I was asked to restore a series of mono negatives from the classic Universal show "Airwolf" action show from the mid 1980's at a time when action adventure shows were all the rage.

This was an unusual assignment because this is one of the rare times where colour reference existed for the job I was doing.

Only one other colourisation I have done has had colour reference. I was actually stuck for choice for colour reference here and noticed very small differences in colour in the reference 35mm slides.

Once I was able to get colour reference for this shot, it was obvious there are a lot of colour in the shot I would have never known about especially the machinery above the actor Jan Michael Vincent.

These were clearly promotion shots done for the show.

One main issue was the flight suit he is wearing. In real life it has a more subdued grey colour but I quickly found on slides and the TV show itself it has a purple or blue hue depending on the lighting situation.

It's very similar to the shirt William Shatner wore in the original Star Trek in terms of how the colour changed in different lighting conditions.

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