I'm fairly new to this hobby, and I'm wondering if someone out there can help me with camouflage patterns for WW11 German tanks. How to do

thanks
jrrivc

Hi Frank ...hmmmmm like that's really a big order you asking there ...German armor at the beginning of the war were painted a dark gray color ,some had a very dark brown camo pattern which took up 1/3 of the area of the tank . This seems to have been mostly a hard edge camo scheme but i think it could vary . After the French campaigne the brown was dropped and just the gray was used up until the beginning of 1943 when a new base color was introduced ..the was known as dunklegelb (dark yellow ) to this dark green and red brown paint was furnished to camoflage the tank as was seen fit .(usually sprayed on ). this was done till around september of 1944 when it was decided to add the camo colors at the factories .. Many different finishes were tried but most were a hard edge finish ..there were exceptions . After that things get a bit iffy ...I believe that some manufacturers switched over to a green base somewhere at the beginning of 1945 while other manufacturers stayed with the dark yellow . Now this is only the basic stuff ,there are also Afrikakorps vehicles ,but that's another story ...
I hope this is what you were looking for ..If you need anymore info just ask or PM me and I'll try and help you out .

Rick

Hi Rick,

thanks for the info, it was very informative,but what I really wanted to know Rick was wether you painted the camoflauge freehand, or do you have to make some type of pattern.From your initial response, you sound very knowledgable, so if you can throw some light my way on this subject I would be very thankful. Thanks again

frank

It all depends on the model I'm doing ,the dark gray models are easy enough to do ,but probably the hardest to pull off well ...For this type of camo you have to start with a very dark base coat ...I use Tamiya's Nato Black which I spray over the entire model ..this has the added advantage of being the color I like to use on my road wheels for the rubber parts... Next you go back over the whole vehicle with tamiya's Panzer gray but leaving the black show up between panel lines and in some of the deep shadow areas .This has to be very subtle though ...you then lighten the panzer grey using a color like tamiya's buff ..you then go over the tank again using this color to creat different shades ..some lighten just the centers of each panel ,but I am more random with the color to make it look more wear and tear om the vehicle ...once that is done ...you guessed it add a bit more buff to the mix and go over it again . you'll see the effect bring the kit to life .




This effect works on any regular camo such as green or OD as well ...

the cromwell is still on the gloss coat and really shows off the effect well ..

the green on the tiger shows the effect before weathering ..


For free hand three color camos every thing starts out the same way ...you add your Nato Black or you can use a brown base color on dark yellow vehicles ,it's up to you ...you lighten the yellow at least a couple of times same way as the single colored tanks ...you then add the camo green and or red brown and do the same to each of these colors ...remember never lighten green or redbrown with white ,always used a sand color ..white "grays " the colors . just by using this technique you'll see the colors come to life and add character to the model ...here's just a plain yellow challenger to show the lightening effect on a light colored tank ...


here's a kubelwagon just base coated and after with the camo added ..when doing a small line camo such as this it is important to thin the paint a lot to vary the color just by the amount of paint in different areas because you can't really go back and lighten the colors.


same type of camo for the gun


here's an example of the lightend camo colors


If you want to do a hard edge camo ...the best way to do it to use silly putty and just be careful around the edges not to get built up paint ..this is a picture of a friend of mine (Slyvain Couture)latest build showing a great hard edge finish


Well that pretty much does it for the painting lesson ...lol remember one thing ...thin the paints to the the max I use about 30% paint to 70% thinner and do not try and finish in 20 minutes ..you should spray with the nozzle almost closed and at about 25 psi air pressure .. when I spray it takes two or three passes over an area before I begin to see the paint change colors ..but that's the way I get the variations in the colors . I hope this helps ..if you have more questions do hesitate to ask ..sorry for such a long post but this isn,t the easiest question to answer ..lol

Rick

The panzer color books from squadron might help also.
capnjock

Hi Rick,
Sorry i've taken so long to thank you for all of the info and pic.of the camo. I've been real busy these past couple weeks, just now starting to catch up on things . the info was more than I could have bargained for . It was excellent. I'm sure it will prove very valuable to me.Thanks too for the invite if i need any more advice,( which I'm sure i will) I can'nt believe how helpful people are on this site! It's terrific!!

frank

WW11? How the hell did I miss world wars 3 through 10? Did we win?

Sorry I couldn't help myself.