts ral8000 even though they really aren’t, they are closer to a burnt bronze that can be yellowie or greenie.

 

IIRC HK does add a "magic" dye to their RAL8000 anodizing baths.

 

Americans tend to like it more than Europeans. Me likey.

 

Americans tend to like it more than Europeans. Me likey. View attachment 363931

I really don’t love it or hate it. Being a history buff I know what it is and how it worked out great for the desert fox. I have some old Afrika Korps memorabilia, and I’ve had people asked me when I displayed it what the color is so I have educated a few people out there on it.
Germans (me - 3 generation born in this country ) do not discard anything that works or can still be used so it doesn’t surprise me that it has survived all these years to be utilized again
Maybe somebody out there can anodize the big man’s bipod to match that sweet weapon 😉👍🏻
(assuming that is yours sir)

 

Interestingly, the first RAL product Deutschland ever produced was the German Shepherd, still in production to this day!

 

Delta agrees😁

 

Just remember, kids...

In regards to S&B optics and color (RAL or Pantone)....
It costs you more than black from the dealer
It nets you less than black when you re-sell it
...you eat it 2x

 

Thats why you buy high, sell low. Or buy from some other idiot and get a stupid deal to where you can't lose money

 

 

The whole pay extra for RAL8000 thing makes about as much sense to me as paying extra for HK LEO only magazines.

If LEO/Government use magazines are truly worth a lot more, I have a bunch of M16 magazines I'll sell you.


RCA

 

The cost is usually because they make less runs of them. The RAL223A3's captured a better price because there were fewer brought in originally (not sure about more recent batches).

 

It's Europe's version (created by Germany) of our Pantone color system.

 

With "RAL" being the abbreviation for "Reichs-Ausschuss für Lieferbedingungen" (Imperial Committee for Conditions of Supply), being founded in 1927 and "PMS" (Pantone Matching System) being invented in 1963, I'd say it's the other way round: Pantone is the US Version of Germanys RAL Colour Standard.

Just sayin'.

 

I’d love to have a real FDE HK 416, but this is the FDE 416 I have at home

 

There will always be variations from manufacturer to manufacturer and batch to batch, despite the fact that RAL is a defined color scheme.