Camouflage Colors (Tiger I) (1 Viewer)

[amund]

Dear Collectors,

Unless I am mistaken, the soon to be released Wittmann's Tiger I tank from Figarti is painted in a camouflage scheme that depicts a Tiger I tank operating in Italy with the schwere Panzer Abteilung 508. This Tiger kompanie also served in Sicily and Greece. Pictures of Tiger tanks involved in the Normandy campaign show darker camouflage colors of dark yellow-green, brown and red. Perhaps the light in the pictures throws the color off?

Thanks,

Alex :smile2:

 

[Phantom Warrior]

Dear Collectors,

Unless I am mistaken, the soon to be released Wittmann's Tiger I tank from Figarti is painted in a camouflage scheme that depicts a Tiger I tank operating in Italy with the schwere Panzer Abteilung 508. This Tiger kompanie also served in Sicily and Greece. Pictures of Tiger tanks involved in the Normandy campaign show darker camouflage colors of dark yellow-green, brown and red. Perhaps the light in the pictures throws the color off?

Thanks,

Alex :smile2:

Hard to say whether darker or lighter is correct for Normandy 1944. But it is very unlikely the wheels were painted in 3 colours. The yellow wheels on the Figarti model would have given a lighter appearance to the tank. Some books like Horst Scheibert with his Panzer colour schemes in Schiffer Military books may have drawings of the tank, but even that is just his opinion.

 

[DMNamiot]

Interesting question that I wish I could answer. I will say that when we painted our tanks the road wheels were always left green or tan when we were gearing up for the desert. So I would agree that they did the same in WWII. Solid colour with mud or dust was very likely especially when the road wheels would not be visible normally due to dug in positions etc. Just a thought.

Dave

 

[Phantom Warrior]

Interesting question that I wish I could answer. I will say that when we painted our tanks the road wheels were always left green or tan when we were gearing up for the desert. So I would agree that they did the same in WWII. Solid colour with mud or dust was very likely especially when the road wheels would not be visible normally due to dug in positions etc. Just a thought.

Dave

Painting a pattern on large road wheels would make them more visible when the tank was moving and the wheels were rotating. The wheels were normally just the basecoat colour. Sometimes the wheels were painted the disruptive colours of the camo but only one colour per wheel.

Terry

 

[Hunter Rose]

Painting a pattern on large road wheels would make them more visible when the tank was moving and the wheels were rotating. The wheels were normally just the basecoat colour. Sometimes the wheels were painted the disruptive colours of the camo but only one colour per wheel.

Terry

Yep. Factory camo'd Hetzers provide excellent reference for the one color per wheel look.

 

[fmethorst]

The German 3 color paint was the same for all fronts. Vehicles were supplied with basecoat of Dunkelgelb (RAL 7028) and the olive green and dark brown were supplied to field units in paste form. These were thinned with various solvents prior to application to the vehicle. The colors and patterns chosen were left to the discretion of the unit. For instance, a unit could choose to only apply only olive green.









Here are a couple shots of "Hitlerjugend" Panzer IVs with fresh camouflage. You can distinctly make out the dark brown and olive green patches.

 

[amund]

Frank,

Thank you for this information.

Alex

The German 3 color paint was the same for all fronts. Vehicles were supplied with basecoat of Dunkelgelb (RAL 7028) and the olive green and dark brown were supplied to field units in paste form. These were thinned with various solvents prior to application to the vehicle. The colors and patterns chosen were left to the discretion of the unit. For instance, a unit could choose to only apply only olive green.









Here are a couple shots of "Hitlerjugend" Panzer IVs with fresh camouflage. You can distinctly make out the dark brown and olive green patches.