was there a particular pattern used when painting german vehicles, and were all vehicles field painted or were some painted in the factory?

boy,thats going to open a can of worms!Some were painted in the field,some in the factory,all manner of designs,shapes,patterns and colours.....I must confess to not knowing the full ins and outs of german panzer colours,as i stick to good old olive drab and british bronze green

See - Heading - REFERENCES NEEDED HERE!!!!

I agree with the previous post. With all late German WW II equipment, particularly armor, paint patterns, application, quality, methodology, etc... varied from unit to unit, and even from machine to machine. Many tanks at the end of the war shipped from partially remanufactured pieces, and many new machines shipped in bare primer or in one color. Sometimes paint bricks were supplied with the machines, and these bricks were thinned with thinner, gasoline, urine, whatever was had. Paint was brushed, sprayed, dumped, whatever could work.

To answer your question, there is not a standard scheme that applied to all vehicles. There were standard schemes applied to specific vehicles, but they were not as structured as say, British camoflauge on Spitfires and Hurricanes. Additionally, some machines were painted at the factory, and some were painted or indeed re-painted in the field. In short, not the answers you were probably looking for.

When modeling Luftwaffe or German Armor, the best thing you can do is to build your reference library. You don't have to spend a fortune to do it either. Start on the internet. Do google searches for your vehicle. Example, do a search for all images titled, "Panther" or "Panther tank" or "Hetzer." The Squadron "In Action" books on these vehicles are available for under $10 each. Also, search this site, WW2Modelmaker, missing lynx, track-link, Hyperscale, Fine Scale Modeler, Modeling Madness, PC Modeler, Internet Modeler, IPMS-USA, and all of the other excellent websites to view models of subjects similar to the one you are going to do.

HTH, and good luck.

Scott