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The one thing on this Stug that really puzzles me is that red on the Balkenkreuz, it makes no sense at all. I can't imagine that the white would have deteriorated completely down to the primer, since than it should have also deteriorated the Dunkel Gelb inderneath.
With regards to the unit insignia, I think the bright red was painted on top of the white. At the top of the unit emblem you can see a faint white outline. You can also see the white coming through the bright red, but not the other way around. I think a stencil with the whole shield was used to create the white background, then another stencil was lain over that before spraying the red.
Same for the Balkenkreuz. It looks like it was initially black and white, but someone later sprayed or hand painted bright red over the white portions.
The paint is wearing in the reverse order it was applied. Bright red to white, white to dunklegelb/olivgrun/schokoladenbraun, dunklegelb/olivgrun/schokoladenbraun to primer. As would be expected, the vertical surfaces are generally holding up better than the horizontal ones. The horizontal surfaces are also much more contaminated by dust, which complicates identification and scatters light during photography.
To me, the primer red looks consistent with rust colored paints--pretty darn red in direct light but almost dark brown in indirect light. The Finnish Stug shots were taken outside on an overcast day, with diffused sunlight giving good illumination. This Fort Knox Stug was photographed inside in poor light using a (not very powerful) flash.
I would like to see a close-up, well lit photo of a vertical surface suspected to be schokoladenbraun, to see if it is wearing off and the primer showing through. Or are the those areas wearing to bare metal?
-Doug
