Was the Jagd Tiger ever painted with the "Ambush" camo scheme?

And it was used on the Eastern Front, correct?

~CHip :-)

JagdTigers were camouflaged in just about every combination of late war colors. The factory delivery color was changed for armor in late '44 or early '45 from dark yellow to primer red brown. Several had a modified ambush scheme applied, with large areas of dark yellow applied over the primer and spots of red brown and dark green applied. Others were oversprayed with dark green, and even Panzer gray with disruptive patterns of brown.
Both schwere panzerjager abteillungen equipped with JagdTigers fought on the western front---sPzJgAbt 512 surrendering in the Ruhr Pocket

Thanks,

Where it was in the ruhr, was that in winter time, or twords the spring?

THanks again!


~CHip :-)

Panzer gray with overspray? I thought that myth had been erradicated. Has something new cropped up Blue Bear? B/W photos have been mis interpreted for awhile. The old color renditions in Squadron/Signal books aren't reliable in my opinion.

(not meaning to flame -- really just curious)

I read somewhere, and can't for the life of me remember where, that there were a couple of Jagd Tigers involved in the defense of the bridge at Remagen...

Shaun

Shaun, that is correct.

Interesting, BlueBear. Do you have photos of all these color schemes; especially the ambush scheme Jagdtigers? Because the only Jadtiger that can be identified as having an ambush scheme is "331". No other photos show a Jagdtiger in ambush scheme.

PH

Hey, if I do a Bridge at Remagen dio, do I have to build the entire bridge? Or can I just make the tank laying low in some trees?

~Chip :-)

The single largest source for pictures of JagdTigers that I've come across is "US Tank Battles in Germany 1944-45," by Steven J. Zaloga. Granted, black and white pictures are open to interpretation, but close-ups appear to show a predominate upper color of dark yellow, with sprayed patches of either diluted dark green or brown. The painting called for in the Fujimi 1/76 High Grade JagdTiger instructions and box has one version in overall dark yellow, and one in Panzer Gray with dark green pattern. This is for a vehicle numbered "321" with a marking for 3rd SS Panzer. D-Day to Berlin has a color side view of JagdTiger "X7" with an overall dark green overspray a'top the base vehicle color of dark yellow .
The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket was in the spring of 1945. The Ruhr was the industrial heart of Germany, with a large part of the steel production near the Silesian coal fields and those across the Franco-German Border in Alsace-Lorraine. Roughly, Dusseldorf, Essen, Aachen, Metz, Strasburg.

Interesting, Blue Bear, but I don't disagree with the green or brown overspray on dunklegelb. It was your statement on the use of ambush schemes with which I disagreed.

Also no Jagdtigers were ever issued to "Totenkopf", so I would doubt Fujimi got the color scheme correct either. There is no evidence that dunkelgrau was used on late Panzers so I think this scheme is totally bogus with no evidence to support it.

PH

I am with Paul on the one, No Jagdtiger was ever issued to Totenkopf, Paul just to answer one more of my question, if I remembered correctly, is this true, that also no Jagdtiger was issued to any SS formation, right? Like the Hornisse/Nashorn, them are more of a Heer equipment... thanks Paul.

sPzJgAbt 512 had elements attached to 3rd SS during operation "Fruhlingerswachen" in Hungary before being sent to the Rhur. Maybe this explains the decals in the kit - i would think that these vehicles would not have sported the 3rd SS markings however. They would have retained their 512 markings. 3rd SS was indeed not issued any Jadgtigers organically - so there shouldn't be any vehicles with these markings - unless I'm mistaken, of course.

I would stick to yellow base coat, with oversprays of brown and green. That seems to be the way the things were painted, at least the ones I have seen pictures of.

Jeff

Chip,
To answer your question, building the entire bridge would be an extremely daunting task. I have always wanted to model this too, but was thinking just about one tiny section of the German held end of the bridge.

The Bridge...



Shaun

Dave and Jeff, exactly my point: no JT's to any W-SS unit. They may have been attached to W-SS formations but still were Heeres units. And the ambush scheme is only documented on one JT, all the rest appear to be dunkelgelb with overspray.

PH

Oh Chip...you have to do the whole bridge buddy It can't be more than 20 or so feet long in 35th. Oh the Ruhr is a section in Western Germany along the Ruhr River. Heavy industrial area with cities like Essen and Koln along it. #:-)

Ok, Ok, I am information Overload!

One Question:

What kind of diorama could I make with my JagdTiger?

Something possibly small, and or simple.
Maybe hiding in some trees around the Ruhr area.

Thanks!

~CHIP :-)

Chip, just a few more ideas which could be put towards a dio:

Nearing the end of the war, the German command structure, especially in the Ruhr pocket was a shambles. Chaos ruled, and enemy aircraft dominated the skies - thus Jagdtigers were continuosly pursued by fighters and bombers . One of the most important tasks was to disguise themselves against enemy allied aircraft. To this effect, they hid in wooded areas, barns, under straw... anything possible at this perilous time for them. However, the allies were nevertheless fairly successful at putting a good number out of action.

Also, the Ruhr pocket saw a lot of interaction between regular troops and the Volksturm (equivalent to the British Home Guard) as they withdrew further and further towards Berlin -maybe some interaction between a crew and old Volksturm WW1 veterans informing them on the whereabouts of US tanks, giving directions and numbers, ambush sites etc?

One interesting story I heard is that as they withdrew away from the advancing Allies, the train drivers were so scared to man the locomotives due to the high chance of being taken out by Allied aircraft that the tank crews had to drive the locomotives themselves with their Jagdtigers on the flat beds behind them.

Or how about a crew being taken prisoner after being taken out by an aircraft? Verlinden ha some great figures for this.

Cheers,

Cokes.