Hi everyone.

Would the jack blocks on a Tiger I Afrika have been removed before spraying the camouflage color?

Thanks.

Alex

Alex;

I'm not sure of your question! I could easily be wrong, here, but I have the impression that those Tigers which went to Africa ended up mono-tone brown or desert tan or maybe some olive green color and did not have anything like "camo", if by camo we mean some sort of second color applied in stripes or patches.

The mono-tone would have been a new base-coat over the original manufacturer's dunkelgrau. But this was probably applied before those Tigers shipped to Africa, and was done in a shop, so all of that OVM probably was removed and not simply painted-over.

Bob

That's an interesting point you make Bob. The photos of these tanks show a monotone scheme yet I read they arrived in Africa Grey in color and were painted over in Brown or Green/Grey. Veterans of the US Army mention the Olive Green Tiger tanks with no mention of Grey underneath. Tiger 813 is dark in color (Olive Green?) and this is the subject of my build.

Speaking of colors, I read on another site that the jack blocks varied in color yet rarely were just plain wood.

Be well.

Alex

The jack blocks would likely have been produced by different companies; the German's made use of smaller companies to produce bits and pieces and then sent those off the the larger companies for full production, which is why the British/ American bomber raids weren't as effective as they could have been. With different companies you would see different varnishes, especially late war when they used what they had.

Plus many crews didn't bother to remove or mask tools prior to painting. Not sure if DAK equipment was painted by individual crew or or a company or battalion 'paint shop'.

Mr. Bryden can probably conjure up a few color photos of 813, if any exist. I don't remember which of the Tunisian Tigers have color photos.

My understanding is German armor was generally produced and shipped either in standard grey or dark yellow (can't recall which replaced which) and then was repainted in-theater. Knowing the Germans, they were probably very meticulous in their painting in depot early in the war, but as things started to go not so much their way later on they probably would have been slapping on the paint in the field without so much regard for neatness. No references to back that opinion up, but makes sense to me and is consistent with what I have read.

There are several good pictures of Tigers in Tunisia at the end of the German experience in Africa. They may have been a dark gray plus a lot of dust, or they may have been a sand or olive greenish color - but the one property I cannot begin to ascribe to them was any sort of slip-shod or rough n ready field paint jobs, unlike the early efforts done by the DAK troopies on their dark gray vehicles back in 1941. These Tigers were treasures and the "Great White Hope" for Panzer Armie Afrika (later the German-Italian Panzer Armie) - not thought of as last-minute into-the-breach odds and ends. I am fairly sure that they were not treated in any slip-shod, ad-hock fashion.

As to colors of jack-blocks... we modelers (I included) like to paint them as if they were some sort of varnished or oiled wood with metal banding (they were wood with metal bands) - and many of us treat them as if they were originally "wood-colored". Actually, I am fairly certain that most were probably factory-painted the regulation base color of the vehicles! SOME seen in later-war photos ended up getting camo-painted by crew who did paint over tools and spare parts and spare tracks when applying camo over the later-war dunkelgelb base color.

Cheers!

Bob

Bob: you make an excellent point. The Afrika Tigers were painted well. As you mentioned, it's hard to gauge what their true color was yet the paint jobs were uniform.

As for the jack block, I'm leaning towardsa combo of paint with wood showing underneath.

Be well.

Alex

Jack blocks were most likely painted the base color of the vehicle and probably not removed when the camo pattern was painted in the field.

Let's not forget the Bovington Tiger here. After stripping decades of paint it was found to be painted RAL 8000 with RAL 7008 splotches.

It has been postulated that the "green" Tigers were just RAL 8000 with a heavy overspray of RAL 7008 to better blend them into the Tunisian countryside.

Regardless, it's a fascinating period of history.

G

I did read that some Tigers sent to Tunisia were sprayed RAL 8000 in Sicily before crossing the Mediterranean Sea and received an almost complete overpsray of RAL 7008. It is a fascinating time in history: I agree 8-).

If you look at enough photos you also realize the Pz IIIN's shipped with the Tigers in sPzAbt 501 were RAL 8000 as well. I find they are quite dark, but not dark enough to be schwartzgrau and definately not RAL 8020. They don't seem to have any camo pattern applied either where as other Pz III N's seem to conform to the RAL 8020/RAL 7027 pattern.

Bob,
Thanks for squaring me away. I think your latter paragraph better articulates what I was trying to say. Had not meant to imply the Germans were slipshod in anything they did (particularly where something like a Tiger were concerned); but rather that when one has an urgent need for a tank on the front line one might not consider it so necessary to remove the tools and paint them seperately.

It certainly has been something of a "pet peeve" of mine to see so many jack blocks and wooden handled tool done in that nice min-wax finish you alluded to. In my nearly 50 years associated with the military I can't recall ever seeing any wooden anything issued without a paint job (except for the pallets the bottled water comes on). I certainly can't see a battlefield army stripping the paint off and spending hours on a hand-rubbed natural finish on something thats going to get thrown in the mud with several tons of tank placed on top of it.

Mark

Mark;

I sort of share your pet-peeves on this, however I would say that there is actually plenty of evidence that pre-war German industrial and commercial equipment habits (carried over into the war) did result in some - maybe a lot of - typical OVM stuff arriving and getting onto tanks wearing a rather civilized varnished wood finish! I have a couple of historical shovels from "back when" which remain just so... the Germans and other Euro forces bought commercial product shovels and such and mounted them. My ex-Swiss Army Pinzgauer truck also has one of these (ca 1970) "military grade" shovels which is in the varnished state! So, our "paint it all OD" habits did not much apply to the Euro folks.

Jack-blocks probably came in both base-coat colors and in varnish - these were actually also commercial (truck and tractor) equipment "seconded" for use on Panzers. The Germans manufactured most OVM in smallish lots by small mom-n-pop companies. The "famous" Tetra brand fire-extinguishers seen mounted on tank fenders was a rather neat example of this - these fire-bottles came in many colors... even red. They came right off the commercial product lines and went onto tanks! And they almost all had large commercial product label decals! (kit makers and AM decal folks have wised up to this and now offer "Tetra" decals for your fire-bottles).

I do, however, actually LIKE that sometimes wood look of the jack-blocks folks do. It adds just a little color and difference to the builds. I confess that I almost always make my blocks scratch from tiny real wood blocks... and leave them all wood-looking!

Cheers!

Bob

Bob: what size wood strips do you use for your jack blocks? I'm tempted to pop mine off and start again because the plastic kit part just isn't cutting it.

I have a wonderful story: a friend of mine fought thru the Normandy Campaign and the Bulge. He and some fellow soldiers captured a German Battalion (he said they were capturing German left and right in the waning days of 1944 and 1945) who were waiting for a new battalion commander to issue orders because their previous commander had just been killed. I don't know if this is true or just a great story he was telling. It does illustrate the German regimental attitude. Could this have played into the equipment used on their armor. If a jack block came to the factory in a varnish. would that same rigidity lead the workers to say: "we use what we have."

Be well.

Alex

I make mine from HO scale 6"x8" lumber. It's bass wood that's right at 2mm x 2.5mm. I laminate four pieces and trim to length.

That looks incredible!