Hey Guys,
I am about to start my Tamiya Tiger I early version. I want make it look like it is part of Rommel's Afrikakorps. What paints will I need for the kit? Did it have a camo pattern? The instructions have a list of colors, but they fall into the older paint selection. As in, dark yellow and tan etc. etc.... Any help out there?
TIA Matt N.

There were two official schemes for North Africa, and each used two colors, so a total of four colors were authorized (plus some vehicles sent in 1943 which had the new Dunkelgelb paint). By 1942, it was normal to paint the tanks at the factory or at depots in Italy before sending them across to Tunisia. In some cases, only the base color was applied rather than the two-color disruptive finish.
The initial Tigers were issued to the 501st Battalion, which was later supplanted by the 504th in early 1943. The slightly later version Tiger from the 504th which was captured and evaluated by the British (and recently restored at Bovington) was finished in the 1941 colors rather than the 1942 scheme (the orders said that older paints could be used up first), so it may be that all the Tigers sent had that finish. If you Google search for photos of the Bovington Tiger, you will see it refinished in paints that match the colors revealed during the restoration process.
For a list of German military colors and their hobby paint equivalents, go to: http://www.miniatures.de/colour-ral-farben.html

if you use tamiya paints you will probably want to use thier XF-60 for the base coat, and possibly some similar, slightly lighter colours for fading, since you would get a lot of fading on the upper surfaces of desert tanks.

This might help.
http://www.alanhamby.com/tiger.html

OK, have the exterior colors I need. Thanks for the replies. I want my kit to be part of Rommel's Afrikakorps. Anybody know what the interior color is or where I can find the appropriate decals?
TIA
Matt N.

The interior colour would be an Ivory colour with the exception of the inside of the hatches. The inside of hatches would be the exterior colour fx. dark grey or sand/tan.

Bison has made a decal sheet for tigers in Africa. It seems to be sold out from their homepage, but I am sure other internet stores will have it in stock.

Hope this helps - good luck with the project

I found some stencils for the exterior. Looked a few interior pics and they appear to be dunkelgrau and schwarzgru. Also noticed that the basecoat for many produced was oxide red, which I have 6 cans of. Going with Krylon's tan ultra-flat for the finished coat.

Rommel did not have Tiger tanks under his command. They belonged to general von Arnim. In fact, when Rommel asked to borrow them for the Kasserine Pass battle, von Arnim refused to hand them over.

Rommel was nominally in charge of Tigers for the last 10 days of his time in Africa, because of his promotion, but he was busy and even during that time von Arnim was still making all the decisions about the Tigers.

The Tigers never carried the "palm tree" logo.

David

This topic is a fossil.

Zombie thread

I was getting ready to answer.