Hi gents.

As the title says I'm looking for evidence of colours applied on Tigers in Tunisia. I've read some reports that some were painted in captured stocks of US OD, but don't know how true that is? So any help is gratefully received.

Many thanks

Darren

The DAK tigers were 2 tone, with the 2 similar tan/brown colors. The Bovington Tiger, an actual Tiger from the DAK, is pretty close IIRC.

Darren,

The answer to your question would ultimately depend on the type of Tiger you wish to model. There were 2 "versions" of Tigers deployed to Tunisia. The ones you were refer to as being painted in an Olive Drab type colour were typical of Tigers from s.Pz.Abt.501. These tigers were initially shipped to Sicily before being sent to North Africa where they were modified by the battalion workshop to have modifications unique to 501st tigers including a re-paint of the tanks themselves. These tanks are best represented by the OOP Cyberhobby DAK Tiger. There has been much discussion as to what colour they were re-painted but I believe the general consensus is that they were either painted RAL8000 or RAL7008 with RAL7008 being closer in my view to OD.

The second version of Tiger's sent to Tunisia were those from s.Pz.Abt. 504 and they are better represented by the Tamiya North Africa Tiger kit and the picture that Jesse posted above. These tanks had features that were different from the 501st tigers including their paint schemes. For instance they had factory designed turret bins which were first installed in January 1943 Built Tigers whilst the 501st Tigers had workshop designed and built turret bins.

I'm sorry, but if those bins were made in the 501 workshop in Sicily, how could they end up on 502 Tigers at Leningrad?



David

The reference to the use of green paint stems from the US Tech Intel report on captured Tiger wrecks as being "green," but the shade was not deemed important. One of the German tropical colors was distinctly greenish, though.
"Tigers in Combat, Volume One" quotes unit veterans as saying they used captured US No. 9 Olive Drab to repaint their equipment, but this was a recollection forty years after the fact, and may betaken with a grain of salt. Color photos taken by Life magazine photographers do not appear to support this, and the 504th battalion Tiger at Bovington was found during restoration to have been originally finished in the two-tone 1941 tropical colors (not the expected 1942 scheme). The current museum repaint matches these.