Are there any major differences between WWII German anti-tank crew , anti-aircraft gun crew and infantry uniforms? I don't see any just looking at the figures, but am I missing something? I'm building a Pak 40 and a FlakVierling 38 and would like to use some infantry figures as extra crew.

Hi UB, generaly the uniforms fielded by towed gun crews & regular infantry/panzergrenadiers were the same; " the standard field gray uniform".
But when it comes to the self-propelled (SP) guns crews the difference is crews wearing the field-gray sturmartillerie jacket, reed green denim panzerjacke or in some cases the black panzerjacke.
There were some cases however of towed gun crews from specific units who were distributed the gray sturmartillerie jackets. This of course was a matter of what supplies of these unforms were still available.
Now there's the matter of pipping for the uniforms of the towed guns crews and that can get a little more involved since it varied of being if they were regualr infantry or paner division towed guns crews.
Hope this helps you out a little.
- ralph

Thanks, that does help. I knew about the piping, but wasn't sure if there was a notable difference in belts, pack straps, etc...

Bret,

In terms of equipment all forces were issued the standard Y-straps and belt (the belt buckles differed between WSS, Army, Luftwaffe, etc). Other personal equipment was generally the same, although (and forgive me if I'm wrong - most of my reference material is sitting in a container in Port Louis at the moment) the breadbags of Luftwaffe ground staff, i.e. Ack-Ack gun crews, was a Luftwaffe blue-ish grey.

What other equipment were you wondering about? Which crews/figures are you planning on adding?

Rudi

I have the Tamiya Pak 40, German Machine Gun Troops and Panzergrenadier sets in 1/35 (the three sets together cost less than 15 bucks!), and their Flakvierling 38 and German Infantry in 1/48. And I also have the 3 figures from Tamiya's 1/35 37mm AT gun.

Luftwaffe Flak crews were issued with black one-piece overalls. I have also seen photos of these being worn by SS & Army Flak crews. As Ralph says, SP units wore the Field Gray version of the Special Panzer clothing & derivatives. Panzergrenadiers of PanzerLehr Division all wore this uniform also. The figures you have mentioned are not really suitable as Luftwaffe Flak crew, as although the uniform tunic was issued to Luftwaffe units, it was really used more for parades & walking out, the usual field uniform was the Fliegerbluse, a short open-necked tunic without external pockets (Tristar do some I think). SS Pak crews wore Camo smocks like the infantry over their service dress.
The specific weapons you refer to will define what Waffenfarbe you choose to use. The Pak40 was issued to anti-tank companies in Panzergrenadier regiments from 1942 on (apple green piping Heer, white SS). They weren't issued to regular non-motorised infantry regiments, as they required a 3 ton tractor to pull them (overall weight of gun around 1.5 tonnes), although the 1.5 ton trucks like the Steyr 1500 were just about capable (Sdkfz11 series standard towing vehicle or Sdkfz251 if available). They were used in divisional Panzerjager Abteilungen, in Infantry Divisions, Panzerjager used pink piping like Panzer units.
In Panzerjagerabteilungen of Panzer Divisions, even if the first two companies were SP, the third was usually towed 75mms (pink piping again).
The Flakvierling was a similar sort of weapon, used both in Flak companies of Infantry & Panzer regiments, also headquarters units, as well as light companies of Flak Abteilungen (red Waffenfarbe). I have seen photos of members of an SS Butchery (i.e. meat suppliers, not murderers!) company manning smaller calibre Flak (e.g.37mm) , presumably under their black overalls they are wearing their normal uniforms.

no intention of jacking the thread but what is this "pipping" you guys are talking about?

Piping on the shoulderboards, and IIRC the early field caps. It was used to denote the division of the armed services, e.g. white for infantry, red for artillery, pink for panzer.

thanks, one last question...what is the IIRC mean?

my apologies for my extreme noobness

No worries

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly

danke!

Now, about helmets. It seems that early war helmets had the decals on the sides, but late war helmets didn't. If this is true, about when did they quit using the decals? The only reference book I have on German infantry is Military Illustrated's Stormtrooper, and it doesn't go into much detail on helmets.

Hi UB,

I'm no specialist on helmets (nor uniforms) but later in the war, panzerregiments were issued with panzerjäger in stead of tanks. The crew of these vehicles were granted the right to wear the black panzeruniform.

For the 2 kits you mention in your first post, it would also be helpfull if you tell us what timeperiod and which unit you want to make them. For example, early in the war only Luftwaffe units were manning AA-guns later in the war, Heer and Waffen-SS units got their own AA-Abteilungen and their members wore Heer or SS-uniforms.
Later in the war (IIRC 1942) there was the Luftwaffe (actually called) air mobile Panzer Division "Hermann Goring" (I'm still wondering how they airlifted Panthers and Tigers in those days). The members of this last division would wear Luftwaffe-uniforms (this includes the antitank regiment (equiped with the PAK 40).

Hope this helps,

Peter

France, mid to late '44. Both kits come with crew in infantry style uniforms. I'm wanting to add to those crews, not re-crew them completely.

A site devoted to the German helmet

http://www.german-helmets.com/

Should be pretty comprehensive. hope it helps

Alan

Third Reich Combat Helmets feature on Historicus Forma

Alan and Rudi, Thanks! That is just what I was looking for.

Wow! The 5 figures I'm planning on could possibly have 5 different looking helmets! Cool!