I would like to know what ambush scheme means,
is it a kind of camo. and was it on all tanks.
and was it used thought out the war and what colors where used thanks

It was a progression of the three colour camo (yellow, green, brown) and used in the late war period. Dots/patches of each colour were painted onto the the other two colours. some were stenciled on in a ( ) shape as well. I think it was only used on vehicles developed late war, and a lot of modellers use it paper panzers ........ designed but never manufactured as well.

that is ambush camo

Hi tazz, in Aug 1944 the Hinterhalt ( ' Ambush ' in English laguage ) scheme was introduced. It was applied in the factory as a "hard edged " pattern consisiting of dunkelgelb ( dark-yellow ) & olivegrun or grun ( olive-green or green ) sprayed over a rotbraun (red-brown ) base and dark-yellow and green spots randomly applied over the pattern colors.

By orders in Sept 1944 the Hinterhalt scheme was applied with the dark-yellow and green patterns and spots, sprayed directly over the "red oxide " primer because of paint shortages.

- ralph

As an addendum, the 'Ambush' scheme was meant to imitate the effect of sunlight shining through trees and foliage ie; the areas of darkness and light, broken by the dappled spots of sunlight. It was probably developed by Prof. Otto Schick who studied these effects and designed the SS camo patterns. The 'Pea', or 'Erbsenmuster', is similar in concept to the Ambush scheme.

Tazz,
The "Ambush" color scheme was developed for what it says, so German armor could hide in amoungst the foliage and attack unsuspecting enemy units.
King Tigers, Panthers, Hetzers, Stugs, and Panzer III, IVs were sometimes painted in the scheme, and not always from the factory, most were field applied. I have YET to see a regular Tiger I painted this way though..
Screamingeagle has the right idea, but any of the three basic color combos with a dapple of the opposite color will work also. I usually do a base of Dark Yellow, with Red Brown, and Dark Green applied over and then "spotting" of red and green on yellow, red and yellow on green, so forth..

thanks guys

OK, hworth18, here is a list of known ambush scheme photos posted by Øyvind Leonsen on Missing Links:

List of "ambush" vehicles
by Øyvind Leonsen
OK, here is a list of vehicles I have found pictures of with ambush patterns:

JAGDTIGER
ambush-like scheme with large light dots
sprayed on dark areas only (Aberdeens JT no "331")


TIGER II
-Hard edged ambush shceme with tiny dots

-soft edged scheme with tiny dots ("222")


STURMTIGER

almost as many variants as vehicles produced

- softedged as per Aberdeen/Kubinka vehicles

- hardedged as the one found at Minden, April 1945


PANTHER AUSF.G
- late August/September1944 scheme disc pattern (eastern France, Rytons Panther book)

- september/october ´44 stencilled pattern similar to disc pattern (Goldap autumn1944, Concords Panther book, and look at mantlet of "123" in "The eastern front" by Zaloga/Grandsen )

- sprayed ambush no discs (Pozdun Pallas Panzerwaffe Panther no. "223" in the Baltic,
and the welll known IR test vehicle, Rytons Panther book, "Battle of the Bulge", Pallud)

- Disc pattern as per SSPzRgt 1 "124" and "HG" RO1 (skirts only) (Heimdal LAH book, Tank Power2)

- triangle pattern of light dots (Tank Power, back of turret visible only)


PANZER IV
- hard edged dots (2. Pz.Div, back plate "Battle of the Bulge", Pallud)

- sprayed ambush pattern (II/SS Pz.Rgt 1, no "715" "Battle of the Bulge", Pallud)

- large dot pattern, sprayed ( 5. SS Pz.Div "Verweht sind die spuren" NE)


JAGDPANZER IV/L70
- disc pattern, SS-PzJgAbt.1 ("Battle of the Bulge", Pallud)


HUMMEL
-disc pattern, not exactly ambush, as per the FHH Hummel no "54" in Nuts&Bolts on the Hummel.


StuG IV
- disc pattern (Spielberger factory shot)


StuG III
- On Schürzen only at Arnhem, sprayed

- on late StuG abandoned at Flatbourhof, 1945


HETZER
- hard edged scheme ("Battle of the Bulge", Pallud)


GRILLE
- disc pattern, 1.SS Pz.Div. ("Battle of the Bulge", Pallud)


SD. KFZ 251 w/8 cm. mortar
- small dots on hard edged camo ("Halbkettenfahzeuge of the German Army")


Hope this is of interest,

Øyvind

Posted on Jul 26, 2000, 4:30 AM

I don't see any Pzkpfw III on this list and have never seen a photo of one in Ambush Scheme. Please post your reference for a Pzkpfw III so I can add it to this list. Anyone else who has seen any Ambush Scheme vehicle that is not listed here please post the photo reference to add to this listing.

PH

SAY WHAT ! .......On the contrary, the Hinterhalt ( ambush ) camouflage was officially a factory applied pattern and in regards to Pauls message, I also don't know of even 1 single Pz Kpfw III that had the ambush scheme ...... because there were none. " Where do you get your reference ? " ( Please don't tell me Squadrons Publications - Panzer Colors ).

Okay, lets NOT get Aggressive here guys....

For one thing, Yes I probably errd on the PzIII, but can you tell me that you are ABSOLUTELY sure that there wasn't one that had that scheme??? ( I doubt it )

Secondly, Screaming, I was agreeing with you, but I know just as well as you do that tanks were painted "IN THE FIELD" in a variety of paint schemes.... ( Ambush scheme was included)
You should know as well as I do, that you CANNOT say for certain that the Germans did or didn't do something, so unless you have proof that they didn't, Don't go getting all high and mighty and preaching to me about what I do or don't know.

Well. I think i will get high & mighty because the reference that I have pointed out ( and I also know that Paul has to ) is 100% supported by OKW archives and reports. There is a list of all panzer's that were to be painted in the Hinterhalt pattern and because of the utter confusion & difficulty of the werkstattkompanies and panzer crews trying to apply the various color combination together with a HARD EDGED pattern in the field, just wasn't going to happen. So it was order to be done IN FACTORY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Further more from Tom Jentz's reference of the Hinterhalt scheme:

In August 1944, an order was issued to the assembly firms to apply the camouflage pattern at the assembly plant using Dunklegelb RAL 7028 as the base coat with Olivgruen RAL 6003 and Rotbraun RAL 8017 applied in patches. This order created the uniform pattern which has become known as the “ambush” camouflage scheme.

Following the order to drop Zimmerit in September 1944, Panzers left the assembly plants with a base coat of primer Rot RAL 8012 (dark red) with only about half of the surface covered with patches of Rotbraun, Olivgruen, or Dunklegelb.

Finally, as initiated by orders dated November 1944 - but not to go into full effect until June 1945 - the Panzers were to receive a base coat of Dunkelgruen (RAL 6003). A camouflage pattern was to be created at the assembly plant by spraying on Rotbraun or Dunklegelb in sharp contours.

Yes I can get HIGH & MIGHTY WHEN I'm fully supported by facts, archives, and a number of years of my own reading & research.

................. so tell me, what have you got ?????????????



- ralph

Screamingeagle,
Please just settle down on the arguement, please! If you think that hworth18 got wrong on the painting scheme then don't be too angry. For one he has his own resources & you had your own but that doesn't mean that your resources are 100% correct & you should detest the resources of others. You'll never know maybe his references may fill some of the void on yours unless you think that your resources are that complete which is for me quite impossible since your looking at 60-year-old information that though was very famous but for sure was not as documented thoroughly. So I think that we will never know who might be actually correct (unless someone digs another Panzer III in an ambush cammo in Russia or somewhere else, who knows?) so until that time comes any modeler who wants to know more about ambush cammo can simply rely on any of you who knows more than we do. But be civilized on argueing. If one got wrong then correct him not fight him in bold text or in all caps. We're in this site to share what we know.
I hope I am making sense here. If the moderators think that my post is irrelevant then they could delete this post but before they do that I hope everyone can understand what I'm saying. I love this site & I really don't want to see anyone getting angry with someone. There are alot more sensible things to argue on than a 60 year old camouflage scheme that is so old that you can only see it in museums or in models.

Happy Modelling! :-) :-) :-)

The only thing that I am irritated by in hworth18's reply is the old damned line: "but can you tell me that you are ABSOLUTELY sure that there wasn't one that had that scheme??? ( I doubt it )". In my opinion this is the excuse line for someone who wants to do whatever they want painting and marking models, whether they are armor or aircraft. I don't care about someone doing a generic tank using general principles of camouflage and markings, Ive done it myself, but there are some rules that apply depending on date, unit, and just plain photographic evidence. That's why I argue that unless you know a particular type of vehicle had ambush scheme don't do it.

Now, Øyvind's list missed some Panther photos and here is a list put together by James Blackwell, Gene Forsythe and me. This is complete AFAIK to date.

Pp 41 Concord's Panther book and on p 26 of S/S Eastern Front white 213

Pp 30-31 Schiffers King Tiger book shows a late G on the side of the road-partial view

p454 Edition Heimdahls Leibstandarte SS-b&w stencilled 124 -very strange pattern

p14 Schiffers s/c Panther book
p46 same book-R01 with ambush only on skirts. same as p142 of Jents' Panther book frontal shot

p91 Panzer Colors 1 Panther R01

Sturm&Drang #5 has photos on pp88 thru 102

Again, anyone who knows of any A.S. photos not listed in the above two lists post the reference. Somebody may find that illusive Pzkpfw III.

PH

You know what Paul,
The Argument here is... You and Screaming eagle are right and everyone else is WRONG..
In my second post I admitted I made an error in saying the PzIII, and even edited my third post to let this thing die, but you two guys just had to keep going..
HEAVEN FORBID if someone might have an opinion that differs from you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have news for you,
You DON'T have all the photographic proof that every German tank was the way it was.
Just because it says it in a book, doesn't mean that it applied to every single thing that happened. MANY, MANY tanks were sent out in base coats and painted in the FIELD..


Anyone that knows anything about German armor knows that when German tank crews received their tanks "IN THE FIELD" the tanks were modified to suit that particular units needs.. They were often repainted, renumbered and items added or removed.. And this is the point I am making... Yes, they came from the factory the way you said, but who's to say what happened when they reached the front line???
Your sources are reputable and I use them for referrence, but I DON'T use it as the BIBLE, and in model building there is such a thing as ARTISTIC LICENSE.. If I want to build a Panther AusfD and paint it pink and blue then that's what I want to do.

The beautiful thing about German armor is that NOBODY knows exactly what they did, and if you want to have a little fun with a model and do something different, then who is to say that it didn't happen??? That is the mystique behind the Germans, they did alot of really cool and odd things..
Remember, this is a HOBBY, and it's for fun............

Hey, where is a moderator when you need one? I think the three of you (Ralph, Paul and hworth18) should've taken this silly argument off-line. Tazz asked a simple question (which BTW was pretty much answered by Plasticbattle and Airwarrior) and you turned it into a debate. Was that really necessary? While I can appreciate your knowledge and/or sources of knowledge, there certainly must be a way to deliver pertinent information in a civilized manner.