I would like to know what is the color of the IR unit on the vehicles that the panzer units used?

Metal parts were generally Dunkelgelb, judging from available photos. Lens color is uncertain, but most IR filters are nearly black (though a museum restoration of a German IR system shows a dark blue lens--no idea if it is an original part, though).

When turned off IR lamps appear dark blue.

I always thought IR-lamps were red.
guess I'm wrong then...

Henry

IR – infrared – beyond the red spectrum of visible light in the electromagnetic spectrum – beyond human vision - it is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum before microwave energy kicks in.

Humans see visible light from 200 nanometres to 700 nanometres, infrared is from 750 nanometres (near infrared IR) to 3 micrometers (far IR) after that its microwaves and radio waves beyond.

See here for basic physics 101-

http://www.antonine-education.co.uk/physics_gcse/Unit_1/Topic_5/topic_5_what_are_the_uses_and_ha.htm

When you hold your hand in front of a fire what you feel is radiated infrared – invisible heat waves.

The source of infrared waves for military applications in WWII was an incandesant light source behind what appears to be a black screen. That is designed to block the visible light component and make it invisible to the human eye.

See here for infrared filters 101-

http://msp.rmit.edu.au/Article_03/02c.html

At the Koblenz museum they have a modern blue filter fitted on their Panther IR – it is not original German WWII and it is not an infrared filter. If you place an incandesant light behind it you would get a visible blue light in front. If you did the same thing to a red filter you would get a red light.

The Germans used a celluloid film filter that matched the Wratten 87 scale (Wratten was the guy who’s name still applies to the IR scale of filters). Go to a camera shop to see a Wratten IR filter, it is the same thing that was used during WWII. In 1/35th it would appear black.

That’s for infrared light sources. For infrared receivers (telescopes) they appear like any other scope with a glass optical assemble at the front – glassy.

The body of German receivers such as the FG 1250 was in effect dark yellow – ordinance tan.
Something like the SEEHUND and EGLE navy receivers was probably light grey judging by the photographs (B&W).

Jon,

Thanks for the history, information and links. Interesting stuff. Thus from the information presented the color for IR - infrared - lenses in 72nd scale would also appear black.

-Eddy