Any sources on the DDR NVA camouflage patterns used in 1988-89 on BMP-1s? I have found one photo and a couple of broken links, and not much else.

Thx,
KL

Hi Kurt;
East Germany like most Warsaw Pact did not Camo,- Paint there vehicles on a regular basis, Most of pics that you see are of vehicles that were out on exercises and had camo-flauge nets draped onto there tanks. the use of Natural Camoflauge was more Common.
Winter was where you would see more camos, with White Tempura type paint.
CHEERS; MIKE.

Here are a few pics of a NVA BMP-1 (1P or SP2 ?)










from Henrik Clausen's website

HTH

Frenchy

Hi,

the offical term for thsi camouflage was "Verzerrungsanstrich". Maybe helpful. and here a link. It#s in german but maybe helpful despite this.
http://www.panzerbaer.de/colours/a_relaunch/nva_verzerr.htm

It shows no bmp but the regulation seems to be the same for every vehicle.

The color chart is self explanatory. The meat of the instructions are at the end:

Troops had a relatively free hand in the application of the camouflage. The following standards were to be observed:
The splotches must be different shapes and asymmetrically applied. The single splotches should be no narrower than .5 m at their smallest. The borders must be at an angle to the edge of the vehicle between 30 and 60 degrees. Windows and other openings should be in the field of the darker color, or in the border between two colors. The running gear such as the wheels of the vehicle should be painted one color, in order to prevent noticeable changes in color while the vehicle is moving.

So you can pretty much do what you want as long you look at the examples and follow the guidelines. It doesn't even appear that the truck in the photo follows them completely with regard to the windows.

Thanks guys, that'll do it!

KL